Maija Liisa Niemisto

Education and Community Science

Telephone: 845-889-4745
Email: maija.niemisto [at] dec.ny.gov

Maija grew up in Minnesota to a family of professional musicians. She attended University of Wisconsin-Madison and the American University of Beirut, as an undergraduate student of International Relations and Environmental Studies. It was through a United Nations Department of Environmental Protection internship in Lebanon, that she gained hands on experience and a passion for protecting wetland habitats. After graduating from university, Maija lived aboard a 28-foot sailboat and sailed the eastern seaboard, eventually discovering the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. She joined the crew and education team of the environmental tall-ship and spent almost 10 years living on the Hudson and teaching about the tidal estuary. Maija then completed her graduate studies at Stonybrook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences with bioacoustic research of fish and zooplankton of the Hudson River Estuary. In 2019, she joined the Cornell University Water Research Institute and the NYSDEC at the Hudson River Estuarine Research Reserve.