A team of new professionals dedicated to protecting the communities, economy and environment of Long Island Sound are expanding the reach of a 30-year Sea Grant–Long Island Sound Study (LISS) partnership.
Lilli Genovesi is the new LISS outreach coordinator for New York City and Westchester County. Based in the New York City Department of Environmental Protection office in Queens, Genovesi is working alongside the Stony Brook University-based outreach coordinator, Jimena Perez-Viscasillas, to engage communities in LISS programs, activities and resources.
Three extension professionals have begun working to strengthen the network of sustainable and resilient communities (SRC) along the Long Island Sound in three counties: Westchester (Sara Powell), Nassau (Sarah Schaefer-Brown) and Suffolk (Elizabeth Hornstein). The three SRC extension professionals, two located at CCE county offices and one at Stony Brook, are working with their respective coastal communities with the goal of building a coordinated regional response to current and future climate change impacts, empowering better trained and informed community decision-makers and increasing implementation of resilience projects.
Gwen Gallagher, a new coastal climate extension specialist based at Stony Brook, is focused on offshore energy efforts as well as extending cutting-edge research related to climate change mitigation, which ultimately will help with local resilience and ocean literacy. This new position is being established even as New York state is already feeling the effects of climate change impacts, from sea level rise and nuisance coastal flooding, more frequent rainfall, scouring of roads and bridges from heavy runoff, and severe coastal storms such as Hurricane Ida in late summer of 2021.
“Addressing climate change impacts as well as water quality and habitat challenges while ensuring that all people, especially communities suffering disproportionately from environmental threats, are engaged in the solutions requires professionals in the field, building relationships and working through partnerships,” said NYSG Associate Director Kathy Bunting-Howarth.
Longer versions of the announcements for the Long Island Sound specialists and climate specialist appeared on the New York Sea Grant website.
NYSG specialists work with faculty and researchers at Cornell, SUNY colleges and universities, and other academic institutes and agency partners in New York state to develop and provide integrated research, science, education and extension services that address timely and high-priority challenges and opportunities related to New York’s freshwater and marine environments, economies and communities.
The NYSG extension team also includes specialists focused on seafood safety; Great Lakes and marine fisheries and aquaculture; Great Lakes, marine and Hudson River Estuary coastal processes and hazards; coastal community development; coastal recreation and tourism; and coastal and Great Lakes education and literacy.
Since 1971, New York Sea Grant, a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, has been one of 34 university-based programs under NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program. The extension portion of NYSG’s programming is administered through Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Chris Gonzales is a freelance writer for New York Sea Grant.
