WATER INSTITUTE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate Planner
Abby Littman, a Planning Associate at The Water Institute of the Gulf, specializes in hazard mitigation and planning and policy research. As a former public school teacher, Littman said her interest in planning resulted from her experience in seeing the disparate impact s that existing infrastructure, or lack of infrastructure, had on her students and their neighborhoods.
Focusing on applied research and an intradisciplinary approach, Littman's experience includes regional transit analyses, community engagement, hazard mitigation, and resiliency planning. Littman graduated with a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Geneseo and with a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of New Orleans. In addition, Littman earned certificates in GIS, Disaster Management and Community Resilience, and a FEMA certificate in Mitigation Planning for Local and Tribal Communities.
Before joining the Water Institute, Littman was an independent contractor with RIDE New Orleans where she worked to collect and analyze data to support transit accessibility for city-wide annual reports and she was a practicum student working with the Louisiana Watershed Initiative where she created Floodplain Species Assessments for Louisiana Community Rating System communities in order to improve ratings under the National Flood Insurance Program.
Alicia has expertise in environmental and water resources engineering with extensive experience in river corridor remote sensing including mapping large wood using Earth Observation data. She has experience conducting field campaigns, working with high-resolution imagery, advanced computing, geographic information systems, and machine learning applications. She also brings knowledge of advanced correlation statistics, including information theory, applied to hydrodynamic data in river deltaic systems.
Alisha McKinley is an IT Support Specialist on The Water Institute's IT Team and focuses on minimizing technical issues, updating/maintaining equipment, and addressing IT related concerns. Alisha earned her bachelor's degree from Columbia Southern University majoring in Information Technology.
Alisha's experience was with Weaver Wireless Consultants where she focused on performing one on one training courses with individuals and businesses to better their knowledge of their technology and software. In addition to performing training, she would set up workstations, laptops, cellphone, tablets, and more.
Allie Roberts, Staff Accountant, brings years of accounting experience to The Water Institute. Her journey to accounting started with a love of math, but after getting into theoretical math, she realized that what she enjoyed was the problem solving that accounting afforded. Roberts has experience in budget forecasting, forensic accounting, and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Roberts received her bachelor's degree in accounting from Northwester State University.
Allison DeJong, AICP, is a planner and policy researcher at the Water Institute, where she supports people and communities adapting to climate change using frameworks and approaches from urban planning and economics. She has over 14 years of experience in planning and policy research, working across disciplines to achieve material gains for coastal residents, businesses, and communities.
At the Institute, Allison leads and supports planning and policy research projects for urban resilience, climate mitigation and adaptation, water resources, alternative valuations of natural resources, hazard mitigation, risk and vulnerability, and more. She is an experienced facilitator, presenter, and advisor, translating technical and scientific information for regulatory, programmatic, and decision-making applications.
Prior to joining the Institute, Allison worked for Propeller in New Orleans, where she coached small businesses in the coastal and urban storm water sectors to define their market opportunities, increase revenue and contracts, and grow their social and environmental impact. She spent six years as a planner at GCR, Inc., in New Orleans, where she was a key member of the community resilience team that worked with states and municipalities to secure $240 million in funding from HUD's National Disaster Resilience Competition. She developed benefit-cost analyses for those proposals and created analyses of demographic and labor statistics for a wide range of plans and studies, including public transit, economic development, and small area plans. She also co-authored the City of New Orleans' first-ever economic development strategy, ProsperityNOLA.
Allison holds a BA in Economics from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Louisiana State University. She is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Job Titles:
- Associate Planner
- Associate With the Water Institute of the Gulf
- Member of the Urban Land Institute, Co - Founder and Board Member of the Urban Land Institute Louisiana Diversity Committee
Allison Haertling, a Planning Associate with The Water Institute of the Gulf, specializes in environmental and hazard mitigation. Haertling received her bachelor's degree from New York University and her master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of New Orleans specializing in environmental and hazard mitigation including a graduate certificate in Disaster Management and Community Resilience. Her work includes researching climate migration, coastal/climate gentrification, adaptation planning, and socieoeconomic impacts of recreational development in the lower bayou communities of Terrebonne Parish, La.
Prior to joining the Water Institute, Haertling was a research associate at the University of New Orleans Center for Hazards Assessment, Response & Technology where she provided technical assistance to the Office of Community Development and local and regional watershed management partners as part of the Louisiana Watershed Initiative. In addition, Haertling did policy and planning research on the National Flood Insurance Program, the Community Rating System, flood mitigation strategies and associated socioeconomic impacts. Prior to her work at the University of New Orleans, Haertling was a graduate assistant with the Coastal Science Assistantship Program at the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA). At CPRA, Haertling worked on identifying critical and essential facilities in Calcasieu, Cameron and Vermilion Parishes as part of the Southwest Coastal Nonstructural Project's commercial structures database.
Haertling is a member of the Urban Land Institute, co-founder and board member of the Urban Land Institute Louisiana Diversity Committee, serves on the planning committee for the Urban Land Institute's Real Estate Diversity Initiative Program, and is a member of the American Planning Association.
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientist
- Senior Vice President
Alyssa Dausman, Ph.D. has more than 20 years of experience working in hydrology, research plan development, and restoration project science and monitoring. Dr. Dausman previously served as the Science Director for the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, an independent federal agency created by the RESTORE Act in 2012. Dr. Dausman focused on Gulf restoration and science for the council, comprised of the governors of the five Gulf states and cabinet-level officials from six federal agencies.
At the council, Dausman led the consensus-based development of the Initial Funded Priorities List - a $156 million suite of projects containing on-the-ground restoration activities. Dausman also served as the senior scientist in drafting the council's 2016 Comprehensive Plan.
Born and raised in Mississippi, Dr. Dausman has always been passionate about the Gulf, coastal restoration, and water resources. She began her career as a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Florida in 2000 after completing her B.S. at Tulane University and her M.S. at the University of New Orleans. She received her Ph.D. from Florida International University in 2008 while working with the USGS. During her years in Florida she focused on numerical modeling of saltwater intrusion and model independent parameter estimation and uncertainty analysis. This work led her to teach all over the world, including India, Portugal, and Mexico. In 2011, she moved back to the northern Gulf to work on coastal restoration. She was staffed to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force and was a senior representative to the U.S. Department of the Interior to support both the RESTORE Council and restoration monitoring for the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process. In addition to serving as the Institute's Vice President for Science, Dr. Dausman will serve as the Chief Scientist of the RESTORE Act Center of Excellence for Louisiana.
Job Titles:
- Communications Administrator
- Director of Communications / the Water Institute of the Gulf
Amy Wold is the Communications Administrator at The Water Institute of the Gulf. She started at The Water Institute in 2016 after 23 years as a newspaper reporter covering science, environmental, and coastal issues both on the West Coast and in Louisiana. Amy is responsible for working with research teams to provide quality reports and deliverables to clients and translate technical science issues for policy makers, industry representatives, and the public.
After receiving her bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, Amy worked at two newspapers in Washington state. The first newspaper, The Chinook Observer, allowed her to spend three years covering coastal ecosystems along Long Beach on the Pacific Coast at the mouth of the Columbia River as well as stories about fishery resources and invasive species. Her second newspaper, the Central Kitsap Reporter in Silverdale, Wash., brought her to the Puget Sound region where she wrote award-winning stories about estuary environments and fishery resources.
In 1999, Amy got the chance to move to Louisiana to work at the Houma Courier covering coastal restoration, flooding protection, and the increasing amount of research on Louisiana's coastal land loss problem. About a year later, Amy started work at The Advocate newspaper where she held the position of environmental reporter for more than a decade. In that time, Amy got the chance to cover some of Louisiana's major news events, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Throughout it all, coastal restoration and the engineering and science behind decisions being made about how Louisiana and the nation should address the state's land loss were a constant focus for Amy's reporting.
Andrew Courtois, Louisiana native, graduated in 2018 from Louisiana State University with a master's degree in geology and brings a lifetime of working and playing in Louisiana's coastal landscape to the Institute's team. Courtois graduated from the University of New Orleans in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in Earth and environmental science with a geology concentration. During his time at the University of New Orleans, he assisted in sediment sampling as part of the state's Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring Program. Starting in January 2019, Courtois was a project manager for a project surveying the Mississippi River. Previously, as a graduate research assistant at Louisiana State University, Courtois focused his research on using natural radiotracers to study fluvial sediment deposition and dispersal on the Mississippi River delta front.
Job Titles:
- Scientist
- Hydroinformatics Scientist
Angshuman Saharia is a hydroinformatics scientist at The Water Institute of the Gulf's Coastal and Deltaic Systems Modeling group. His expertise has been in the modeling of compound flooding, hydrodynamic modeling, hydrology, water quality modeling, and environmental fluid mechanic. Dr. Saharia received his undergraduate with a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from Tezpur Central University, graduated with a Master of Technology in Water Resources Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, master's degree project at RWTH Aachen University, Germany(DAAD scholar), and Ph.D. in hydrology and water resources engineering from the University at Buffalo, New York. Dr. Saharia has contributed to the development of compound flood model, sediment model, and water quality models framework during his Ph.D. He has also coupled sewage model with river hydrodynamic model to demonstrate nanomaterial transport, and E. coli transport in urban coastal river. Dr. Saharia is currently working on the projects such as Louisiana Watershed Initiative and Texas General Land Office (GLO) Combined River Basin Flood Studies in the Deltaic Systems Modeling group.
Areas of Expertise
Hydrodynamic modeling
Ann Weaver, CPF, has extensive experience as a facilitator and trainer in the public and private sector, most recently as the Acting Chief Learning Officer with NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. As an industrial engineer in a manufacturing venue, she focused on process skills. She used her expertise in processes to teach those skills to other engineers and manufacturing associates. This led her to become a corporate-certified learning specialist and instructional designer, where she conducted needs assessments, designed and facilitated courses, and coached multifunctional project groups through a six sigma teaming process. When she completed her master's degree in biology, she left the private sector to apply her facilitation, training skills and education to resource management.
Weaver has provided facilitation and strategic planning support for multiple Federal and State government agencies and various stakeholders in support of coastal management programs and projects. She has developed and implemented several training programs to support new employee orientation, diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility for National Marine Fisheries staff. In addition, she facilitates trainings worldwide for The Nature Conservancy and National Marine Sanctuaries International program, supported by non-governmental funding. Weaver has a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Washington and bachelor's and master's degrees in biology from Florida Atlantic University.
Audrey Grismore, Ph.D., specializes in collecting and synthesizing a wide range of material to triangulate the responses communities have to disruptive events and how these responses interact at the local, state, and federal level. In addition to her academic experience, Audrey has extensive experience working in long term recovery in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and New Jersey prior to returning to graduate school.
Prior to joining The Water Institute of the Gulf, Grismore spent three years as an environmental historic preservation (EHP) professional with the Federal Emergency Management Agency Louisiana Recovery office (LIRO). In this capacity, Grismore reviewed environmental and historic preservation compliance for hazard, flood and pre-disaster mitigation projects, public assistance projects and individual assistance projects; regularly managed numerous project reviews, was a technical expert for LIRO's EHP ArcGIS mapping and spatial data analysis needs, and refined Orleans Parish Archaeology Probability Map using statistical classifications including variables of historical maps, soils, geology, elevation, and distance from known sites.
Grismore was also involved in disaster recovery projects resulting from Hurricane Laura in 2020, Hurricane Barry, numerous flooding events, tornados, and other extreme weather events across the Gulf coast.
Before going to graduate school, Grismore was a cultural resources field manager for URS Corporation working on the Mississippi Development Authority Housing Recovery HUD-CDBG Projects. Prior to taking on this role, Grismore was an archaeologist and field lab manager for various URS company projects.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Board of Directors
- President
Beaux Jones is the President and CEO for The Water Institute. Prior to joining The Water Institute, Jones served as the environmental section chief for the Louisiana Department of Justice, where he represented the State of Louisiana and its agencies in a wide variety of matters ranging from environmental and coastal law to criminal and appellate law. He most recently worked as an environmental and coastal lawyer for the law firm Baldwin Haspel Burke & Mayer in New Orleans.
Job Titles:
- Director of Human Resources
Brandy Rush, PHR, SHRM-CP, joined the Institute bringing over 20 years of experience to the Human Resources Manager role. Her Human Resources knowledge was gained across varying industries having served in senior positions at Raising Cane's, Community Coffee/CC's Coffee House, and Medical Management Options, Inc. Most recently, Brandy was Human Resources Consulting Manager for Postlethwaite & Netterville, APAC (an accounting, audit, tax, and consulting firm). She received her bachelor's degree in international trade and finance from LSU, has a Professional Human Resource Certification (PHR) and is a Society for Human Resource Management - Certified Professional (SHRM-CP). She stays connected to the Human Resources community with active participation in the Greater Baton Rouge Chapter of Society for Human Resource Managers serving as both treasurer and legislative committee member and is a member of both the Society for Human Resource Management and World at Work. Outside of the work setting, Brandy leads an energetic Girl Scout troop where she strives to develop future leaders.
Job Titles:
- Civil Engineer
- Project Manager
Brett McMann, civil engineer, brings experience in the planning and design of flood protection and ecosystem restoration projects along the East and Gulf Coasts, most notably for the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), where he has been involved in the proposal, scoping, execution, and closeout of roughly 20 task orders spanning both engineering and environmental sciences planning, engineering, and program management roles. Brett earned a bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering with a minor in business administration from Louisiana State University and is pursuing his master's degree in civil engineering with a focus on coastal engineering from the University of New Orleans. Brett has had heavy involvement as part of Master Plan Development Team for Louisiana's 2012 and 2017 Coastal Master Plans. Most recently, Brett was part of a 12-member delivery team that oversaw more than 100 other technical analysts and support team members from within CPRA and other agencies across the multi-year 2017 Master Plan effort.
Brian McCollum, Senior IT Specialist, brings years of project management, systems administration, and data protection to The Water Institute of the Gulf.
McCollum came to the Water Institute after five years at Louisiana's Workers' Compensation Corporation where he served as an Information Security Analyst and Network Specialist. In this role, McCollum led several teams focusing on a variety of topics including implementation of IT security measures, cloud migration and strategic change management. Brian also served as chairman of a 14-member Cornerstone Committee, tasked with upholding company values, orienting & mentoring new employees, and revamping the employee recognition program.
Previously, McCollum was a Support System Analyst with Amedisys Healthcare in Baton Rouge and was an IT Consultant/ System Administrator with Innovative Networks in Baton Rouge, where he started as a Field Support Technician and worked his way to IT Consultant, managing relationships with clients. Outside of work, he is a professional photographer and owner of House Prieur Photography LLC.
Areas of Expertise
Project management
Brittany Jensen, Data Manager, brings years of experience in database administration, data management, and program analysis to The Water Institute. Prior to joining The Water Institute, Jensen worked to support the Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group to develop and implement restoration plans and projects throughout the Louisiana coast to restore natural resources impacted by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
Prior to her work at NOAA, Jensen led the analysis and management of project-level data measuring restoration impact on coastal and marine habitats with related database responsibilities for the Restoration Center within NOAA. She worked to enhance annual metrics and developed new methods to capture the effectiveness and present data used for external communications to governmental offices and other partners/agencies. Jensen also supported the development and implementation of inaugural strategic business plans and various planning tools to ensure we meet programmatic goals and priorities.
Jensen received a B.S. in biology with an emphasis in marine and freshwater biology from The University of Texas at Austin and her M.Sc. in marine biology and ecology from the University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Christian Fernando Ariza Porras is the Data Architect at The Water Institute of the Gulf working on date management and data analysis. Christian works to apply his academic background and the experiences gained as a technical lead, advisor, researcher, and developer to help organizations get value from data.
Christian is a Databricks Certified Associate Developer for Apache Spark 2.4 with Python 3. He is a skilled programmer in python, java, and shell scripting, with some previous experience in other languages. His interests include information engineering, big data, linked data, software architecture, and creative problem solving.
Christian experience includes a platform based on the Open Data Cube to allow analysts from several Colombian environmental agencies access and process Analysis Ready Data, centralizing the common preparation steps and ensuring the lineage tracking to enforce reproducibility and reusability of the results.
At the Water Institute, Christian is working on some of the Water Institute's largest projects including Louisiana Watershed Initiative, Texas General Land Office river basin flood study, and SmartPort.
Job Titles:
- Research Geoscientist
- Research Scientist With the Water Institute of the Gulf
Christopher Esposito, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist with The Water Institute of the Gulf. He has more than a decade of field and modeling experience studying sediment transport and deposition in river deltas. His research is primarily focused on the connections between river channels and their floodplains, a topic which is closely related to channel management and planned river diversions in deltas. Prior to joining the Institute, Dr. Esposito obtained his Ph.D. at Tulane University and his master's degree at The University of New Orleans. Before entering graduate school, Dr. Esposito taught math and environmental education in public high schools. His interest in coastal zone management in Louisiana was sparked while leading students on field trips throughout the Mississippi River Delta.
Job Titles:
- Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Executive Assistant to the President
Colleen Bryant, Executive Assistant to the President/CEO, brings years of project management and executive assistant experience to The Water Institute. Bryant started her career as proposal manager at Cajun Industries where she developed, managed, and executed all aspects of the proposal process for federal, state, and private heavy industrial clients. Subsequently, she became the Executive Assistant to the President and Human Resources Director at St. Joseph's Academy in Baton Rouge where she managed all operations in the Office of the President. Just prior to joining The Water Institute, Bryant worked as the Human Resource Generalist with the Baton Rouge Water Company. Bryant graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor of general studies with minors in business administration, communications studies, and sociology.
Areas of Expertise
Organization
Colleen McHugh has ten years of experience in resilience planning. At the Institute, McHugh uses her background in city planning and urban design to explore the interrelationships among infrastructure, social, and natural systems with a focus on helping cities and regions develop visions and actionable strategies for adapting to thrive in the face of a changing environment and climate. McHugh works closely with public-sector partners and clients such as the City of Houston, the City of Charleston, the State of Louisiana, FEMA, and USACE to translate science for decision making, facilitate interdisciplinary workshops, craft visions and actions for advancing resilience and adapting to environmental change, design nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk, provide technical and programmatic support, and develop long-term strategic plans for future investments.
Prior to joining the Institute, McHugh spent five years working in the public sector in New Orleans, advancing resilience and sustainability projects and programs that have become national best practices. She was instrumental in the development of New Orleans' award-winning Resilient New Orleans strategy, the city's first-ever Climate Action Plan, the city's $141M award-winning proposal for the National Disaster Resilience Competition, the design and implementation of neighborhood-scale green infrastructure and nature-based solutions, and the customization of climate adaptation decision support tools. She focused on long-term visioning, strategy, and integrated planning, and successfully translated those efforts into proven implementation and cross-departmental collaboration. Her work engaging engineering and design technicians, and forming partnerships with community organizations, has produced positive, lasting impacts on the city's resilience and associated projects.
McHugh began her career working on urban planning and policy issues in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a B.A. in Global Studies with a minor in Geography from UCLA and a master's in City Planning with a Certificate in Urban Design from MIT. McHugh was awarded an Excellence in Public Service Award by MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning in 2016 for her leadership in advancing resilience planning and projects in New Orleans.
Craig Colten, Ph.D., The Water Institute's founding director of human dimensions from 2013 to 2015, is Professor Emeritus of Geography at LSU and has studied the historical geography of hazards for more than 35 years. Since 2000, Colten's research has focused on community resilience, adaptation to environmental change, and how marginalized communities survived in Louisiana's perilous coastal region.
Colten has spearheaded the Human Coast Initiative at LSU and participated in research funded by the Corps of Engineers, the National Academy of Sciences and the Robert Wood Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers and earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.
Job Titles:
- Certified Research Administrator With the Research Administrators Certification Council
- Director of Grants & Contracts
Danielle W. Johnson, CRA, has almost 20 years of experience in research administration primarily focused on reviewing various types of proposals, contracts, and grants, including federal, state, local, and foundations. She has a grants and contracts background in both pre-award contract review and negotiation as well as post-award grant management.
Prior to joining the Institute in January 2018, she worked as a Grants and Contracts Specialist in the Louisiana State University's central Office of Sponsored Programs. At LSU, she also served as the LSU Chair for Administrators of Sponsored Programs (ASP) and Co-Instructor on trainings offered by the office to assist faculty and staff with the basic understanding of sponsored programs. She also worked as a Grants and Contracts Specialist at Pennington Biomedical Research Center's Office of Sponsored Projects where she managed clinical trial and human subject research grants.
At the Institute, she provides assistance and technical expertise with financial and programmatic grant processes from pre-award through post-award and closeout. She works closely with the technical team and Institute Research Directors to ensure accurate financial, programmatic reporting and procedural compliance on all grants and contracts.
Danielle is a Certified Research Administrator with the Research Administrators Certification Council and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge.
Job Titles:
- Senior Full - Stack Engineer
Derek Dohler, full-stack developer at The Water Institute, brings more than a decade of experience in software engineering to his work of building robust, performant web applications based upon scientific data.
Upon completing his bachelor's degree in computer science and then a law degree, Dohler used his expertise with Transparency International - Georgia, in Tbilisi, Georgia as digital projects officer. In this position, Dohler built web applications promoting the accountability of Georgian government bodies based on open government data. Subsequently, he became a co-founder and board member of Open Law Library, a legal technology non-profit that is dedicated to making all official laws freely and openly accessible. Open Law Library created and operates the first automated legal codification and publishing engine.
Prior to joining the Institute, Dohler was senior software engineer at Azavea, Inc. (now Element 84) in Philadelphia. In this position, Dohler led the development of DRIVER, a traffic crash reporting system used by the Philippines National Police to replace a paper- and spreadsheet-based reporting system and contributed to many geospatial web applications built for a variety of public- and private-sector clients.
Throughout his work, Dohler combines his computer science expertise with a passion for taking large amounts of data and developing the technological bridges that allow the data to be used in decision support tools for the public and government. The result of Dohler's work is the development of tools that make large amounts of data actionable. Dohler has authored several open-source software libraries that continue to generate users.
Areas of Expertise
Open-source software development
Job Titles:
- Visual Science Communications and Marketing Specialist
Dexter Ellis, Visual Science Communications and Marketing Specialist, brings his background in science and the arts to communicate complex concepts that support the research team. His years of experience in photography, videography, visual design, website management, and communications helps translate research into visual communication for the science to reach a broader audience.
Dexter graduated with a B.A. in Theatre from LSU and is pursuing a M.S. in Biology from the University of Saint Joseph with an expected graduation in July 2023. His thesis examines the microbiome of recycled oyster shells before they are used in the creation of living reefs that protect coastlines. Prior to joining the Institute, Ellis was the Director of Education & Community Programs at Chicago Children's Theatre where he created and implemented culturally responsible curriculum across Chicago's public and private school system. Following his love for microbes, he also oversaw the opening of Howard Street Brewing in Chicago.
His professional experience includes photography, videography, visual design, and website management.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist With the Water Institute of the Gulf
Diana Di Leonardo is a Research Scientist with The Water Institute of the Gulf in the Physical Processes and Sediment Dynamics Group. She has four years of experience researching and working on the Louisiana coast as part of Mead Allison's research group at Tulane University. Di Leonardo also spent two years at Tulane working with a research group that builds lab scale delta models.
Prior to arriving in Louisiana, Di Leonardo explored the Oregon and Washington coasts for her Master's research. She participated in hundreds of nearshore survey transects to track sandbar migration and demarcate flood maps. These rocky coast environments provide a fascinating contrast to Louisiana's marshes.
She earned her BA in Geosciences from Hamilton College and her MS in Geology from Oregon State University.
For more than 50 years, Dr. Alex McCorquodale P.E., P.Eng., has brought his vast experience in hydraulics and hydrology to solving challenges in rivers, lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. Starting this week, he is lending that experience to the Institute part-time in order to mentor young researchers and advise on various projects.
After 30 years of teaching at the University of Windsor in Canada, the University of New Orleans recruited McCorquodale to bring his expertise to New Orleans in 1996. Since then, he not only taught new generations of scientists as a professor until his retirement in 2017, but he's worked on some of the most foundational coastal projects and programs in Louisiana's coastal efforts
In addition to working on the 2012 and 2017 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan, McCorquodale also worked on the Mississippi River Hydrodynamic and Delta Management (MRHDM) Study as part of the Louisiana Coastal Area program, hydrodynamic study of the Lake Pontchartrain basin and will be involved in the upcoming development of the Coastal Master Plan for 2023.
His first project upon arriving in Louisiana was to participate in a study on the feasibility of building diversions from the Mississippi River for the purpose of coastal restoration.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Director of Coastal and Deltaic Systems
Dr. Ioannis Georgiou, Director of Coastal and Deltaic Systems Modeling, brings a vast experience in the workings of the lower Mississippi River Delta to his projects at the Institute.
Georgiou collaborates on research projects internationally, though his primary research area has been the Mississippi River Delta, with recent projects such as the evolution of Louisiana barrier islands and inlets in response to coastal erosion and interior wetland loss, the response of bays and sounds to freshwater and sediment diversions, the exchange of water and sediment during storms along coastal systems, and the dynamics of saltwater intrusion in the lower Mississippi River and Delta.
Georgiou has led many modeling studies varying in complexity and scale and has authored numerous technical reports and peer-reviewed journal publications on surface processes operating in coastal Louisiana and the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Some of Georgiou's more recent work with collaborators from Massachusetts and Virginia includes examining marsh sustainability in Plum Island Sound, MA, under future projections of sea-level rise, and resulting vulnerability of nearby communities, a project in south Brazil looking at how coastal systems respond to sea-level fall, as it has been in this area for thousands of years, quantifying the fate and transport of sediment during storms on marshes along the Atlantic seaboard from hurricanes (e.g., Irma) and nor'easters and storm-driven shoreline dynamics along Plum Island, MA.
In Louisiana, Georgiou's work includes the Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring Program which aims to understand regional sediment trends through intensive collection and analysis of hundreds of sediment samples along the coast. Another project involves working with LSU collaborators, through Department of Interior funding, to unravel the controls and triggering mechanisms of underwater slides in the modern delta, while another project works to understand the geomorphic and economic benefits of using offshore sands for barrier island restoration projects.
Dr. Georgiou received his bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University, his master's degree from University of New Orleans and Ph.D. from University of New Orleans. Before coming to the Institute, Georgiou was professor of Earth Sciences at the University of New Orleans and served as Director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences.
Erin Kiskaddon, benthic ecologist, brings her experience in laboratory work and research on benthic ecosystems to the Institute's coastal ecology team. Kiskaddon graduated from Whitman College with a concentration in biology and earned her master's degree in biology from University of Southern Florida at Tampa where her thesis work was focused on trophic ecology of crabs in human-impacted mangrove habitats of Florida. Prior to joining the Institute, Kiskaddon was a laboratory technician and then laboratory manager in the Sediment Ecology Lab at Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Her research included the influence of benthic infauna on the acoustic properties of sediment, acoustic analysis of sediment communities, and involvement in a long-term assessment of the impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on shallow-water benthic ecosystems in the northern Gulf of Mexico including work in the Chandeleur Islands.
Job Titles:
- Research Environmental Engineer
- Research Scientist With the Water Institute Coastal
Francesca Messina, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist with The Water Institute Coastal and Deltaic Systems Modeling department.
She received her master and doctorate degrees in environmental engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, in Italy. Her Ph.D. research focused on modelling flow and colloidal particle transport and deposition in porous media for groundwater remediation purposes.
Her current research at The Water Institute focuses on numerical modeling of coastal, estuarine, and riverine systems, mainly focusing on hydrodynamic and salinity dynamic. In the last eight years at The Water Institute, she has been heavily involved in the Mississippi River Hydrodynamic and Delta Management Program and studying the effect of restoration projects such as the proposed sediment diversions. She developed real time forecasting systems for coastal and flood applications and is currently involved in the development of a model catalog to host environmental-related numerical models to promote discoverability, sharing, and use of existing models and their results among the scientific community.
As an environmental engineer, she is interested in environmental fluid dynamics, reclamation of polluted sites, pollutant dynamic, and sanitary and environmental engineering.
As a chemical engineer by education, Pittman became involved in coastal Louisiana restoration after hurricanes Katrina and Rita when he was doing recovery work in New Orleans for then-Shaw. As that work was winding down, he was asked to transition to work as the operations manager for the state's Coastwide Reference Monitoring Systems (CRMS) program. During his seven years managing the CRMS program, Pittman also performed coastal wetland vegetation damage assessments in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. From this, Pittman transitioned to four years managing Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) projects for the state where he was responsible for up to 32 projects at any given time.
Pittman's experience includes a wide range of coastal restoration and protection projects and programs including construction management and development of restoration plans and environmental assessments for Natural Resource Damage Assessment projects.
Before joining The Water Institute, Pittman was a director at C.H. Fenstermaker & Associates where he served as a senior project manager and the coastal practice lead. While there, Pittman served as project manager for projects like the Queen Bess Island Restoration and the development of two Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessments for a total of eight projects in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Job Titles:
- Research Hydraulics - Water Quality Scientist
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Senior Vice President
Hugh J. Roberts, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, has nearly 20 years of experience working with decision makers around the country in addressing essential questions of climate and flood resilience. Roberts' applied research focuses on climate adaptation for communities and ecosystems, working with interdisciplinary teams at the intersection of engineering design, planning, policy research, ecology, and technology solutions.
Roberts' decades of experience working with municipalities and regions facing climate change-driven economic, societal, and environmental risks has helped inform the tough decisions community, regional, state, and national leaders are making as they work to adapt to a changing environment. His experience working across multiple levels of government, and with collaborators in industry, universities, and research institutions, has helped communities develop approaches to climate mitigation and adaptation that both address the local needs and builds off lessons learned and replicable processes developed by communities facing similar challenges.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Director of Project Management
Job Titles:
- Director of Product Strategy
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director to the Chief Scientist / Director of RESTORE Act Center of Excellence for Louisiana
Job Titles:
- Director of Planning and Policy Research
Job Titles:
- Controller
- Director of Finance
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- Coordination Associate With the Gulf Center for Equitable Climate Resilience
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- Master Plans
- Neotectonics and Subsidence Expert Panel
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- Research Hydraulic Engineer
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- Data Science and ML Practice Lead
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- Research Hydraulic Engineer
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- Chairman of the Board of Directors
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- Director of Applied Geosciences
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- Director of Coastal and Compound Flood Risk
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- Senior Water Resources Engineer
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- Analytics, Computing, and Technology Manager
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- Senior Research Scientist
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- Business Analytics Specialist
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- Director of Marketing and Communications
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- Director, Gulf Center for Equitable Climate Resilience
Sarah "Charley" Cameron, technical editor, brings more than a decade of editing and media experience to the Institute. Cameron studied fine arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds a B.Sc. from the University of New Orleans in Earth and Environmental Sciences with a concentration in geosciences. Cameron previously worked as media coordinator for Common Ground Relief, news editor at Inhabitat, and as a freelance writer, designer, and videographer.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Geographer
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- Grants and Contracts Manager
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- Director of Coastal Ecology
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- General Counsel and Legal Policy Researcher
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- Research Assistant, Applied Geosciences
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- Senior Computational Scientist
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- Compound Flooding Research Specialist