Kris Stepenuck is the Extension Leader for Lake Champlain Sea Grant Program and Extension Assistant Professor of Watershed Science Policy and Education. As the Extension Leader, she oversees Extension and outreach activities to promote healthy coastal ecosystems, resilient communities, and an environmentally literate populace across the Lake Champlain Basin. Her current efforts focus on community resilience to climate change, clean boating, best winter maintenance practices, and healthy soils. Previously, she managed Wisconsin’s volunteer stream monitoring program for nearly 15 years, expanding the program from a small educational effort to a multi-level educational, research and management-focused endeavor carried out by hundreds of volunteers at more than 600 stream sites across Wisconsin.

Her research interests span both the natural and social sciences, with focus on water resources issues and citizen science. She supports a national network of volunteer water monitoring programs by maintaining a collection of web-based learning modules with best practices, a jobs board, listserv, and events calendar at: www.volunteermonitoring.org. She recently concluded her 3-year term on the inaugural board of directors of the Citizen Science Association, serving most recently as chair, and previously as vice chair and secretary during her term. She currently serves on the Education and Outreach Committee of the Lake Champlain Basin Program and on the Watersheds United Vermont Steering Committee. She is the US co-lead for the Public Advisory Group for the Lake Champlain-Richelieu Flood Study.