I am a environmental planner and information scientist at URI's Coastal Resources Center, where I have worked since 1975, starting with helping to write the first Rhode Island coastal resources management program document and its supporting technical studies. I developed Rhode Island's first coastal special area management plan for Providence Harbor, adopted in 1983 which has recently been updated. I worked with URI researchers to understand the U.S. experience in estuary management predating the National Estuary Program.

In 1999 I assisted in preparing the Rhode Island Watershed Approach Framework, authored the 2006 Rhode Island Marine Resources Development Plan and contributed to the 2010 Rhode Island Ports & Harbors Inventory . I have 25 years of international experience in developing coastal management programs including Ecuador, Central America and Mexico as well as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Fiji. I presently work to support our programs in Africa including Tanzania and Ghana, focusing on spatial planning and climate change adaptation.

I have served as a lead trainer for several courses conducted in Spanish for Latin America participants, as well as CRC's biennial intensive "Summer Institute" held at the Coastal Institute for participants from all regions of the world, most recently the 2010 Coastal Adaptation to Climate Change course. I am co-author of the 2009 USAID publication 'Adapting to coastal climate change: a guidebook for development planners". I lead CRC's initiative on knowledge sharing which is aimed at making CRC's collected repertoire available to practitioners, students and researchers at URI and world-wide, and contribute to the knowledge management component of BALANCED, our global project advancing the population- health- environment approach. I am completing my PhD in informatics at the State University of New York/ Albany; my dissertation is titled: "A feedback perspective on improving the effectiveness of marine and coastal management".