Staff Directory

Alison joined Lake Champlain Sea Grant and UVM Extension in March 2020. As the Watershed Forestry Coordinator, she manages the Watershed Forestry Partnership, coordinating riparian forest buffer restoration efforts across the Lake Champlain Basin. Alison has a Master’s degree in Natural Resources from UVM, which focused on mapping forest change in New England. She is currently completing her PhD exploring how environmental change affects people’s connections with nature. Prior to graduate school, Alison worked in Washington, DC in environmental advocacy and community outreach. Outside of work, she can usually be found hiking, rock climbing, or foraging for mushrooms.

Caroline has called Vermont home on and off for the past 10 years but grew up in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. She recently graduated with a Master of Science in Natural Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point; however, she completed her undergraduate degree at UVM in 2013. Since 2009, she has called many states home (Vermont, California, and Wisconsin), but she is excited to circle back to UVM where her environmental education career officially began. She will enjoy being closer to the mountains and Lake Champlain.

Dr. Bowden is the Robert and Genevieve Patrick Professor in Watershed Science and Planning in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. He teaches undergraduate courses in the Environmental Sciences curriculum and graduate courses in the Aquatic of Ecology and Watershed sciences curriculum at the University of Vermont. He is the Director of the Vermont Water Resources in Lake Studies Center and leads the Vermont component of the Northeastern States Research Cooperative.Dr. Bowden's research interests focus on the interactions among land use, land cover, and water resources. He has conducted research on wetland, terrestrial, and aquatic ecosystems in temperate, tropical, and arctic biomes and has been involved with strategic planning in universities and in government agencies.His current research projects focus on the effects of exurban development on stormwater runoff in Vermont and on climate change impacts in the arctic. Dr. Bowden is active in national and international programs to that seek to integrate science in resource management decision making, including the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, Hydrology for Environment Life and Policy (HELP), the National Environmental Observatory Network (NEOaN), and the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH).

Marc conducts Green Infrastructure outreach through a joint position shared between Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.  In this role he manages the Green Infrastructure Roundtable stakeholder group and facilitates the use of nature-based solutions to reduce stormwater nutrient loads and erosion. 

Marc has over 25 years of experience in water resources, ecological design, environmental education and community development in the U.S. and overseas.  He was a Program Manager at the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, Project Manager at Tetra Tech (formerly ARD), and Education Coordinator at Ocean Arks International.  Marc also worked in Kenya and South Sudan for 6-1/2 years managing water infrastructure and natural resource conservation programs.  He is trained as a Passive House consultant and teaches courses at UVM on building science and high performance green buildings.  He has taught at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School and was a founding member and first Board President of Local Motion in Burlington.

Gary is an Extension Assistant Professor in the Saint Albans, VT Extension office. Gary has worked in higher education most of his career, and contributes skills and experiences in operations, business process, and financial management, with additional experience in field and specialty crop production, communications, and research management to the Lake Champlain Sea Grant team. Specifically, Gary has been brought on board to contribute to LCSG's efforts on workforce development within the Champlain basin. As an avid hiker and kayaker, Gary is passionate about Lake Champlain and every square inch (especially the higher-altitude square inches) of its 8,234 square mile watershed.

Ashley joined Lake Champlain Sea Grant and UVM Extension team in November 2015. As the Watershed and Lake Education Coordinator she oversees the Watershed Alliance program which has a UVM and SUNY Plattsburgh location, coordinates watershed science professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers and oversees an undergraduate Watershed Education internship program. She has a BS in Education and Environmental Science and a MS in Natural resources from the University of Vermont. Ashley’s educational and professional pursuits have been dedicated to helping create a sustainable future for Vermont, greater Lake Champlain Basin and beyond. She is immensely grateful for all the time she has spent connecting and learning from natural systems, today she is most likely found  mountain biking with her floppy eared pup Callie.

Shari provides communications assistance for Lake Champlain Sea Grant. She maintains websites, coordinates enewletters and social media, writes news stories, and creates print materials. She also manages communications for the Vermont Water Resources and Lake Studies Center, the Northeastern States Research Cooperative, and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont.

Michael Mezzacapo is an Outreach Specialist with the University of Hawaiʻi Water Resources Research Center and Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program. He also serves as a 2020/2021 Lake Champlain Sea Grant Affiliate. Michael works as a statewide and regional liaison to government organizations, resource managers, NGOs, community groups, and decision-makers to provide state-of-the-art research information and tools. He is currently involved in developing tools and policies to provide education, cross-collaboration between Sea Grant programs, and outreach strategies to address pressing water resource challenges across diverse communities.

Previously, Michael was the 2017-2018 Michigan Sea Grant Fellow at the International Joint Commission in Windsor, Ontario (Canada), where he assisted with public health research, science communications, and contributed to technical reports addressing transboundary water quality between the United States and Canada. He joined the University of Hawaiʻi and Hawaiʻi Sea Grant in 2019. He is currently based in Pomfret, Vermont, and loves to hike and cook food from his garden.

Timothy (Tim) Mihuc oversees LCSG's SUNY Plattsburgh operations and serves as the coordinator of the Lake Champlain Research Institute at SUNY Plattsburgh. Tim began his career with an undergraduate independent research project on nutrient limitation of algae in a small eutrophic lake in Oklahoma. He continued his education as an aquatic ecologist through studies on invertebrate life-history ecology in a Colorado alpine wetland (M.S.) and post-fire food web dynamics in Yellowstone National Park streams (Ph.D.). He spent several years at Louisiana State University as a post-doctoral researcher (1994-1996) conducting invasive species research in the Atchafalaya River Basin, the largest contiguous hardwood swamp ecosystem in the U.S.  From 1996-1999 Tim served as director of the Great Rivers Field Station (Illinois Natural History Survey) where he led a multidisciplinary research team working on the Upper Mississippi River. He has published over 35 research articles including journals such as Ecology, Freshwater Biology, Aquatic Sciences, Hydrobiologia, Journal of Great Lakes Research and American Midland Naturalist and has co-edited the book volume titled “Lake Champlain: Partnership and research in the new millennium,” published by Kluwer Academic publishers. Tim’s professional areas of interest include aquatic food webs, fish population dynamics, ecological integrity and aquatic biodiversity. He enjoys outdoor activities, particularly fly-fishing, skiing, hiking and mountain climbing (preferably combined).

Linda is responsible for coordinating education programs that target real estate professionals, watershed groups and municipal employees. She collaborates with topic experts to develop accredited courses for real estate professionals in Vermont and New York on topics related to land use and water quality protection. Linda works with watershed groups to create and present public education workshops focused on shoreland erosion control. She enlists local businesses, non-profits and municipal agencies in adopting recommended lawn care practices for healthy soils and stormwater runoff mitigation.

Linda’s life-long devotion to the health and welfare of Lake Champlain inspired her transition from a social work career to working for the Lake.  She is co-founder of Ahead of the Storm, a local tri-town collaborative providing education and resources for private and public landowners concerned with stormwater runoff mitigation.  Her involvement with local watershed initiatives includes her role as a member of the Sacred Waters Committee of the Clean Water Network, and of the Aquatic Plant Committee for the Long Point. Linda’s family has owned a summer home on Lake Champlain at Long Point since the 1930’s.  She is an avid open-water swimmer, hiker, and cross-country skier, and enjoys sharing time on the Lake with her extended family.

Kris develops, implements, and oversees Lake Champlain Sea Grant Extension and outreach activities. Her current outreach efforts include using social marketing techniques to promote healthy soils through lawn care, community resilience to flooding, and clean boating and best winter maintenance practices. Her research endeavors include understanding outcomes and building credibility of volunteer water monitoring and citizen science programs, assessing impacts of land use on water quality, and understanding behavior changes that result from watershed outreach programming.

She helps to support a national network of volunteer water monitoring programs, maintaining volunteermonitoring.org, that includes a national jobs board for water outreach and volunteer water monitoring positions, and an associated listserv for Extension water professionals (ExtVolMonNetwork). She is appointed as the U.S. co-chair of the Public Advisory Group of the Lake Champlain-Richelieu River Flood Study and serves as a member of the Lake Champlain Basin Program Education and Outreach Committee, and the Watersheds United Vermont board of directors.

Nate grew up in the Ausable River Watershed in upstate New York where he fell in love with the region. An avid backcountry skier, hiker, mountain biker, paddler, and lover of adventure, Nate spends his time outside whenever possible. He is passionate about inspiring young people to interact with and study their local environment in hopes of emboldening the next generation of environmental stewards. In 2017, Nate earned a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Fort Lewis College. In 2019, he completed his Master’s in Education with a focus in environmental education from Western Washington University and North Cascades Institute. Before joining Lake Champlain Sea Grant he worked with a variety of experiential environmental education programs.

Julianna is the Research Program Coordinator for the Lake Champlain Sea Grant, the Vermont Water Resources and Lake Studies Center, and the Northeastern States Research Cooperative. In this capacity, Julianna is responsible for administration and budget management of the three research programs, competing and awarding research projects, and reporting. She also contributes to outreach and communications efforts.

Previously, Julianna was based at UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment, supporting and communicating research on low emissions agriculture in developing countries, a focus of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Prior to joining UVM, Julianna managed projects and wrote and edited proposals, reports, and outreach materials for the USAID West Africa Trade Hub, CARE International, and the US Peace Corps in Niger and Ghana, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, and taught middle and high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Washington, DC. 

In 2006, Theo moved to Maine to work on ecology and restoration issues related to anadromous fish and their interactions with native and naturalized species in the freshwater and nearshore marine environments. His work focused primarily on alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) but also extended to eels, Atlantic salmon, and Atlantic cod. He was awarded an adjunct faculty position at the University of Southern Maine in 2008 where he taught classes, such as Land-based Aquaculture, Limnology, and environmental lab courses, and pursued research on anadromous fish ecology.

Theo joined the Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network (SEANET), an NSF-funded “Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research” (EPSCOR) project based out of the University of Maine in 2013. Through SEANET, he was introduced to a wide array of topics in mariculture and aquaculture, settling on Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), Aquaponics, and clam and seaweed farming as areas of investigation. He worked with the Passamaquoddy Environmental Department to explore aquaculture related business ventures associated with their reservation near Eastport, ME. In 2017 he took one of the SEANET projects commercial, starting a kelp farm off Stonington, ME. 

Theo generally enjoys being outdoors, on boats or in the woods of northern New England.