Fellows

Grace is excited to be working with Dr. Kris Stepenuck this summer through UVM's Agroecology Extension (AX) Fellowship. She is a rising senior at Wellesley College, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Economics. Her main project is to survey beachgoers' knowledge of cyanobacteria to better improve public education and awareness. Grace will engage with the other nine AX Fellows, learning about sustainable food systems, working at the horticultural farm, mentoring high schoolers, and exploring Burlington, Vermont.

Grace is passionate about outreach and is especially looking forward to contributing to Lake Champlain Sea Grant's extension program,  She hopes to learn a lot of new knowledge about watershed science while helping to educate others.

Caitlin serves as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow from February 2022 through January 2023. Caitlin, who was nominated by the Lake Champlain Sea Grant program, will gain hands-on experience transferring science to policy and management through a one-year appointment in a federal government office in Washington, D.C. 

She graduated in May 2021 with a Juris Doctor in environmental law and policy from Vermont Law School, in South Royalton, Vermont. Her background in marine science stems from previous graduate research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. She then taught at Massachusetts Audubon as a teacher naturalist before entering law school. As a law intern for the Conservation Law Foundation in Vermont, Feehery focused on projects related to clean water, public lands, and PFAS contamination. For the Foundation’s Oceans Program in Boston, she worked on fisheries enforcement and compliance policy in the New England ground fishing fleet, Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument litigation, and emergency right whale protections from net entanglements.

Learn more about Caitlin | Learn more about the Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship

Carolyn joined the Ausable River Association (AsRA) in 2022 and serves as the GIS & Science Communications Fellow in partnership with Lake Champlain Sea Grant (LCSG). Her fellowship focuses on communicating the threats facing water resources in the Ausable and Lake Champlin basins and the work by AsRA and LCSG to address these challenges. She is excited to be a part of the AsRA team and continue working to protect the Adirondack Park and its surrounding landscapes. 

A life-long New Yorker, Carolyn fell in love with the Adirondacks on weekend trips while living in the Capital Region and moved to the Adirondacks full time in 2019. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Science from Skidmore College and has worked in a variety of roles that combine her passions for conservation and GIS (geographic information systems). These roles include serving as a River Steward for the Housatonic Valley Association and most recently as a Strategic Conservation Planner with the Lake Placid Land Conservancy. Carolyn spends her time outside of work exploring the Adirondacks and beyond via hiking, canoeing, camping, and backpacking, making maps of her most recent adventure, and serving on Saranac Lake's Climate Smart Community task force.

Cassie serves as a Conservation Research Fellow with Audubon Vermont and Lake Champlain Sea Grant from spring 2021 to spring 2023. This fellowship will focus on connecting Audubon’s work to protect bird habitat, on the one hand, with the Sea Grant Institute’s work to promote sustainable farm and forest practices, on the other. By advancing both goals, Cassie will help to achieve a shared goal of improving watershed health and resilience across the Lake Champlain watershed while also helping farmers and forest landowners. She will engage in applied research to develop and implement best practices for bird-friendly habitat on agricultural lands, especially in riparian areas and along shorelines. 

Originally from western New York, Cassie spent her childhood exploring the great outdoors. She holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in environmental science and ecology from the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport, where her research focused on land use and restoration influences on coastal wetland biogeochemistry. Previously, Cassie worked for the Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit on juvenile lake sturgeon and then for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. 

Learn more about Cassie