Peter Phippen is a hydrogeologist/coastal scientist with 40 years of experience in the field of water resources management. He holds and B.S. in hydrology, an M.S. in hydrogeology, and an M.A.L.D. in environmental landscape. Currently the Coordinator of the Eight Towns and the Great Marsh Committee, a division of the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Partnership and the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, For nearly 20 years Mr. Phippen has planned, coordinated, and implemented a host of projects in the Great Marsh and upper north shore municipalities addressing coastal pollution and coastal restoration issues. He has extensive experience building partnerships with federal, state, regional, and nonprofit environmental organizations for the goal of protecting and restoring the Great Marsh, including; invasive species management, marsh edge erosion and sediment deposition, marsh platform hydrology, water quality assessment, and submerged aquatic vegetation restoration. Mr. Phippen is also a selectman in the Great Marsh community of Essex, Massachusetts.

Alyssa Novak is a coastal ecologist who uses a combination of theoretical and empirical approaches to understand how coastal ecosystems respond to stressors. The ultimate goal of her research is to provide information that facilitates initiatives to increase the health and resiliency of coastal systems to human stressors including climate change. She has worked extensively in seagrass systems developing models and conducting health assessments to identify eelgrass restoration sites; assessing the role of donor populations in promoting the establishment and resilience of eelgrass at restoration sites; and investigating the adaptive significance of leaf-reddening as a stress response in seagrasses. She also work in salt marsh systems studying the processes that govern their formation and stability, as well as their response to climate change.

Geof is a conservationists, sportsmen, decoy carver, invasive specialist, and marsh advocate interested in using his local knowledge and resources for protecting our Great Marsh to enhance wildlife values, climate change protection, and all sustainable traditional and historic uses. In addition he is a selectman for the Great Marsh community of Newbury and is involved in environmental policy decisions regarding the inland and coastal waters of the marsh.

David Moon is Community Science and Coastal Resilience Manager for Mass Audubon North Shore and works from Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport. He has been an environmental educator and administrator of EE for over 35 years in both classrooms and non-formal settings. Before Mass Audubon, David was a science teacher at The Putney School in Putney, VT. Other work included Executive Director of Ashuelot Valley Environmental Observatory, in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, Education Director at Stonewall Farm in Keene, NH, and he teaches Tropical Forest Ecology in Costa Rica for Franklin Pierce University. David has an MS in Environmental Education from Antioch University New England.

Nancy Pau has been Wildlife Biologist at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island for 19 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University. Through combating invasive plants, climate change impacts, and educating the wider public, her job is to ensure that the Refuge and the surrounding lands continue to support wildlife for future generations. Ms. Pau has been actively working with partners to develop innovative restoration techniques for the Great Marsh, and is currently partnering with other conservation organizations and the local communities to make the Great Marsh more resilient to climate change.

Zoe is a physical oceanographer and geomorphologist specializing in coastal response to climate change (sea-level rise and changes in storminess) with a focus on saltmarshes, barrier islands, and tidal inlets. She studied at the National Oceanography Center in Southampton, UK, where she obtained her PhD in Coastal Oceanography from Southampton University. She is presently an Assistant Research Professor at Boston University in the Department of Earth and Environment. Her research is necessarily cross-disciplinary including feedbacks between hydrodynamics, landscape evolution, and ecosystem science, and combines both field surveys and numerical modeling. Zoe has over 20 years of experience working in coastal research and managing and integrating diverse teams of scientists on collaborative projects. She has studied coastlines throughout the US (including Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas) but considers the Great Marsh her home turf. Recent projects have included looking at the impact of salt marsh grass on wave attenuation in Newbury and the impact of changing climate on flooding and erosion in Essex Bay.

Chris Hilke is Director of Coastal Resilience at the National Wildlife Federation’s Northeast Regional Center. Chris works with Federal and State agencies, municipalities, coastal practitioners, and regional communities of practice to advance the application of natural and nature-based approaches to enhance coastal resilience. His work is focused on mitigating post-disaster restoration/rebuilding costs, reducing community vulnerability, and enhancing the services and ecological functioning of coastal ecosystems. Of specific interest are opportunities to address coastal resiliency enhancement at a regional scale and through coordinated implementation. Chris has a BA in Environmental Law & Policy and an MS in Conservation Biology.