Podcasts about deputy lead

Advancing the practice of engineering with nature is a primary goal for the Engineering With Nature Program, and technology transfer through publications is a critical pathway to achieving this goal. In Season 8, Episode 8, host Sarah Thorne is joined by Amanda Tritinger, Deputy Lead of the Engineering with Nature Program, and Courtney Chambers, Communications Lead for the Engineering With Nature Program. They're discussing the importance of the Programs' key publications, including two new ones in 2025.Publications are critical to advancing the practice and closing the gaps in knowledge. As Amanda says, “They showcase real-world applications of natural infrastructure and inspire others to adopt these strategies in their own projects. By publishing, we make it possible for natural infrastructure to be integrated into more projects and drive innovation across multiple sectors.”  This episode highlights several examples of innovative EWN Publications, including:The EWN Atlas series;Natural Infrastructure for Mission Readiness at U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Installations – Also known as “The Navy Playbook”; andThe Four Coasts Project Idea Handbook – design concepts that incorporate Engineering With Nature from four of the EWN Proving Grounds districts: San Francisco, Mobile, the Great Lakes, and Philadelphia.  Courtney explains that the Atlas series was born out of a conversation that Todd Bridges, founder of the EWN Program, had with the then USACE Director of Civil Works, James Dalton who suggested that people would understand the key principles of EWN if they could see what they look like in practice. Its success has led to these additional innovative publications.Hollie Janson Schmidt, National Director of the Planning Group for Advisory Solutions at Jacobs, was the project executive responsible for developing the Navy Playbook with EWN. She joins the conversation and explains that, “The intention of the book is to really be nontechnical and user friendly so that someone could look at some of these sketches and really understand some of the characteristics and the components that we're addressing.” She adds, “It's just really meant to sort of excite people with the visuals and the beauty of what we were trying to bring forward.”Mindy Strevig, Managing Engineer at Anchor QEA, leads the collaboration on the development of the Four Coasts Handbook. She also joins the conversation and notes “The goal of the Four Coasts Handbook, is to get those solution concepts visualized and conveyed in a way that folks can continue those conversations through their traditional processes to get these projects funded, garner support, and move them to implementation.The EWN team continues to promote the work of the EWN Program and its partners through publications like these, as well as through ERDC Tech Notes and Tech Reports, and peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. Amanda stresses that “these publications are invaluable to our practitioners because they provide a strong scientific foundation combined with the real-world application of natural infrastructure. By publishing this work, we ensure that knowledge is shared, lessons are learned, and innovations are being scaled up. These publications are critical to advancing the practice. They're how we bridge that gap between research and implementation and offer actionable insights.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  Amanda Tritinger – LinkedInCourtney Chambers – LinkedInHollie Janson Schmidt – LinkedInMindy Strevig – LinkedIn 

Tania Mercado

RNIB Scotland recently organised a reception at the Scottish Parliament to celebrate 200 years of Braille. Amelia spoke to Rosie Dempsey, the Deputy Lead, Children, Young People, Families & Education, Devolved Nations at RNIB to learn about how young people benefit from braille. To find out more about braille and how the RNIB is celebrating 200 years since Louis Braille invented the system visit: https://www.rnib.org.uk/about-us/braille-200 Image shows the Braille 200 logo with 'Braille 200' written at the top in white text on a pink background with a visual Braille representation of the same text below it. Across the bottom is written Powered by RNIB and EBU written in their respective logos.

We're celebrating World Wildlife Day a little early this year with a super special episode! Join Alex as he chats with Colby Loucks, Vice President and Deputy Lead, Wildlife Program at World Wildlife Fund, about the thrilling world of conservation technology. From cutting-edge tools like Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to high-tech wireless trackers for elephants and thermal cameras for spotting poachers, we're uncovering the coolest tech in the fight to protect our planet's wildlife. Colby also shares how AI is revolutionizing animal conservation efforts, alongside advice about how everyday choices can make a big impact on conservation. Get ready to be inspired and join us on this journey to safeguard our planet's most incredible creatures - the adventure awaits!For sources and more information, please visit our website.Support the show

In this episode, Daniel Arnold sits down with Dr. Kate Hanneman. Dr. Hanneman is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Research at the University of Toronto and a Clinician Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. She is Co-Chair of the Canadian Association of Radiologists Sustainability Working Group and Deputy Lead for Sustainability at the Joint Department of Medical Imaging and University Medical Imaging Toronto. She is an Associate Editor with Radiology, the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, and the Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal and leads an active research program focused on improving health outcomes for patients using cardiac imaging.     Dr. Hanneman shares her journey from being a patient to becoming a radiologist, emphasizing the crucial role of mentorship in medical education. The discussion explores Dr. Hanneman's current role in the Department of Medical Imaging at the University of Toronto and her unique position within the Canadian healthcare system. Dr. Hanneman discusses her dedication to cardiac imaging research, highlighting its interdisciplinary and collaborative nature. The episode also highlights the challenges and advantages of the Canadian healthcare system. Towards the end, the conversation shifts to Kate's involvement in sustainability efforts within radiology, addressing the environmental impact of the field. The podcast concludes with insights into the intersection of AI and sustainability in radiology, offering a glimpse into Kate Hanneman's professional journey and the fascinating world of cardiac imaging.   Learn more at https://medality.com/the-radiology-report-podcast

Episode 12, we take a deep dive into Long-Term Health Education & Training within the Army Medical Department (AMEDD). We engage in a detailed discussion about the timeline, critical factors to consider, and strategies for success in AMEDD's Long-Term Health Education program. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for those curious about or pursuing LTHET. Our special guest, MAJ Alexsandra Fajardo, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. Known for her extraordinary intellect, MAJ Fajardo shares her journey and professional tips for excelling. Furthermore, MAJ Fajardo introduces innovative tools and resources she has created for you. MAJ Fajardo enlisted in the Army in 1997, served as a Behavioral Health Specialist. In 2008, Fajardo was selected for the Active Duty Green to Gold Program. She is a member of the Army Acquisition Corps and has a Masters in Procurement & Acquisitions Management. Fajardo assignments include 541st Forward Surgical Team (ABN); 51st Medical Logistics Company; HHC, 44th Medical Brigade; 115th Combat Support Hospital; Division HQ Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division; US Army Medical Materiel Development Activity; Defense Health Agency. She has served as a Medical Distribution Platoon Leader; Executive Officer; Brigade Adjutant; Battalion S4; Company Commander; Train, Advise & Assist Medical Advisor; Division Medical Logistics Officer, Assistant Program Manager, & Deputy Lead for International Distribution and Supply Chain Action Officer for the Federal COVID-19 Response Team. Fajardo served as the Program Manager for Initial Outfitting & Transition Execution, Facilities Enterprise DHA. Fajardo is currently serving as a Medical Synchronization Staff Officer for Force Development Logistics, Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8. Her education inc Basic Officers Leadership Course, Master Resilience Training Course, Logistics Captains Career Course, Joint Humanitarian Operations Course, the How The Army Runs Course, Army Acquisition Transition Course, Command and General Staff Officers' Course (CGSOC), and Staff Synchronization Course. AY25 LTHET MILPER MESSAGE 23-499, ACADEMIC YEAR 2025 (AY25)ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT (AMEDD)  LONG TERM HEALTH EDUCATION AND TRAINING (LTHET) PROGRAM SELECTION PANEL For LTHET information, corps applications, program listings, and other related documents: https://www.hrc.army.mil/content/Long%20Term%20Health%20Education For more complete MILPER message information go to https://www.hrc.army.mil/Milper/23-499 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are the guests and host's alone and do not reflect the official position of the Medical Service Corps, the Department of Defense, or the US Government. All information discussed is unclassified approved for public release and found on open cleared sources.For more episodes listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify @ Be All You Can Be MSC. For more information, suggestions, or questions please contact: beallyoucanbemsc@gmail.comDisclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are the guests and host's alone and do not reflect the official position of the Medical Service Corps, the Department of Defense, or the US Government. All information discussed is unclassified approved for public release and found on open cleared sources.For more episodes listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube @ Be All You Can Be MSC For more information, suggestions, or questions please contact: beallyoucanbemsc@gmail.com

Welcome to the Plant-Based Canada Podcast. In this episode we are joined by Dr. Kate Hanneman to chat about climate change and environmental sustainability in health care practices, particularly medical imaging/radiology, as well as improving health outcomes for patients using cardiac imaging.Kate Hanneman MD MPH, is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and a Clinician Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. She is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers and leads an active research program focused on sustainability and improving health outcomes for patients using cardiac imaging. She is Co-Chair of the Canadian Association of Radiologists Sustainability Working Group and Deputy Lead for Sustainability and University Medical Imaging Toronto at the University of Toronto. She has followed a plant-based diet for over a decade. In this episode we discuss:Climate change and environmental sustainability in medical imaging/radiologyCurrent and future research Tips for sustainable medical and personal practicesTake home messageEpisode Resources:Environmental Sustainability and MRI: Challenges, Opportunities, and a Call for ActionLetter to the Editor: Radiology Action for Climate ChangeClimate Change and Sustainability. RadiologyClimate Change and Radiology: Impetus for Change and a Toolkit for ActionUniversity of Toronto, Medical ImagingCanadian Association of Radiologists Sustainability Working Group Dr. Kate Hanneman's Socials: Instagram: @katehanneman X/ Twitter: @katehanneman, @imagingtoronto & @UofTMedImPlant-Based Canada's Socials:Instagram  (@plantbasedcanadaorg) Facebook (Plant-Based Canada, https://m.facebook.com/plantbasedcanadaorg/) Website  (https://www.plantbasedcanada.org/) X / Twitter @PBC_orgThank you for tuning in! Make sure to subscribe to the Plant-Based Canada Podcast so you get notified when new episodes are published. This episode was hosted by Stephanie Nishi RD, PhD.Support the show

If you've ever walked along a beach, you've likely noticed the dunes, the mounds of sand that have been formed by the wind. But have you ever thought about what those dunes do and how important they are? Perhaps not; our guests certainly have. In Season 6, Episode 7, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Amanda Tritinger, Deputy Lead of the Engineering with Nature Program, and her US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) colleagues Duncan Bryant, Research Hydraulic Engineer, and Nick Cohn, Research Oceanographer. All three are affiliated with the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory at the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center. They're passionate about “dune stewardship,” protecting and restoring the dunes that create resilience for coastal communities. As Amanda describes it, “People tend to overlook dunes and the role they play in the defense of our coastlines during hurricane seasons.” Duncan explains that dunes are formed by a combination of sand, wind that shapes the sand into mounds, and vegetation. They're much more complicated than just the mounds of sand we see. Dunes are naturally very dynamic. They can form and grow. They can be eroded. They can shift. Nick adds: “A lot of these storms in the Outer Banks and elsewhere where we have big wind events during storms actually grow dunes pretty substantially, but what we hear in the news all the time is how storms erode dunes. That's why they're so complicated. Sometimes it's just about the details; if there was one foot more of storm surge, that dune would get eroded out. So, we do lots of research both in the field and the laboratory and with models trying to understand what details matter about our prediction of dunes.”Dunes are a critical nature-based solution. As Nick explains, “Dunes serve as a topographic high that prevents high water from flooding people's property and critical infrastructure. And they're a really cost-effective, natural form of infrastructure to prevent flooding. As we get through the end of hurricane season, I think we always try to make the case that dunes are a valuable form of coastal protection that can be put almost anywhere throughout the world, without hard structural solutions.”Amanda underscores the potential value of dunes for coastal resilience: “I think expanding the use of dunes is an exciting prospect. Everybody in the coastal community has some major storm event, some hurricane, that sticks in their mind. For me, it was Hurricanes Matthew and Irma. For both, I was in northeast Florida, and we did forensic studies before and after each of those storms. You could walk up and down the coastline and just see the difference. The communities that had older, more natural dune systems got out almost unscathed, whereas the communities that had newer dunes or no dunes saw a lot more damage after the storms.”Amanda's call to action speaks to her passion as a dune steward: “Understand the dunes. Take the time to learn the dune story. If you go to the beach and you appreciate the water, that magical place where the water meets the land, where we get to touch the rest of the world, know the story of the dune. It provides that ecological benefit. It takes care of the communities behind it. It's dynamic. It's exciting. It's doing its job if it's disappearing and it's doing its job when it builds itself up. Just appreciate the dunes when you're out there. I just think if more people knew the dunes story and told each other about it and knew just how magical that thing they walk over on the way to the beach was, that that would just be a win in itself.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/• Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn• Duncan Bryant at LinkedIn• Nicholas Cohn at ResearchGateThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5872676/advertisement

Jeff Cuthbert was elected as the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent in May 2016 after standing down as the Welsh Assembly Member for Caerphilly. After a career as an engineer, Jeff went on to work in education, working with the Welsh Joint Educational Committee (WJEC) and serving on the boards of several educational institutions including Cardiff University and The College, Ystrad Mynach. First elected to the National Assembly for Wales in 2003, he served as Deputy Minister for Skills (2011-2013, with the Technology brief added in 2013) and then Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty (2013-2014). Jeff previously chaired the Welsh Assembly's Committee on Standards of Conduct, and was a member of the Enterprise and Business Committee and the Environment and Sustainability Committee. Jeff is the Deputy Lead of both the APCC Portfolio Group on Police Technology & Digital, and the APCC Portfolio Group on Business Enablers.

Life Solved is back for its 12th series – and its 100th episode!As a special anniversary episode, we invited Chief Presenter at the BBC News Channel, Maryam Moshiri, to host a round-table discussion, exploring why our plastic waste in the Global North often ends up in low-income countries – and the efforts that retailers and governments are making to reduce plastics on the shelves to create a more sustainable future.The panellists met at the Royal Institute of British Architects in central London and included Esrat Karim, Director and Founder of the Amal Foundation; Kené Umeasiegbu, Responsible Sourcing Director at Tesco; Dr Cressida Bowyer, Deputy Lead for the University of Portsmouth's Revolution Plastics initiative; and Dr Marcus Gover, Director of the No Plastic Waste Initiative, the Minderoo Foundation.We'd love you to be part of the discussion, too. Email your questions on this episode or ideas for future episodes to lifesolved@port.ac.uk.You can also find out more about this work and other research at the University of Portsmouth website: https://www.port.ac.uk/research/ Life Solved is released every Thursday and available on all major podcast platforms.USEFUL LINKSThe plastic waste ‘loophole':https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/12/loophole-will-let-uk-continue-to-ship-plastic-waste-to-poorer-countriesThe world's poorest at higher risk from floods:https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/24/plastic-waste-puts-millions-of-worlds-poorest-at-higher-risk-from-floodsThe Amal Foundation: www.amal.org.ukPackaging & Plastics at Tesco: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/planet/packaging-and-plasticThe No Plastic Waste Initiative (Minderoo Foundation): https://www.minderoo.org/Revolution Plastics: https://www.port.ac.uk/research/themes/sustainability-and-the-environment/revolution-plastics Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Topic discuss “Diabetes and Maths" Presenter: Sheikh Sharjeel Tariq Bajwa Diabetes: Diabetes cases in the UK have reached an all-time high - 4.3 million people in the UK are currently living with a diagnosis of diabetes. Why is this figure increasing at such an alarming rate? Join us as we discuss the severity and health risks of diabetes, the various factors that can cause diabetes, and what you can be doing to prevent it. Maths: The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has once again expressed his passion to promote maths in the education sector, by launching his plan to make it compulsory to study this subject until the age of 18. Critics have pointed to the issues this policy may pose, yet proponents have emphasised on how important numeracy skills are. Is maths really the solution for a better workforce? Guest: Tooba Rehman- Pharmacologist Sarah Finer- Clinical Reader and Honorary Consultant in Diabetes at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health. Deputy Lead for Genes & Health Partha Kar- National Specialty Advisor for the NHS Diabetes Programme for NHS England and Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. Bridget Benelam- Nutrition Communications Manager, British Nutrition Foundation. Tony Astwood- Founder & Chair of the The Dyscalculia Centre Karima Esmail- Leading expert in the area of developmental dyscalculia Mr. Steve Chinn- an internationally regarded expert in the field of maths learning difficulties Sam Sims- Chief Executive of the independent charity National Numeracy Producers: Rabeeta Khan Hania Mubarik Fezia Haq

What happens when a world-renowned landscape architect from Thailand comes to the United States as Designer-in-Residence to work with an award-winning architect whose passion is what he defines as watershed architecture? In Episode 10, hosts Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are talking with Kotchakorn Voraakhom (“Kotch”), an international member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and founder of Bangkok-based landscape architecture company LANDPROCESS, and Derek Hoeferlin, Chair of the Landscape Architecture and Urban Design programs at Washington University in St. Louis. Derek and his colleagues at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts are hosting Kotch's year-long appointment sponsored by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.   Kotch is the first landscape architect to receive the UN Global Climate Action Award for her use of nature-based solutions in urban settings. Derek works on integrated water-based design strategies for major river basins, including the Mississippi.   Kotch was born and raised in Bangkok and witnessed its transformation from “green, to gray, to super gray—from a city with natural spaces to one that has been increasingly paved over.” Today, Bangkok is a city of over 10.7 million people. “It's more crowded with less natural habitat for the people who live there, which impacts the quality of life and the quality of the existing green infrastructure, like canals and green space. Agricultural land has been abandoned.”   In 2011, flooding in Thailand displaced millions of people, including Kotch's family: “I think that's really the point where I started questioning who I am as a person living in Bangkok, who I am as a landscape architect, and how can make some changes to address this problem.” This led to her thinking about the role that nature-based solutions can play in landscape architecture, which has become the foundation of her practice. “When I started in landscape architecture in my school, I had been taught to really understand what's the climate at the site, what's the culture of the people, what are the constraints and benefit of the existing natural cycle there and then go on to design. I think my team at LANDPROCESS and I are really different from traditional architects and engineers. We work as a team with them but having us on the team really brings a different approach. We make sure nature-based solutions are part of the process.”   Derek grew up in St. Louis and after studying architecture in New Orleans and New Haven and practicing for multiple years returned in 2005 to begin teaching at Washington University in St. Louis. His experience with flooding events in Missouri, including the Times Beach Disaster in 1982 and the Great Flood of 1993, led him to realize that “water can be a very politicized thing and a very difficult thing to talk about when you're talking about rebuilding communities and protecting them or integrating nature-based solutions, especially in an urbanized setting.” While teaching at WashU, he's witnessed more frequent extreme events, floods, and droughts, and come to understand that these events are not just coastal problems. “This is not just in New Orleans. It's happening up here in the St. Louis in the Midwest, and it's even happening farther upriver, which led me to look at the whole Mississippi water system.” He came across the work of Eddie Brauer, Senior Hydraulic Engineer with the USACE St. Louis District, who has been working on Mississippi basin-scale challenges. And he met Kotch, who has been engaging with the United Nations on global-scale issues. These experiences led him to ask, “How do we come together as a collective, as designers, engineers, policymakers?” on what he calls “watershed architecture thinking”—working at the large watershed scale, back down to the scale of a city, and ultimately a building.   Jeff agrees that applying natural strategies at the watershed scale is critical and notes that this approach was key to the development of the International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management. “We know now that if we just approach the challenge as one project in one location, then another project in another area of the watershed, we're not thinking about a systematic approach. That can have downstream consequences that negate anything that we've tried to do in the way of creating resilience for that watershed.”   Kotch's focus on using nature-based solutions in urban settings creates more resilient cities that can adapt to the increased flooding that results from climate change. And nature-based solutions are key to providing addition social benefit, especially to the most vulnerable communities. Her not-for-profit company, the Porous City Network, aims to improve the resilience of urban areas by transforming impervious surfaces into a system of productive public green spaces, which help mitigate excess water. This includes maintaining threatened landscape infrastructure such as agricultural land, canals, and ditch orchards, as well as interventions like urban farms, green roofs, rain gardens, and permeable parking that provide needed space for water absorption. “When it comes to nature-based solutions in our landscape-architecture approach, we must understand how nature works and let it work itself. It's not about us controlling everything and measuring everything for our own need.”  She adds: “We have to shift our mindset to really understand the problem.”   Kotch's work is important and inspiring to landscape architects and urban planners. Speaking of her ground-breaking work in Bangkok, Derek notes, “They're stunning and they're beautiful. Her Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park—the scale of what it does embedded in the city of Bangkok—is so inspiring because you see it's not just a pocket park, it's a big project because it needs to accommodate a lot of water and hold it, to slow the water down, then eventually release it into the system. But most of the time it's a public space for people to gather, to communicate, for students to recharge, for tourists, and as a place to have different events. It's multi-use, and it's not just solving the flood risk problem. It's creating opportunities.” He adds: “I hope to see more of those types of projects happening in places like St. Louis, that really bring the nature-based systems that we're talking about and solutions, but also make those places accessible for as many people as possible.” Derek, an acclaimed architect in his own right, has a book coming out soon entitled Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture. He presents the importance of understanding the massive scale of watersheds, like the Mississippi River watershed, and compares it to watersheds of the Mekong and Rhine Rivers in Asia and Europe. “The scales are radically different, but it's interesting to assess things that don't seem quite similar together and try to find different ways of understanding them. The speculation section, which is what we also do as designers, is where we think forward into the future. So, in the third part of the book, we have serious conversations about the future and collaboration. How do you get on the ground and catalyze communities and different groups to get together, to take action? Thinking about the whole watershed is daunting, but if you give people the tools and the language to really think about the nuances, I believe then we can start to enact change.” Jeff, Derek, and Kotch go on to talk about the importance—and challenge—of engaging a diverse set of stakeholders in landscape-scale projects. As Derek notes, “It's not just a bottom-up or top-down approach. It's both—we need to be able to listen.” Kotch notes that a key word in stakeholder engagement is “vulnerability” both from a people and a nature perspective. “Historically, there have been so many stakeholders left behind in decision making about water. Having them as part of the process is very critical. We must reverse our approach and build solutions from the ground up.”   And, as Jeff notes, landscape architects play a critical role doing just that: “Oftentimes when talking with the public and sharing information on model outcomes you're presenting graphs and figures. The message or the concept you are trying to convey can sometimes be missed. Landscape architects have a way of communicating with very broad and diverse stakeholders. That is where it becomes incredibly important for Engineering With Nature—to be able to highlight the engineering outcomes that can be achieved through different projects, using landscape-architecture renderings to provide a better sense of the environmental and social benefits that can also be achieved. Nature-based solutions are dynamic systems—they change over time. Landscape architects can show this progression, which, in turn, informs our adaptive management process. This becomes very important as we work with resource managers and regulatory agencies and the public to maximize the function of these projects over time.”   Kotch is excited about her year at Washington University in St. Louis as the Designer in Residence. She'll be co-teaching at a landscape architecture studio with Derek while learning about urban challenges and watershed management in the US. And she'll be working with Derek and his team on the development a project with the theme of ecologies of access for vulnerable sites at St. Louis. She hopes to involve the community in St. Louis in both the process and the outcome. The EWN Project team will be involved as the project develops.   “We've learned so much today about the critical role of landscape architecture and how it plays a really important part in fostering tough conversations, a new shared future and really getting everyone involved, visualizing different futures,” Jeff notes. “I see this as a continuing opportunity to inform our thinking about how we create resilience in the future and how we get to these nature-based strategies.”   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN   Kotchakorn Voraakhom at LinkedIn Kotchakorn Voraakhom at Washington University in St. Louis Kotchakorn Voraakhom on Wikipedia Pulitzer Arts Foundation Designer-in-Residence UN Global Climate Action Award LANDPROCESS Porous City Network Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park - Landezine International Landscape Award How to Transform Sinking Cities into Landscapes that Fight Floods – Ted Talk   Derek Hoeferlin at Washington University in St. Louis Derek Hoeferlin at LinkedIn Derek Hoeferlin Design Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture – Book   2011 Thailand Floods Times Beach, Missouri Disaster 1982 The Great Flood of 1993 – Wikipedia The Great Flood of 1993 – Washington University in St. Louis   EWN Podcast S4E3: EWN Practice Leads Sharing Expertise through the EWN Cadre EWN Podcast S4E2: High Energy Roundtable with the EWN Practice Leads EWN Atlas International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management  

As students head back to class, Episode 8 of the EWN Podcast focuses on foundation of EWN—the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM/STEM). In several episodes of the podcast, we've touched on the importance of encouraging students—the next generation of scientists, engineers, and EWN practitioners. Here we feature some additional discussion from guests from two episodes this season talking about STEAM/STEM and their advice to students.   In Episode 1, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, spoke with Amanda Tritinger, Assistant Program Manager for the EWN Program and a Research Hydraulics Engineer at the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Matt Bilskie, Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia. Matt is the Lead of the Coastal Ocean Analysis and Simulation Team (COAST), a research team that develops computational hydrodynamic models to simulate astronomic tides, wind waves, storm surge, and rainfall runoff in coastal and oceanic environments.   Matt focuses on two important points. First, that one doesn't have to be “good at math” to pursue a STEM-related career. Admitting that he was not particularly good in math, Matt noted that “math is just a tool. There are many tools that you can have in your tool belt and still follow your passion in a STEM-related field.” He also stressed the importance of listening and learning from others who have had experience in the areas and issues that you're working on, adding “one day you will be that person providing expertise, and other people will listen to you.”   Amanda builds on Matt's advice, noting that if someone is struggling to understand a topic, “don't get frustrated when you don't get a topic right away”—there are numerous resources available to help, from books, to YouTube, to podcasts. She also underscores the value of the “A” in STEAM, encouraging students to keep up with the Arts: “There can be so much innovation brought to the science if you're investing in the ‘art' part of your brain.”   Jeff agrees: “It takes many different backgrounds and skill sets to solve very complex problems like the ones the EWN Program is working on. Matt and Amanda are two excellent computer modelers; but we also need biologists, ecologists, landscape architects, social scientists, and economists, all working collaboratively, to be able to deliver very meaningful solutions. So, there's going to be a home for every student today in one of these disciplines. And you'll have the opportunity to work with many other talented people to solve the different challenges that we're facing.”   The conversation wraps up with encouragement to students to be curious, keep an open mind, and be holistic in their approach to challenges. Always look for opportunities to make a difference.   In Episode 6, Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, had the opportunity to talk with Colonel (P) Antoinette Gant, Commander and Division Engineer of the South Pacific Division (SPD), who is a strong advocate for STEAM/STEM, especially for unrepresented populations. She shares her personal journey with students whenever she has the opportunity: “I learned that less than 3% of African American women were engineers. So, the road less traveled was something that I liked. I like math and science. Anytime I can get in front of a group, I talk about the importance of STEAM/STEM.”   COL Gant's advice to students: “Take every opportunity that is afforded to you. Don't sell yourself short, even if it's something that you're not as comfortable with. You don't want to know how many times I've been in situations where I haven't been comfortable with something and just been thrown into the fire. And I figured out how to actually make it happen, and not by myself but with my teammates right by my side. Do not be afraid of what could be, and just give yourself the opportunity to be able to be the change that you want to see. Do the things that you one time thought were truly impossible, because if you don't dream big, then why do we dream even at all?”   Todd adds, “Science and technology and engineering and mathematics are so important for us to understand how to pursue new approaches, distributed engineering approaches across the landscape to complement more conventional engineering and Engineering With Nature. I'm so glad that Colonel Gant also mentioned how important the humanities are, art and history and literature, because if you don't know how you got where you are, you're likely to maybe not understand where you need to go and maybe what to avoid in the future. It's important that we find opportunities to draw from multiple fields and practices and disciplines as we Engineer With Nature.”   Episode 8 closes with Todd's advice to students: “Develop and follow your passion. It's so important that you understand what motivates you personally, what you are passionate about, and then you pursue and develop a career that supports that.”   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn Amanda Tritinger at EWN   Matthew Bilskie at UGA Matthew Bilskie at LinkedIn Coastal Ocean Analysis and Simulation Team (COAST) Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS)   EWN Podcast S4E1: Scaling Up, Up, Up with CSTORM and EWN EWN Podcast S3E3: The Next Generation Makes the Future of EWN Even Brighter   Todd Bridges at EWN Todd Bridges at LinkedIn   COL Gant at USACE South Pacific Division COL Gant at LinkedIn USACE South Pacific Division   EWN Podcast S4E6: A Conversation about Leadership and EWN with Colonel Gant, Commander of the USACE South Pacific Division    

In this week's episode we are joined by Arron who shares his journey from doctor to coder, and his philosophy of living outside the box. We delve into the early years of his career, his love and passion for coding. Arron shares how he developed his coding skills from scratch while an FY1 to building an antibiotic calculator app to more recently an EPR simulator. We delve into the founding story of CodeMed and their vision to equip healthcare professionals the skills to be at the forefront of digital innovation in the NHS.  Arron shares his insights into why being a doctor has incredible value and the opportunities that arise as a result, advising us to avoid developing a limited mindset.  Dr Arron Thind is a GP trainee at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, an NHS Clinical Entrepreneur, DigitalHealth.London Fellow and a clinical tutor at Kings College London. Prior to entering GP training, he was Deputy Lead of Emerging Technology for the UK Government's Department of Health and Social Care.  Arron is the co-founder of Code Med: a startup which teaches clinicians and medical students across the UK how to code, empowering them with the skills to transform healthcare services using digital technology. Learn more about Arron Twitter: @ArronThind LinkedIn: @arron-thind https://codemed.co.uk/course/ ------------------------------------- Episode Sponsor: Locum's Nest The Locum's Nest app has been revolutionising the way NHS doctors are supported by technology since 2015 and is now wired across all NHS professions. On a mission to remove barriers to workforce mobility across the NHS, Locum's Nest has pioneered the formation of digital collaborative workforce banks across the country, enabling cross-covering of shifts across an ever-growing number of NHS Trusts. Currently the best-rated app for flexible working in the NHS, Locum's Nest is transforming shift work in the NHS into a more inclusive and fulfilling experience by giving healthcare professionals ownership and control of their work life balance. Download the app Now: Apple App Store & Google Play Store Manage your shifts, your rosters and your pay all from one secure place! https://locumsnest.co.uk/healthcare-professionals ------------------------------------- Check out our latest platform Peerr Where healthcare professionals learn from the best educators - your peers! ✍️ Make your own quizzes for revision - An invaluable learning tool

In Episode 2 we had a high energy roundtable with the EWN Practice Leads who play a critical role in broadening and expanding the application of Engineering With Nature practices and nature-based solutions within the US Army Corps of Engineers. In Episode 3, the EWN Practice Leads return to talk about how they're solving challenges, advancing EWN implementation through the EWN Implementation Cadre, and sharing what they are learning with other practitioners.   Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined again by a roundtable of the EWN Practice Leads. Elizabeth Godsey is the Technical Lead for Coastal Engineering and Regional Sediment Management with Mobile District; Danielle Szimanski is a Project Manager and Ecologist with Baltimore District; Eddie Brauer is a Senior Hydraulic Engineer with St. Louis District; and Dave Crane is an Environmental Resource Specialist with Omaha District. We asked each to talk about their current projects.   Danielle, a Coastal Practice Lead, describes her work in the Chesapeake Bay where rising sea level is already occurring and is expected to increase. She and her team are restoring barrier islands and marshes to combat the loss of habitat and for flood risk management of inland areas. “Being able to restore these marshes, especially if they're degraded and fragmented, and being able to stave off that future loss and stop them from turning into open water is critical for the Chesapeake Bay.” Danielle also discusses work underway at Deal Island: “The Deal Island project is a maintenance dredging project on the Wicomico River. We're going to use the dredge material to restore approximately 70 acres of degraded and fragmented marsh. This will restore that wetland for migratory birds, and provide nesting habitat specifically for the Saltmarsh Sparrow, which is a threatened species.” She adds, “there's been a lot of work with other federal, state and non-government agencies to create this design and complete pre- and post-monitoring to assess how these wetlands are actually going to provide habitat once they are created.”   Elizabeth, also a Coastal Practice Lead, has worked on a number of coastal restoration projects in the Gulf to restore habitats for threatened and endangered species including sea turtles and piping plovers: “In Mississippi alone we've restored over 2,500 acres across the coastal zone habitats, including beach, dune, wetlands, and island restoration. That's about 2000 football fields of restoration work in that state alone.” She's taking that first-hand knowledge and experience and, as a Practice Lead, sharing leading practices and key learnings with others: “The biggest thing that we're doing is our monitoring and adaptive management. It's a long-term look at the project performance and the ecological benefits that come from the projects. We give that back to scientists, to universities, to people at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and the US Geological Survey (USGS) so they can improve their modeling tools and reduce uncertainty in their predictions.” She also stresses the importance of combining multiple benefits to help achieve whatever the mission goal is, whether it is storm risk management, navigation and economic benefit, or ecosystem protection and restoration: “We're able to integrate each of those benefits and provide that value-add to the nation. We're getting that message out and showing people how to do that, and how you communicate the benefits of this approach to decision-makers.”   Turning to the Riverine Practice Leads, Eddie describes the importance of taking a holistic perspective of riverine systems. “There are so many people that have a day-to-day connection to the river beyond just the projects that the Corps is doing. It's our responsibility to ensure that we account for everyone's needs on all the projects that we construct. To do that, it's critical to understand that each project is part of a broader system.” He goes on to describe a project that the Corps participated in on the Madeira River in Brazil, the largest tributary of the Amazon River and a critical navigation corridor for transporting goods and people. “It was extra critical for us to be to take a watershed approach, to understand the system before doing anything. We spent four years studying the system prior to making a single recommendation. Through this analysis, we understood that because of the geology of the river, we were able to manage it in smaller reaches instead of very large engineering projects, similar to what you'd see on the Missouri or the Mississippi Rivers. We were able to nudge the river through potentially temporary river training structures and spark natural geomorphic processes to accomplish our goals, as opposed to using a brute force engineering approach.”   Dave is working on a project on a 12-mile stretch of the Platte River that runs through the city and county of Denver where the Corps had built dams in the past. By rethinking the approach and applying EWN principles, he and his team are achieving multiple benefits: “We're doing things like completely removing or modifying drop structures in the river that allow for better fish passage and better in-channel habitat, while also helping to reduce sedimentation the channel. In some areas we're able to pull back the riverbanks to allow more flood water conveyance capacity. Working within an urban area, that has a very direct and large connection to a much larger landscape, laterally and upstream and downstream.”   Working together, the four Practice Leads have learned from each other and developed shared priorities. As Elizabeth notes: “Connecting practitioners of different backgrounds like us with this overarching vision of Engineering With Nature was the thing that really made it easy for us to figure out our group's strengths and differences; how we could come together and work, and also what those priorities needed to be, because we could find those common grounds across the landscape.”   One of their top priorities was expand the practice of EWN across the Corps. In 2021 the Practice Leads established the EWN Implementation Cadre. As Dave explains, “It's an informal internal network of EWN and natural and nature-based features practitioners. We have a space where we connect and share experiences, knowledge, ideas, upload documents to a shared drive and have discussions online.” Danielle describes the process of sharing that goes on across the Cadre: “The key word that we were looking for, for the Cadre hub was ‘crowdsourcing'. Project managers from anywhere in the country that have become a member of this hub can pose a question to the entire group, the multiple hundreds of Cadre members.” As Eddie notes, in addition to leveraging resources and connections, the Cadre provides an opportunity to bring new ideas into the Corps.   According to Jeff, the Cadre as an unqualified success: “When the Cadre was launched, the Leads invited anyone within the Corps who was interested in learning more about the EWN Cadre to attend their opening webinar – 800 Corps employees participated in that first meeting! And the interest has continued. It's just been incredible to see the number of people coming to this space, wanting to learn more about Engineering With Nature, offering their thoughts, and their questions. Creating this repository of information has become so valuable. It's a special place and just a real testimony to the hard work that the Practice Leads are doing.”   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN   Elizabeth Godsey at LinkedIn Elizabeth Godsey at EWN Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program Gulf Islands National Seashore – Ship Island Gulf Islands National Seashore – Cat Island Deer Island Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Project Monitoring and Adaptive Management Alabama Island Restoration-Dauphin Island   Danielle Szimanski at LinkedIn Danielle Szimanski at EWN Wicomico River - Deal Island Project Raising the Bar for Salt Marshes on Deal Island – Audubon   Edward Brauer at EWN USACE St. Louis District: An Inland Proving Ground Madeira River Navigation Improvement Planning Study PIANC – Working with Nature for Climate-Resilient Ports and Waterways   David Crane at EWN USACE Omaha district to partner with city of Denver on $350M waterway restoration, flood mitigation project South Platte River – Final Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement   EWN Implementation Cadre Network of Engineering With Nature EWN Atlas Series   EWN Podcast S4E2: High Energy Roundtable with the EWN Practice Leads  

Welcome to Episode 2 of Season 4! EWN Practice Leads play a critical role in broadening and expanding the application of Engineering With Nature practices and nature-based solutions. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by a roundtable of EWN Practice Leads who are all with USACE. Elizabeth Godsey is the Technical Lead for Coastal Engineering and Regional Sediment Management with Mobile District; Danielle Szimanski is a Project Manager and Ecologist with Baltimore District; Edward Brauer is a Senior Hydraulic Engineer with St. Louis District; and David Crane is an Environmental Resource Specialist with Omaha District.   Consistent with this season's theme—Up, Up, Up, with Engineering With Nature—EWN Practice Leads were established to enable the continued expansion of EWN. According to Jeff, “Back in March of 2021, we were experiencing a lot of growth within the EWN Program, and we realized that for this growth to continue, we really needed to reach beyond this national-level program and get out into the field more. We strived to identify individuals who would help us grow the program so, we put out a call internal to the Corps. Eddie, Elizabeth, Danielle, and Dave stepped up and answered the call. It's been really exciting working with all four of them.”   The Leads had various levels of experience with EWN, but all were motivated by an opportunity to help expand the application of EWN principles and practices throughout the Corps by acting as the connection between the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and the districts. Elizabeth called it an “aha moment,” describing it as “a leadership opportunity to be a mentor and to connect other practitioners with cutting-edge science and engineering with nature solutions.” Danielle was excited about signing on: “I love the idea of sharing opportunities for EWN with others that haven't had that experience before—being able to put EWN at the forefront and show that even if you haven't done it before, you don't need to be afraid of it.”     As Jeff says, it's a two-way opportunity: “For me sitting at a higher level, I do engage with the Corps's districts quite a bit, but there's an opportunity to learn more about what's happening on the ground. The Practice Leads provide incredible insight that helps EWN leadership really get the full picture of what is happening in the districts and where future opportunities are located. All four Leads are dedicated, motivated, and really inspire us to do more.”   The Practice Leads lead the EWN Implementation Cadre—an informal network of US Army Corps of Engineers practitioners, representing a variety of disciplines across the enterprise, that is working to advance the application of EWN principles, practices, and technologies to deliver nature-based solutions (which will be discussed in more detail in Episode 3). The Leads represent two practice areas—Coastal and Riverine. We discuss their experiences applying EWN in their districts and share how EWN approaches, including large, landscape-scale nature-based features, can be translated to other practitioners.   Elizabeth, a Coastal Practice Lead, describes the challenges Mobile District is facing along the Northern Gulf of Mexico coast associated with tropical storms, heavy rainfall, and rising seas: “Those coastal hazards can increase the stressors to our natural and manmade systems that serve as a frontline of defense and increase the risk to our growing coastal populations, critical infrastructure, as well as nationally significant habitats and species. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Congress authorized the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program to address long-term risk reduction. An element of this was to restore offshore Mississippi barrier islands. This resulted with estimated annual storm-damage-reduction benefits of over $20 million to the mainland coast.” These were also discussed in S2E1: Expanding Engineering With Nature.   Danielle, a Coastal Practice Lead, describes work being doing in the Chesapeake Bay on the Swan Island Project that has been mentioned in previous podcast episodes (S1E5: Collaborating to Create Wildlife Habitat While Restoring Islands and Improving Community Resilience and S4E1: Scaling Up, Up, Up with CSTORM and EWN). The Swan Island restoration is intended to work as a natural breakwater against storm impacts to protect coastal areas by using dredged material to increase elevation, along with vegetation (on shore and submerged). The data gathered is being used to improve modeling. “There's been a lot of work across agencies to be able to combine all this information together for the CSTORM model so we can use it, not just in the Chesapeake Bay but across the nation for other island restoration projects, to be able to reduce these storm impacts.” A couple of articles about the model have already been published; and once finalized, the model will be available for anyone to use. The hope is that it will enable completion of more natural breakwater projects by the Corps. As Jeff notes, sharing how EWN is being applied in the districts is important as it serves as a model for other districts.   Eddie, a Riverine Practice Lead, describes some of the challenges St. Louis District faces in its riverine systems, which he notes have been engineered for decades. “We're having to go back and reimagine the way that we're implementing solutions, finding other ways that we can, for instance, have navigation on a system but also create additional habitat without increasing flood risk. It's really important to understand that there are many people with diverse needs out there that we need to accommodate. The solution to both of these problems are Engineering With Nature fundamentals—looking at this as a system and incorporating other people's benefits and needs and partnerships.”   Dave, a Riverine Practice Lead, has been doing innovative work in Omaha District: “It's been neat finding ways to incorporate nature-based features, not only in ecosystem restoration projects but across the full spectrum of our mission.” He adds, “There's a lot of talk about aging infrastructure throughout the country. Maybe levees aren't something that a lot of people think about when they think about aging infrastructure, but some flood risk management infrastructure, including levees, are almost a hundred years old. In large rural areas along the Missouri River, they've been damaged by floods and been repaired in place. Over time, it takes a toll. As we repair flood risk management infrastructure, we're partnering with conservation programs and NGOs and thinking differently about constructing things like setbacks. These can help address ecosystem restoration while improving the infrastructure because you're able to rebuild to modern levee design standards that are more resilient and can withstand over topping without as much erosion damage.”   As we close, Jeff highlights the value of the EWN Practice Leads: “This group of Practice Leads are creating real boots-on-the-ground projects and they're expanding the practice of EWN in their own work, while also being leaders, coaches, and mentors for others that they work with on a regular basis.” Sarah and Jeff invite the Leads to return for Season 4 Episode 3 to talk about how they're solving challenges, advancing EWN implementation through the EWN Cadre, and sharing what they are learning with other practitioners.   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN   Elizabeth Godsey at LinkedIn Elizabeth Godsey at EWN Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program     Danielle Szimanski at LinkedIn Danielle Szimanski at EWN Coastal Storm Modeling System (CSTORM) Swan Island Restoration: Engineering With Nature (EWN) Principles In Practice   Edward Brauer at EWN USACE St. Louis District: An Inland Proving Ground   David Crane at EWN   EWN Implementation Cadre Network of Engineering With Nature EWN Atlas Series   EWN Podcast S1E5: Collaborating to Create Wildlife Habitat While Restoring Islands and Improving Community Resilience EWN Podcast S2E1: Expanding Engineering With Nature EWN Podcast S4E1: Scaling UP, UP, UP with CSTORM and EWN

S1E71: Civility Rules with Shelby Scarbrough In this episode I have a great conversation with Shelby Scarbrough, a Tedx speaker, author of Civility Rules, entrepreneur, and former Presidential Trip Coordinator for President Ronald Reagan.  We have a great discussion on the topic of civility in society.  We discuss why it is important to remain civil to one another and the erosion of it in our society.  Shelby Joy Scarbrough bio: is a serial entrepreneur with a wide variety of interests.Her first job, once out of college, was as a Presidential Trip Coordinator in President Ronald Reagan's White House Office of Presidential Advance. Shelby had the privilege of being part of the team coordinating appearances for President Reagan, including the 1988 Reagan–Gorbachev Summit in Moscow, the Statue of Liberty's Centennial Celebration with President Mitterand of France, and a meeting of the NATO Alliance in Brussels. She went on to work in the U.S. Department of State as a protocol officer. Upon President Reagan's death, Shelby served as the Deputy Lead in Washington, D.C. for the State Funeral.In 1990, she founded Practical Protocol, an international special events management organization focused on tailor-made programs for dignitaries.Shelby launched her Joy Journey eCommerce site dedicated to “All Things Joy” as a companion to her upcoming book The Joy Journey.Shelby earned her BA in English from UCLA and is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management program (OPM47). She has served on a number of boards, including Entrepreneurs' Organization, where she served as global Board chairman (www.eonetwork.org) from 2007–2008, and the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge (www.ffvf.org).Contact Shelby: shelby@practicalprotocol.comwww.shelbyscarbrough.comwww.GSE.MBA, Working for President Reagan, The hard work of building Civility in Society.If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? Your feedback is important to me and it would also take less than 60 seconds and make a difference in getting those hard-to-get guests as we expand our reach. Join the Do Hard Things Newsletter: https://www.jaytiegs.com/pl/2147557565Book A Call with Jay: https://www.jaytiegs.com/book-your-sessionConnect with Jay: Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/dohardthingsJoin the Do Hard Things Newsletter: https://www.jaytiegs.com/pl/2147557565Do Hard Things Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/do-hard-things/id1548334976Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place. On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives. Do Hard Things Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/dohardthings

Welcome to the first episode of Season 4! Our theme is Up, Up, Up, with Nature-Based Solutions and we have a fabulous line-up of guests who are going to join us and talk about the climate change imperative – and the opportunity to collaborate on developing and implementing landscape-scale projects.   Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, are joined by two guests. Amanda Tritinger is the Assistant Program Manager for the EWN Program, and a Research Hydraulics Engineer at the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Amanda is also a future cohost of the EWN Podcast. Matt Bilskie is Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia. Matt leads the Coastal Ocean Analysis and Simulation Team (COAST), a research team that develops computational hydrodynamic models to simulate astronomic tides, wind-waves, storm surge, and rainfall-runoff in coastal and oceanic environments. They are talking about how their work on innovative modeling will help project teams incorporate nature-based features into their coastal storm planning efforts.   Amanda and Matt met at the University of Central Florida and share a passion for applying math and science to make the world a better place by helping coastal communities thrive. As part of her education, Amanda used numerical models to predict erosion and accretion in marsh environments in a national estuarine research reserve. In the process, she fell in love with the coast, which led to her PhD and ultimately her work with USACE. Matt, a native Floridian, witnessed the devastation caused by the very active hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 early in his college days. This experience, along with his interest in computers and coding, led to his study of coastal storm surge and flooding.   Today, Amanda and Matt are actively involved in the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN), a collaborative effort between USACE and the University of Georgia's Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS). They're excited about their work together using the Coastal Storm Modeling System, or CSTORM.   CSTORM is a very robust tool developed by Dr. Chris Massey at USACE's Engineering Research and Development Center that, in real time, couples storm surge and wave modeling. CSTORM can model different scenarios for storm timing, whether a storm hits at high or low tide; how strong the winds are; how fast the storm is moving; and different sea-level-rise conditions. As Amanda says, “Using CSTORM, we're able to look at historical storms, and synthetic storms. We can look at a thousand different storm scenarios before those storms are seen and predict what would happen during those given events, and we can look at role of natural infrastructure on our coastline. We're able to share those storms with our partners at University of Georgia and have them run them through their different setups and do scaling that Matt has been working on.”     An example schematic workflow for ERDC's CSTORM-MS. Source: ERDC CHL Fact Sheet.   Matt's focus is scaling up this modeling to evaluate natural infrastructure features in both inland and coastal areas. He's using CSTORM to run various scenarios: “We're thinking about flood-plain reconnection, removing or moving levees back from the immediate vicinity of the riverbank. We're talking about utilizing what exists and what nature does so well and its adaptation through wetlands, salt marshes, mangroves, oyster and coral reefs, barrier island systems, beach and dune systems, and many others. In a nutshell, when we're thinking about these natural features, we're really wanting to work with nature rather than keep nature out like we've done in the past with concrete, and levy and sea wall structures. So, it's a new paradigm in how we're approaching coastal engineering – a more holistic view.”   He goes on to describe some of the initial work modeling the effects of the North Carolina Outer Banks barrier-islands system using various scenarios to assess the protective benefits of these barrier islands during extreme storms and hurricanes. “Based on what we've learned, we can help others better utilize these natural barriers in future planning.”   Jeff highlights the importance of modeling the role of nature-based solutions, such as barrier islands: “This type of research illustrating the importance of the Outer Banks can be extrapolated to illustrate the importance of other island features too, and where it could be opportunistic to be able to create more islands in vulnerable areas along our coast. Those created islands, perhaps through beneficial use of dredged sediment, create more resilience. Matt's work is helping us understand that island systems can be valuable in other areas as well.”   The CSTORM EWN Toolkit will help project teams use the data generated by the model to inform their planning for restorating and creating natural features. Amanda is enthusiastic about the potential use: “We'll have 63 million nodes that include the entire North and South Atlantic coasts. We run all these different storms through them and get all this amazing data. Then we host that data on the Coastal Hazards website so that anybody in this country, anybody in the world, can go get that data and readily figure out how best to incorporate natural features into their projects – and the benefits of doing so.”   The CSTORM Toolkit will provide practitioners with a faster way to assess a broader range of natural features, which ultimately will lead to more EWN innovation. Using CSTORM to conduct landscape-scale modeling for flood risk management, Matt explains, “allows us to modify the landscape then look at the hydrodynamic response from a flood, in terms of water levels, currents, waves, and so on. If we're talking about protecting communities from floods, we need to scale up to maybe miles, or tens of miles, to assess our nature-based solutions and implementation with these communities. It's very important that we study this, generate the science, and provide design guidelines to the water community so nature-based solutions can be implemented in the real world.”   As Jeff notes, this modeling not only informs the design of natural features but also helps practitioners understand how these features will last over time and what efforts may be needed to maintain them through adaptive management. “With the tools that are being developed now, practitioners, in time, would be able to see – based on the different influences in the system – how an island feature, for example, may start to erode through natural processes. By understanding of the life expectancy of these features, we can then determine the optimal time to replenish or renourish those systems to ensure that we are getting the desired outcomes – the resilience and the engineering outcomes or maintaining the ecosystem service function. I think that's incredibly important work.”   What's next? According to Amanda, her future will be focused on developing innovative, holistic systems-based solutions to coastal challenges, incorporating her passion for math and models. For Matt, “We're at a critical time in our country's history, and really the world, in how we are adapting to nature and how we are learning from past errors. We're at a turning point where we're able to really merge these issues that are compounding on us with climate change and engage coastal communities. One of my passions is to integrate our work with coastal communities and really understand where they're coming from, their cultural practices, their viewpoints. What are their actual problems? And then to design our tools and our frameworks to help them design solutions that will protect their communities in the present and for the future.”   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn Amanda Tritinger at EWN   Network of Engineering With Nature EWN Atlas Series   EWN Podcast S1E5: Collaborating to Create Wildlife Habitat While Restoring Islands and Improving Community Resilience EWN Podcast S1E10: Collaborating with Academia to Develop Future Practice and Practitioners Swan Island Restoration: Engineering With Nature (EWN) Principles In Practice Coastal Storm Modeling System (CSTORM) Coastal Hazards System Website Engineering With Nature (EWN) Toolkit for ERDC's CSTORM   Matthew Bilskie at UGA Matthew Bilskie at LinkedIn Coastal Ocean Analysis and Simulation Team (COAST) Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS) Scaling Natural Infrastructure   2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season    

Imagine if we could use plants to help solve complex engineering problems, while enhancing natural ecosystems. And what if we could use plants – and the process of planting – to restore damaged ecosystems, and in the process, build community resilience? Our guests are doing just that, and a lot more!   In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, are joined by Tosin Sekoni, Research Ecologist, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Art Froehlich, CEO of AgriView, and partner in The Communities for Life Network. They're talking about the importance of plants in the design of natural infrastructure to increase both ecosystem and community resilience. As Jeff notes: “The idea of plants being the fulcrum, engaged on multiple levels of creating benefit, really aligns with the EWN Program and how we seek to enhance social, economic, and environmental benefits.”   Tosin and Art's deep connections to farming have shaped their respective life's work. Tosin grew up in Nigeria and enjoyed spending time with her father on his hobby farm. In college, visiting national parks and wilderness areas reinforced her love of nature and her desire to focus her career on working on environmental issues. Over the past few years with USACE, she has been focused on how plants can be used to provide multiple benefits, especially in the context of climate change. She notes that plants, historically undervalued resources, can help regulate micro-climates and mitigate erosion and desertification. And when plants die, they become a major component of soil aggregate. Tosin is lead author on a new manual being developed within the EWN Program entitled Engineering With Nature: Integrating Plant Communities into Engineering Practice.   Art grew up on a small farm in Saskatchewan with livestock and crops. His study of soil science as part of his agriculture degree fueled his “preoccupation with the top meter of soil that drives absolutely everything. How can that top meter of soil be made more productive, more sustainable, and more environmentally supportive?” Art believes that agriculture is an important element in addressing climate change. “When first introduced to Engineering With Nature, I had never heard of it, but inherently, it was part of everything that we do on the farm. I'm a firm believer that agriculture, globally, can play a huge role in solving our climate issues if we go about doing things the right way.”   Art's focus on using plants that are more water and nutrient-use efficient, drove his lifelong interest in agriculture-based philanthropy. Through a partnership with Jack Neufeld, founder of the Communities for Life Network foundation, Art and his family translated their passion and agronomy expertise into helping improve nutrition for the people living in the arid, mountainous community of Manchay, Peru. Over time they realized that in addition growing plants and crops, the foundation could help produce other benefits for the community such as increasing the organic matter in soil, using wash water from homes to create simple irrigation systems, providing better seeds and tools, and hiring a local agronomist. The gardening school they started has had about 400 women graduate from the six-month program. Their next objective is to help the community gardeners produce more food than they need so they can create economic benefits by selling their crops at local markets or to neighbors. According to Art: “The changes have been rather dramatic, not just providing more and better nutrition to the families in the area but seeing the enthusiasm of the gardening school participants. Most of the graduates were farmers who left the Eastern part of Peru where the Shining Path revolutionaries were. We're rekindling their love of farming while helping them become self-sufficient and resilient.”   Innovation is a key part of both Art and Tosin's work.  One example is Tosin's field workshop with the Galveston District. The workshop was designed to demonstrate how plant species could assist in securing and supporting engineered structures in a dredge material placement area, such banks, and dikes, by attenuating waves, helping to restrain shore movement, building elevation, and increasing the strength and effectiveness of the structures.  The result was a self-perpetuating ecosystem that provided habitat for wildlife. Through this and subsequent workshops with federal and state agencies, academia, and non-government organizations, Tosin and her USACE colleagues continue to demonstrate the importance and value of using plant species to create ecosystems and innovative eco-engineering solutions.   Art talks about one of the unique innovations being deployed in Manchay, Peru – an arid, mountainous region, “Cloud catchers”, which are sheets of fibrous mesh or cloth, are strung up in higher elevation areas to extract water from fog in the clouds.  This water is then used by the community for watering livestock and for irrigating gardens. As Art notes: “Innovation is all about getting the community involved. Don't come in as the great hope for their salvation. Really understand what their needs are and try to fulfill that.”   Listeners are encouraged to consider using plants to protect and restore ecosystem and produce social and economic benefits. According to Tosin: “No matter how small or how big, you can always incorporate planting into your immediate environment. I have seen examples of people building ecosystems in their own yard, gardening in their backyard, or their front lawn. Just go ahead -- plant species are so important.” Art adds: “Think small, think local regardless of where you are. The best solutions are done at the local level.”  Jeff wraps up the episode with his own call for action: “For our practitioners and others in communities that are thinking about how to create resilience, or how can you create more benefit for a community, stop and reflect about plants, plant species, and what might be opportunities to integrate plants into these various projects.”     Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Network of Engineering With Nature   Tosin Adetayo-Sekoni at LinkedIn Tosin Sekoni at EWN Tosin Sekoni at Lamar University ERDC Corporate Communications Office – Courtney would know.   Art Froehlich at LinkedIn Communities for Life ‘Cloud catchers' aid parched Peruvians

In our last episode,, Applying EWN Strategies at National Parks and Refuges, we featured a robust discussion about the significant impacts of climate change on National Parks and Wildlife Refuges and how Engineering With Nature approaches are being used to protect these precious natural resources and make them more resilient. In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, continue the discussion with Rebecca Beavers, Coastal Geology and Adaptation Coordinator for the National Park Service and Scott Covington, Senior Ecologist for Refuges within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They're talking about the importance of connecting people with nature through the parks and refuges and helping them to better understand climate change.   The 2016 Coastal Adaptation Strategies Handbook, which Rebecca co-edited for the National Park Service, emphasizes the importance of letting people see the challenges facing the parks, along with how nature-based solutions are being deployed. Rebecca describes how the Park Service is adapting to climate change, including how the Service interacts with visitors and other stakeholders: “Some of our parks, for example, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, are incredibly low lying. People have to watch for timing for when they can actually visit. It doesn't have to be a Nor'easter storm pushing a lot of water into the shoreline. Some of our parks, such as Gulf Islands National Seashore, can see flooding due to a large rain event.” As a result, the National Park Service and partners such as Western Carolina University are conducting vulnerability assessments, looking at where trails, parking lots, and campgrounds are located and having to make some difficult choices. “Part of our mission is for visitor use today, and for the enjoyment and use for future generations. So, we're looking at what we can do now, but also planning for the future and looking at where some of those major impacts are coming from, not only coastal change, but also climate change.”   Scott notes that for some people, “the proof is in the pudding”. Comparing an area before and after a project is often the best way to help people understand what is being done to protect refuges. He describes challenges related to a 4,000 acre marsh restoration project at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge on a barrier island: “It took a lot of effort by the Refuge to communicate and convince people that we're not going to compromise the integrity of their town. We're not going to affect your road to get to your beach. That's what happened historically. The road often flooded, and the community was really afraid that the work that we were doing was going to make the problem worse. But by broadening the beach, bringing in more coarse sand and gravel to that area, as the storm surge hits that beach, it loses energy, and it starts dropping the sediment out. Since the project was completed in 2016, flooding the town and the road doesn't happen anymore. We were able to use an EWN approach to fix the problems.”   Scott goes on to describe the “phenomenal wildlife benefits” from this project: “We've never had Piping Plovers, a threatened species, nest there.  Now we have Piping Plovers and Least Terns nesting, and Horseshoe Crabs are using the area. So, not only have we provided the community a benefit, we're actually accomplishing what we set out to do with wildlife.”   Rebecca adds that sometimes the mission on a project can change with stakeholder input. She describes how the initial intent of a project at Canaveral National Seashore in Florida was to protect some archeological resources, while providing some additional natural resource benefits: “As the project has grown over 14 years, we have seen a lot of stakeholder engagement, over 64,000 volunteers. This major lagoon restoration project has improved water quality, reduced the nutrient load, and increased clarity of the water. At Mosquito Lagoon, we're looking at a successful community-based, partner-driven restoration. We've seen 91 oyster reefs restored and over two miles of shoreline stabilized. This has been a phenomenal project.” Rebecca goes on to describe how over 700,000 pounds of oyster shells that would otherwise go to a landfill are being used to help stabilize a section of shoreline: “These are the kinds of projects that appear to be a great win-win, but they also take a tremendous amount of collaboration and partner effort.”   Rebecca and Scott encourage listeners to get involved with their parks and refuges.  Rebecca charged listeners to explore and support their national parks: “These parks are special places set aside for the benefit of all people. They are your parks. They are your refuges. Visit them. Learn about them. Talk about them and where you can, advocate for them. Because as Scott said, funding is a challenge for managing some of these places that are threatened by some of these major climate change impacts.”   Scott asked listeners to think about the natural features in their community and what is important to them personally: “What are the natural features that you're really interested in? Do you enjoy kayaking? Do you enjoy fishing? Go visit your local refuges. Look at what benefits they provide to you and think about that in the context of sea level rise. What other benefits are they providing? However you want to define it, there are more benefits than just the fact that it's pretty to look at, or it provides a place for wildlife. There are multiple benefits that come from protecting and using nature to help us restore systems.”   Jeff wraps up the episode by thanking the National Park Service and the Wildlife Refuge System for being wonderful partners, commenting that the EWN Program is going to be collaborating on more projects to build resilience in parks and refuges: “We'll be looking at some really different strategies and solutions that we'd like to be able to deploy and evaluate their performance. Through these projects which incorporate EWN approaches, we hope to help preserve parks and refuges for future generations.” Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Network of Engineering With Nature EWN Atlas Series   Rebecca Beavers at LinkedIn National Park Service Coastal Adaptation Strategies Handbook Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments Cape Hatteras National Seashore Gulf Islands National Seashore Canaveral National Seashore Margo Schwadron - Southeast Archeological Center Mosquito Lagoon Project at Shuckandshare.org Disney Pays Kudos to UCF Biologist for Efforts to Save Local Lagoon – UCF News Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab (CEELAB) – UCF Adaptation Strategies: Case Studies (Case Study #3: Shell Mound Sites Threatened by Sea Level Rise and Erosion, Canaveral National Seashore, Florida) Gulf Islands National Seashore – Ship Island Gulf Islands National Seashore – Cat Island Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program Joshua Tree National Park Glacier National Park Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Rita   Scott Covington at LinkedIn Climate Adaptation Science Centers Climate Change Page at USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System National Wildlife Refuge System History Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge Prime Hook Marsh Restoration Project Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Hurricane Sandy  

Wouldn't it be nice to impact people's lives through the things you do? Whether it's your job, passion, or just about anything you unknowingly do. Today's guest is an Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, and CEO of Global School of Entrepreneurship, Shelby Scarbrough. She has done all that and more through the work she did throughout her life. You are going to hear more about her Shelby Scarbrough combines an entrepreneurial background with the pride and responsibility of public service to bring new perspectives to each endeavor. Her career began as a political appointee in the Reagan and Bush Administrations, first as Presidential Trip Coordinator in The White House, and as a Protocol Officer at the U.S. Department of State.Ms. Scarbrough worked with such notable figures as His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, Presidents Reagan, Bush, Ford, Carter and Nixon, President Walesa of Poland, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and members of the Royal Family, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela. She planned events and meetings in locations ranging from the Vatican to Buckingham Palace to The Kremlin and The White House. She served as the Deputy Lead for Washington, DC for the State Funeral of President Reagan.She founded Practical Protocol in 1990, an international special events management and business protocol training organization specializing in custom-designed plans which address the unique needs of high-profile clients.Shelby was a Burger King franchisee for nearly 20 years with 10 restaurants in Northern Virginia until she exited in 2013. She is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from UCLA with a BA in English.Reach out to Shelby at:Website: https://www.gse.mba/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/practicalprotocol/Email: shelby@practicalprotocol.comCheck her book at www.joyjourney.life and https://www.amazon.com/Civility-Rules-Creating-Purposeful-Practice/dp/1950863409James 'Jimmie' Mattern - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Mattern Show notes:[4:06] How'd it happen for Shelby?[7:17] What is a Protocol Officer at the US Department of State?[14:33] Going to the State Department[19:41] On working at the family business[25:09] Where she thought she was headed[28:51] Interviewing for the job[33:04] Getting comfortable in the White House[35:42] Leaving government work and becoming an entrepreneur[45:10 How she made the decision to leave[47:49] On whether entrepreneurs are born or made[52:31] Her motivation to start her program[56:26] Who are ideal candidates and how do they find out about the program?[58:58] Civility Rules[1:07:36] Undaunted[1:14:02] OutroCheck the accompanying blog post of this episode at: https://mikemalatesta.com/podcast/shelby-scarbrough-why-i-want-to-touch-every-corner-of-the-world-232/If you like this episode and want to be the first to know when new ones are released? Make sure you subscribe! Also, a review will be much appreciated, so make sure you give us a 5-star (or whatever one makes the most sense to you). Connect with Mike:Website: https://mikemalatesta.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemalatesta/

Wouldn't it be nice to impact people's lives through the things you do? Whether it's your job, passion, or just about anything you unknowingly do. Today's guest is an Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, and CEO of Global School of Entrepreneurship, Shelby Scarbrough. She has done all that and more through the work she did throughout her life. You are going to hear more about her Shelby Scarbrough combines an entrepreneurial background with the pride and responsibility of public service to bring new perspectives to each endeavor. Her career began as a political appointee in the Reagan and Bush Administrations, first as Presidential Trip Coordinator in The White House, and as a Protocol Officer at the U.S. Department of State.Ms. Scarbrough worked with such notable figures as His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, Presidents Reagan, Bush, Ford, Carter and Nixon, President Walesa of Poland, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and members of the Royal Family, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela. She planned events and meetings in locations ranging from the Vatican to Buckingham Palace to The Kremlin and The White House. She served as the Deputy Lead for Washington, DC for the State Funeral of President Reagan.She founded Practical Protocol in 1990, an international special events management and business protocol training organization specializing in custom-designed plans which address the unique needs of high-profile clients.Shelby was a Burger King franchisee for nearly 20 years with 10 restaurants in Northern Virginia until she exited in 2013. She is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from UCLA with a BA in English.Reach out to Shelby at:Website: https://www.gse.mba/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/practicalprotocol/Email: shelby@practicalprotocol.comCheck her book at www.joyjourney.life and https://www.amazon.com/Civility-Rules-Creating-Purposeful-Practice/dp/1950863409James 'Jimmie' Mattern - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Mattern Show notes:[4:06] How'd it happen for Shelby?[7:17] What is a Protocol Officer at the US Department of State?[14:33] Going to the State Department[19:41] On working at the family business[25:09] Where she thought she was headed[28:51] Interviewing for the job[33:04] Getting comfortable in the White House[35:42] Leaving government work and becoming an entrepreneur[45:10 How she made the decision to leave[47:49] On whether entrepreneurs are born or made[52:31] Her motivation to start her program[56:26] Who are ideal candidates and how do they find out about the program?[58:58] Civility Rules[1:07:36] Undaunted[1:14:02] OutroCheck the accompanying blog post of this episode at: https://mikemalatesta.com/podcast/shelby-scarbrough-why-i-want-to-touch-every-corner-of-the-world-232/If you like this episode and want to be the first to know when new ones are released? Make sure you subscribe! Also, a review will be much appreciated, so make sure you give us a 5-star (or whatever one makes the most sense to you). Connect with Mike:Website: https://mikemalatesta.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemalatesta/

Climate change and the imperative to take action now is top of mind following the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The effects of climate change – rising sea levels, changing temperature and precipitation patterns, wildfires  and many other changes impact vulnerable natural resources, including national parks and wildlife refuges. In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are joined by Rebecca Beavers, Coastal Geology and Adaptation Coordinator for the National Park Service and Scott Covington, Senior Ecologist for Refuges within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rebecca and Scott share a strong commitment to protecting our national parks and wildlife refuges by making them more resilient to the changing conditions exacerbated by climate change. Teddy Roosevelt established the National Wildlife Refuge System in 1903 at Pelican Island, Florida, originally a five-and-a-half-acre island dedicated to saving Brown Pelicans from being over-harvested for their feathers. Sea-level rise and erosion have reduced Pelican Island to about two acres. “Thanks to an Engineering With Nature solution put in place about 20 years ago, that trend has been reversed,” Scott says. Pelican Island now stands at about three acres.  Scott describes how climate change is affecting refuge management today: “Refuges are typically established with a specific purpose, like protecting waterfowl, but because of the impact of climate change, we may not have waterfowl there anymore. We really need to be shifting our mindset about how we are managing that specific refuge, looking from a broader context, thinking about things like biodiversity. We want to look at the shorebirds, the wading birds, or whatever species and habitats are in that particular area and plan for species that are probably going to be leaving the area and new species that will probably be coming because of the shifts in climate.” Rebecca sees similar threats in her work with the National Park Service: “Many of these parks are changing in tremendous ways. Drought in the west is often followed by wildfire and following wildfire we're seeing landscape changes from major debris flows–cascades of water and rocks that come down the hillsides. These can affect homes, infrastructure, along with the habitats of the plants and animals which are very much affected.” Rebecca adds that the effects on natural features can be significant, “A freshwater marsh may become brackish where it has some of the saltwater components, or it may become a fully saline marsh–what we call a saltmarsh.” These changing conditions add complexity to the challenge of protecting and preserving the parks, along with the many physical structures of historical significance. “We also have to look at some of the other stressors that we put on the landscape. In some of these places we built dams that are great for hydroelectric power, but it also has an impact of holding up sediment further up the watershed.” Rebecca and Scott share several examples of EWN approaches being used to protect parks and refuges and make them more resilient.  At Fort Pulaski National Monument, on the Savannah River in Georgia, and Fort Massachusetts, on the Gulf of Mexico coast of Mississippi, beneficial use (BU) of sediment reduces coastal erosion and returns beneficial sediment to the system. Thin layer placement (TLP) of dredged sediments builds up sinking wetlands at the Chafee Refuge in Rhode Island, and in turn, protects and preserves wildlife habitat. Scott says, “Sea level rise is starting to eat away at the marsh, and we're having some marsh die off, along with the plants. With TLP, we're taking some dredge materials and actually stacking it on top of the marsh to buy some time. We've added a little bit to the elevation, and that gives vegetation a shot in the arm.” Rebecca adds that TLP was used on the Big Egg Marsh Project in Jamacia Bay, Gateway National Recreation Area, New York in 2003.  The Marsh is currently being resurveyed to provide insight into the effectiveness of the project and natural adaptation.  Collaboration is a key theme throughout this episode.  The leading-edge work at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the adjacent Harriet Tubman Underground Railway Park in Maryland is a great example of NFS, NPS, USACE, and several other non-government organizations working together to protect the marsh and this important historical landmark.  According to Scott, “This is a really good demonstration project to show what you can do when you work together with what nature gives you.” In closing the show, Jeff notes, “I'm truly moved by the energy and the enthusiasm and the wonderful examples that have been shared. Thank you to the Wildlife Refuge System and the National Park Service for being wonderful partners throughout the years. Their work is really accelerating practice and will continue to do so.” In Episode 6, Rebecca, Scott, and Jeff return to talk about working together on adaptive management strategies for the parks and refuges, and what individuals can do to help protect and preserve these priceless resources.   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Network of Engineering With Nature EWN Atlas Series Rebecca Beavers at LinkedIn National Park Service Coastal Adaptation Strategies Handbook Olympic National Park and the Elwha Valley Fort Pulaski National Monument Gulf Islands National Seashore Fort Massachusetts – Gulf Islands National Seashore Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge Gateway National Recreation Area, Jamaica Bay Unit In the Field: Restoring Big Egg Marsh National Park Service Climate Change Response Program National Park Service Coastal Geology Program Scott Covington at LinkedIn Climate Adaptation Science Centers Climate Change Page at USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System National Wildlife Refuge System History Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge John H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Sandy EWN Podcast S3E4: Engineering With Nature for Safe and Livable Cities

Professor Marcantonio Spada is Professor of Addictive Behaviours and Mental Health in the School of Applied Sciences at London South Bank University where he is Deputy Lead of the Centre for Addictive Behaviours Research and Course Director of the MSc Addiction Psychology and Counselling. Professor Spada also serves as both Editor-in-Chief of Addictive Behaviours and Addictive Behaviours Reports, and as Associate Editor of Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy. He has significant expertise in psychological therapies and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).

This episode exemplifies our theme for Season 3 –Creating the Future with EWN. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are talking with three PhD students who are doing truly groundbreaking work: Matt Chambers from the University of Georgia, Joseph Holway from Arizona State University, and Justine McCann from the University of Oklahoma.   These students represent three of the academic institutions associated with the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN) initiated in October of 2020. Education and research are at the heart of the N-EWN. In this episode, we discuss the journeys of Matt, Justine, and Joseph–how they got interested in environmental science, engineering, natural infrastructure, EWN, and their plans for the future. Their paths have similarities: a personal interest in the environment, early exposure to environmental issues, finding an academic advisor whose interests aligned with their own, and then pursuing a PhD focused on a passion. These students are committed to making a difference.   Joseph describes how, as a child, he fell in love with the Grand Canyon and spent a lot of time there, then spent a semester there as an undergraduate that transformed into a years-long job running around the Grand Canyon doing science. “I was like, wow, you're going to pay me to do these things? I wanted to work towards being more than a lab technician. I met my advisor, Dr. John Sabo, who was doing work in the Mekong River Basin; and now I'm in Cambodia working with fish and looking at how the amount of water and the timing of the water affects a fishery in Southeast Asia on the Mekong River.”   With a background in Mechanical Engineering, Matt struggled to find a long-term path that suited him. He took environmental science courses that aligned with his interest in environmental stewardship. These courses eventually led him to Dr. Brian Bledsoe's lab where he is working on riverine systems and flood management infrastructure using nature-based features. Dr. Bledsoe is the Director of the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems at the University of Georgia. As Matt describes his work, “Utilizing nature-based features that already perform natural processes that manage floodwaters will be one way that we can make those systems more resilient in the face of climate change.”   Justine has a background in geology. A strong field program at Penn State introduced her to the complex problem of mine drainage prevalent in the coal country of Appalachia. After doing some consulting, she found her path forward: “When I heard my current advisor, Dr. Bob Nairn, talking about that at the Geological Society of America meeting, I thought his approach to it was very interesting.  because it's such a low-energy approach to solving such a complex problem. I thought it would be a great fit for me to work on these more innovative strategies.”   When talking about the future, the students focused on the key elements of EWN: using science and engineering to produce operational efficiencies to better understand systems and achieve desired outcomes by leveraging natural processes and working collaboratively with local communities. As Justine puts it, “I think that there's a lot to be said about considering how to work with nature instead of imposing our will on nature. That's a lot of what EWN is about.”   Joseph's vision is for future generations to be able to appreciate rivers as he does: “I want to work in a space where I can ensure that rivers are going to flow as wild and as free as possible, but it's kind of balancing all of the services that rivers provide. In places where there's going to be dams, we can manage them in ways that are least to people downstream, whether it's fishing for livelihoods or recreating on boats.” Joseph is also dedicated to sharing his knowledge and passion by mentoring and teaching future scientists through the NexGen Mekong Scientists program. Through this program, Arizona State University and the U.S. Department of State partner to build a network of young scientists in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Joseph says it is a two-way street: “As much as I'm able to provide, I feel like I'm getting more back from the folks that are here. There's a tremendous amount of knowledge that each individual person that I work with in Cambodia has.”   Matt adds that, even as grad students, they can help dispel uncertainties around the application of nature-based solutions through the research projects they are working on. “Then maybe we can get to a place where this is commonplace for engineers, for general engineering practice. I think that would be a big step forward in a transition to a more environmentally sustainable world.” Jeff agrees: “As a graduate student, you may feel sometimes like you're not quite ready or in a position to be able to communicate information about your work and why it's important because you're so relatively new in that career track. But that's just not true. You've got very important messages to share, and you need to be finding those opportunities to get out there and tell people your story.”   November 8 is STEM and STEAM Day, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The purpose is to inspire students. Joseph, Justine, and Matt offered advice to future students, assuring them that there's no one path; take your time; you don't have to have it all figured out right now; and above all, follow your passion. As Joseph says, “I wish I'd have learned in grade school that we know so little. There's so much exploration that's out there to be discovered. Let your curiosities run wild, dream big and most importantly, embrace, celebrate, and lean into your failures.” Justine adds, “Follow what you're actually concerned about, like climate change, and put your energy into working on solutions.”    Matt directed his advice to parents: “Take your kids outside. Go somewhere wild and with some acreage and try to open their mind to ideas in science and environmental stewardship. Do everything you can to set them up for an organic experience of total and complete awe with the natural world.”   Jeff wraps up the episode by sharing his excitement for the future: “We are in good hands with this next generation. I feel so good about the passion, the intensity, and the intellect that students—not only the three that we have here today, but students around the globe—are going to bring to this space and help us overcome all the challenges that we have in front of us today.”   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Network of Engineering With Nature University of Georgia, Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems Brian Bledsoe at UGA University of Oklahoma Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds Robert Nairn (thesis advisor for Justine McCann) John Sebo, Audacious Water (thesis advisor for Joseph Holway) NexGen Mekong Scientists Royal University of Agriculture STEM and STEAM at Wikepedia USACE National STEM Awareness Program STEM/STEAM Day   EWN Podcast S1E10 Collaborating with Academia to Create EWN-Focused Scientists and Engineers EWN Podcast S3E2: Considering and Evaluating the Benefits of Natural Infrastructure

Eamonn Kerins is an astrophysicist based at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. He is one of the UK's leading experts in the discovery of exoplanets - planets that orbit stars other than the Sun. His work involves using telescopes both on the ground and in space, such as NASA's Kepler space telescope. He leads a global team that is using a worldwide network of telescopes to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, and he is also Deputy Lead of the Exoplanet Science Working Group for the upcoming European Space Agency Euclid mission. His interests extend to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, where he has recently proposed a new smart strategy based on Game Theory that could improve our chances of making contact with any intelligent alien life that might be out there.In this episode, Eamonn talks about his work at Jodrell Bank, the study of exoplanets and Astrophysics. He explains the process behind his research, the recent incredible scientific discoveries through highly complex telescopes, and his thought process on intelligent alien life based on astronomical findings. Expect plenty of chat around time travel, micro-spaceships, anti-aging, wormholes, and much more.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8lHD43VKQScSubscribe Now | New Episode Every Wednesday: https://www.cvlture.tv/cvlture-eamonn-kerins-episode-027/Welcome to CVLTURE - The weekly show that brings you inspirational, shocking and sometimes hilarious stories from celebrities, innovators and unique characters from around the globe. Be a part of the journey with rapper/entrepreneur Nik Nagarkar as we pull back the curtain to explore the world as we know it, challenge our thoughts and shine a light on how culture shapes who we are and how we move through life. Created for the CVLTURE by the CVLTURE…Follow CVLTUREhttps://www.cvlture.tv/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cvlture.tv/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CVLTURE.TV Twitter: https://twitter.com/CVLTURETV Follow Nik "Nika D" Nagarkar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsnikad Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/virussyndicate Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Virus_syndicate Follow Eamonn KerinsTwitter: https://twitter.com/Eamonn_Kerinshttps://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/eamonn.kerins.htmlMade in Manchester. Produced by EY3 Media

Kevin Antcliff is the Product Lead of Xwing, a startup whose mission is to dramatically increase human mobility using fully autonomous aerial vehicles Key topics in this conversation include: What Kevin learned in nearly a decade of work on electrified aircraft at NASA The promise of regional air mobility The history of automated flight How Xwing is approaching autonomous aircraft development The role of autonomous flight in enabling sustainable, efficient, and convenient regional flight for cargo and passengers Links Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/kevinantcliff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinantcliff/ Xwing website: xwing.com Xwing LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xwing/ Regional Air Mobility paper: bit.ly/rampaper Kevin's Bio: Kevin Antcliff is the Product Lead of Xwing, a startup whose mission is to dramatically increase human mobility using fully autonomous aerial vehicles. Kevin is passionate about making the joy of flight affordable, sustainable, and accessible for all. Kevin joined Xwing from NASA where he was the Deputy Lead of Emerging Applications and Technologies in the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch. In this role, he led the development of a white paper in collaboration with experts from industry and academia to cast a vision for Regional Air Mobility. He also served as the Co-PI on the High-efficiency Electrified Aircraft Thermal Research, or HEATheR, project and led the design of several electric and hybrid-electric aircraft concepts including the Parallel Electric-Gas Architecture with Synergistic Utilization Scheme (PEGASUS) concept and multiple Urban Air Mobility concepts within the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project. Kevin earned his BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech. About Xwing Xwing is the first company to introduce autonomous technology for regional air cargo. With the goal of meeting growing unmet logistics demand, Xwing's human-operated software stack seamlessly integrates with existing aircraft to enable regional pilotless flight. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Future of Mobility: The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, and equitable mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields. linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/ brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/ Music credit: Slow Burn Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Welcome to a special six-part podcast series, sponsored by Exiger, on the TRADES Framework, a conceptual, strategic and practical guide for Third-Party and Supply Chain Risk Management designed by Exiger to help organizations achieve supply chain resiliency and optimize risk management at any phase of maturity. In this episode, I visit with Theresa Campobasso, Senior Account Manager, National Security and Intelligence and Matt Hayden, Deputy Lead of GovTech Solutions (Former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk, and Resilience) on risk methodology. Highlights Include: R is for Risk Methodology. Look at risk from multiple levels. Determining your Crown Jewels. Look at Macro Risks. Join us in our next episode where we discuss how to assess current risks with Laura Tulchin and Peter Jackson. Resources Exiger TRADES Framework Exiger Website Theresa Campobasso Matt Hayden Texas Tax rate at 80% of 8.25%

Climate change is having a significant effect on Arctic communities. The loss of permafrost and ice sheets, sea level rise, erosion, and many other factors are putting people living in coastal communities and their traditional way of life at risk. In this episode, we’re talking with Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Sam Whitin, Coastal Resilience Director at EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc. PBC; and Enda Murphy, Senior Research Engineer at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). We’re discussing the unique challenges and opportunities involved in identifying and designing resilience strategies to help remote northern communities in Alaska and Canada whose future and way of life is imminently threatened by climate change. And we’re reflecting on how Engineering With Nature approaches could be used to address critical challenges faced by remote northern communities.   The Arctic region is warming at a much higher rate than other parts of the continent. Retreating sea ice, shorter ice season duration, and thawing permafrost are contributing to the destabilization of coastlines. And, as Enda points out, “a lot of these remote northern communities are really reliant on fishing and hunting and the land for subsistence and their livelihoods. That creates an even greater imperative to understand and adapt to the changing climate.” Sam adds that communities in Alaska are also experiencing significant issues related to erosion and flooding, along with impacts to migratory patterns of fish, wildlife and whales: “Given the close connection that these communities have related to subsistence hunting and fishing, climate change is magnified in even more ways than most people typically consider.”   Jeff, Sam, and Enda came together around their common interest of better understanding these impacts and responding to them by applying Engineering With Nature principles and processes. Jeff, through separate conversations with Sam and Enda, “saw a unique opportunity to engage and collaborate and bring more expertise into a region where it's desperately needed.”   One upcoming EWN research project will focus on the whaling community of Point Hope, Alaska, whose traditional way of life is currently being challenged by the accelerating impacts of climate change. Sam talks about the example of ice cellars that have been used in Point Hope for thousands of years to store foodstuffs – fish, wildlife, and whale – throughout the year. The cellars are buried about 20 feet into the permafrost, which is melting due to higher average temperatures. Without those cellars to provide essential refrigeration and fermentation, the community has to harvest extra fish and wildlife throughout the year because there are no roads leading to the city, so outside supplies come in only by plane or once or twice during the summer by barge. This places additional pressure on the fish and wildlife populations and is an example of a problem that could benefit from an EWN approach, drawing on research and expertise from the Army Corps’ Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratory (CRREL).   Similarly, Enda and the NRC have been working in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, an Inuvialuit community very close to sea level on the Beaufort Sea. As Enda relates, “We heard from elders that this particular community has had to relocate three residences just in the past year because of the rapidly eroding coast. So that's a really urgent need.” Enda and his colleagues at the NRC are reimagining what future research in the Arctic might look like and broadening their networks and collaborations, to do research, including with the U.S. Army Corps. A particular area of interest is in understanding the role of sea ice in attenuating or dissipating storm surge. Computer modeling has shown that without sea ice, storm surges may be three times higher, which is a significant problem for communities like Tuktoyaktuk.   A key challenge for researchers is that there is little existing baseline data to establish trends. So, engaging the people of these remote communities and gathering local knowledge is critical. Sam, Enda and their teams are sitting down with elders, hunters, and fishers to understand what they’ve seen and experienced. As Sam adds, “One of the most important things is to make sure that we respond appropriately to what the community truly wants, that we're not coming in and presenting a problem that doesn't need to be fixed or presenting our thoughts on how something should be handled. We are listening to and learning from the community.”   Jeff shares his excitement about the opportunities for incorporating EWN approaches into projects in the far north, paired with the importance of collaborating and sharing information between CRREL and the parallel work being done by Sam and Enda: “Thinking about Engineering With Nature and the natural infrastructure strategies that are appropriate for an environment like this is something very new. I think EWN can make an important contribution – and we will learn a lot in the process.”     Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Enda Murphy at LinkedIn Sam Whitin at LinkedIn   Presentation to an NNBF Symposium by Enda on Flood Risk Reduction  NRC’s Ocean Program - Coastal Resilience NRC’s Arctic Program - Increasing the quality of life for Northerners through research NRC’s Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering Research Centre   EA Engineering, Science, and Technology  YouTube video of Sam describing some of his NNBF/EWN work EA’s coastal resilience priority Presentation to SAME Seattle by Sam on Thin Layer Placement   Coastal Zone Canada Community of Practice: Cold Regions Living Shorelines Coastal Zone Canada Conference in June 2021 Sub Themes and Topics of the Coastal Zone Canada Conference

In our next episode, we’ll be talking with Enda Murphy of the National Research Council of Canada and Sam Whitin of EA Engineering, Science and Technology about Building Resilience in Cold Regions with EWN and Natural and Nature-based Features. They’ll be talking about interesting projects underway and planned in Alaska and Canada.   And Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, invites listeners to participate in the launch of the Engineering With Nature Atlas Volume II on April 7. Click the Atlas II website link to sign up for the launch webcast and panel discussion.   Related Links: EWN Website EWN Atlas Volume II ERDC Website Enda Murphy on LinkedIn Sam Whitin on LinkedIn

Send us a Text Message.Sam Majumdar joins Natalie Watson to discuss training and leadership and the impact, disruption and opportunity COVID-19 has caused and presented over the last seven months. In this episode:2:22 Q1. How do you think COVID has affected training in your area?11:15 Q2. You run a number of courses, how do you feel courses have been affected by COVID and how can we reintroduce courses or develop them to cater for the new rules around COVID?15:34 Q3. With your background in working towards a doctorate in leadership and management can you explore the impact of studying the clinical microsystem and system organisational management in ENT on your work. How has COVID impacted this?21:19 Q4. Due to COVID we have been asked to distance ourselves and remote working is favoured, therefore communication and interaction between colleagues have been limited over the past six months, have you found that? 23:53 Summary and the take-home message Guest BioSam Majumdar is a founding member of the British Laryngology Association and served on the council since 2013. He is a full-time consultant surgeon and honorary senior lecturer at the University of Dundee Medical School and Ninewells Hospital NHS Scotland. He is the lead clinician for Laryngology & voice, swallowing disorders (Transnasal Oesophagoscopy/Endoscopy) and difficult airway service at this centre, which he had developed.He is passionate about teaching and training and is the innovator and co-director of the highly acclaimed Advanced Laryngeal & Pharyngeal laser & endoscopic Surgery course at the Dundee Healthcare Simulation Centre. For course information click here Sam Majumdar is a Fellow of the Scottish Patients Safety Programme delivered by the Health Improvement Scotland. He is also the Deputy Lead for Scotland for Quality Improvement (Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management). Contact InformationVisit www.britishlaryngological.org or download BLA Connect from your app store for further information and details on becoming a BLA member.Email: Contact InformationVisit www.britishlaryngological.org or download BLA Connect from your app store for further information and details on becoming a BLA member.Register for Cutting Edge Laryngology 2024, 2-4 October 2024, at the Royal Society of Medicine London, here. Email: enquiries@britishlaryngological.org for any questions or topic suggestions you may have for future episodes. This show is brought to you by the BLA, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram hosted by Natalie Watson @surgeonsinger produced and directed by Heather Pownall of Heather's Media Hub Ltd. The opinions of our host and guests are their own; The BLA does not endorse any individual viewpoints, given products or companies. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate, review and subscribe with the podcast provider of your choice.