Chester Arnold, NEMO Program Co-Founder, CLEAR Director
Juliana Barrett, Coastal Habitat/Resilience Educator, CT Sea Grant
Kara Bonsack, Graphic Design & Web Development, CLEAR & the Department of Extension
Cary Chadwick, Geospatial Training Program Coordinator
Laura Cisneros, Program Coordinator & Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, NRCA
Michael Dietz, CT NEMO Program Co-Director
Dave Dickson, NEMO Program Co-Director & Mobile Mapping Educator, CLEAR & the Department of Extension
James Hurd, Research Associate, LERIS
Bruce Hyde, Land Use Academy Director
Amanda Ryan, Municipal Stormwater Educator, NEMO
John Volin, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Office of the Provost & Professor of Natural Resources, Department of Natural Resources & the Environment
Emily Wilson, Geospatial Educator
Tom Worthley, Forestry Program, Forest Sustainability
Dan Civco, CLEAR Co-Director, Professor of Geomatics
Joel Stocker, Assistant Educator, UConn Cooperative Extension
Mark Boyer, Geography Department
Laura Brown, Department of Extension
Todd Campbell, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Maria Chrysochoou, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Sylvain DeGuise, Connecticut Sea Grant College Program
Tessa Getchis, Department of Extension and Connecticut Sea Grant
Miriah Kelly, Department of Extension
Mike O'Neill, UConn Extension
David Moss, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Bob Ricard, Department of Extension
Gary Robbins, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment
Core Faculty & Staff are folks who spend most or all of their time on CLEAR projects, and/or are in charge of major CLEAR projects.
NEMO Program Co-Founder, CLEAR Director
chester.arnold@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5230
Chet Arnold is an Extension Educator and CLEAR Director. Chet has been with the University since 1987, and has worked on the Long Island Sound Study Public Outreach Program, the NEMO Program, the National NEMO Network, and CLEAR – all of which he helped to create. He has authored several national award-winning papers and has been Principal Investigator or Co-PI on over $20M of external grants. As Director, Chet focuses on the integration and dissemination of CLEAR land use research, geospatial tools and training, and outreach programs to best serve CLEAR’s municipal and other audiences. His specialty is harnessing the talent of his younger and more intelligent colleagues and taking credit for their work.
Coastal Habitat/Resilience Educator, CT Sea Grant
juliana.barrett@uconn.edu
(860) 405-9106
Juliana Barrett became a member of the CLEAR team in 2006. She is an Educator with Connecticut Sea Grant College Program at the Avery Point campus and the CT NEMO Program. As an ecologist, her focus is the coastal habitats of Connecticut as well as on resilience and adaptation of communities. She works with the towns and groups on the conservation, restoration and enhancement of natural areas. Juliana is developing programs to assist coastal and inland community leaders with technical matters related to the impact of land use on habitats, riparian buffers, habitat management and restoration of coastal habitats, as well as on resilience of communities to our changing climate and associated impacts.
Graphic Design & Web Development for CLEAR & the Department of Extension
kara.bonsack@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5227
Kara Bonsack joined the Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) team in 2002 as the National NEMO Network Communicator. Since then, she has become the primary designer for CLEAR and the Department of Extension. Her responsibilities include the design, development and maintenance of websites and publications and assists programs with conferences and training sessions. Her reputation for professional-looking design and attention to detail within printed/online materials and websites has her in demand with other departments and Centers within the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR). She's worked with the Connecticut Institute of Water Resources, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and Sea Grant. More recently, she has Developed and/or designed (and helps maintain) the following websites: CLEAR, Connecticut Institute of Water Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Academy, Adapt CT, NEMO MS4 and Stormwise. Her skills have also been noticed outside of CAHNR; she was brought on as the web designer for the Eversource Energy Center website, and she designed and developed the Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) website, and continues to help them with graphic design needs and website expansion.
Kara is also an avid photographer and has taken many of the photographs used in print materials and websites she creates.
Kara received the 2013 The Arland R. Meade Communications Award, in recognition of helping improve communications within the Cooperative Extension System. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut with a bachelor of Fine Arts, specializing in graphic design.
Geospatial Training Program Coordinator
cary.chadwick@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5216
Cary Chadwick joined the University of Connecticut’s Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) team in 2006 as a member of the Geospatial Training Program. As a geospatial educator, her role is to contribute to the hands-on technical training classes offered by the program on the use of geographic information systems and global positioning systems. Cary is also actively involved in a number of collaborative research projects that integrate geospatial technologies to better manage and understand natural resource systems.
Cary is a graduate of Gettysburg College with a B.S. in Environmental Studies. She also holds a M.S. in Environmental Science from the University of New Haven.
NRCA Program Coordinator & Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Natural Resources and the Environment
laura.cisneros@uconn.edu
(860) 486-4917
Laura Cisneros is a Program Coordinator of UConn's Natural Resources Conservation Academy (NRCA), and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at UConn. She received her B.S. in Zoology at Michigan State University and her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UConn. Laura's Ph.D. research explored the effects of human-modified landscapes on bat communities, and identified landscape characteristics that promote biodiversity and vital services provided by bats (e.g. pollination, seed dispersal). Currently, Laura's efforts are focused on integrating research with community outreach as a coordinator of the Natural Resources Conservation Academy. To date, she has collaborated with land trusts, conservation organizations, and government agencies to mentor/advise over 80 intergenerational conservation projects statewide.
NEMO Program Co-Director & Mobile Mapping Educator for CLEAR & the Department of Extension
david.dickson@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5228
Dave Dickson is a faculty member of the UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) and an Associate Extension Educator in the Department of Extension in the College of Ag, Health and Natural Resources. As the Co-Director of the NEMO program at CLEAR, he works primary on municipal stormwater management and low impact development issues, but also provides outreach and training focused on mobile mapping technologies as a member of CLEAR’s Geospatial Training Program. He is the co-creator of the Rain Garden smartphone app and National LID Atlas. When pressed, or convenient, he will admit to being a lawyer by training, although not by practice or inclination.
NEMO Program Co-Director
michael.dietz@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5225
Mike is a water resources educator, with primary responsibilities for running the CT NEMO Program. Mike’s position is jointly held between the Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) and the Connecticut Sea Grant College Program at the Avery Point campus. In addition to assuming the leadership of the NEMO Program, Mike will contribute to Sea Grant’s sustainable coastal community development program.
He received both his Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, focusing on stormwater and low impact development (LID) techniques. Upon his graduation, he worked with the Connecticut NEMO program from 2005 to 2007 on projects related to LID. He left Connecticut in 2007 to take a position at Utah State University as an assistant professor and extension specialist in sustainable living, where he continued to work on stormwater monitoring and LID, in addition to green building, energy conservation, and water harvesting. He was director of Utah House, a demonstration house for green building techniques.
Research Associate, LERIS
james.hurd_jr@uconn.edu
(860) 486-4610
James Hurd is a Remote Sensing Specialist for the University of Connecticut Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE), and serves as the Director of NRE's Laboratory for Earth Resources Information Systems (LERIS). Established in 1982, LERIS is the principal center at UConn for conducting remote sensing and GIS research oriented toward natural resources, ecology, and the environment.
James received both his BS and MS degrees in natural resources from the University of Connecticut with a focus on remote sensing and geospatial technology. Research interests focus on the use of remote sensing and geospatial technology for the detection of land cover, land cover change and landscape characterization.
Land Use Academy Director
bruce.hyde@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5229
Bruce Hyde is a Land Use Educator for the University of Connecticut’s Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR). He is primarily responsible for coordinating the Land Use Academy, which provides basic training for local land use commissioners. In addition, he provides technical assistance to communities in a variety of areas including reviewing land use regulations, affordable housing education and community outreach.
Bruce is an AICP certified planner who has worked in the planning field for over 30 years. He has served in a wide variety of positions including city planner, regional planner, private sector consultant and local planning commissioner. He has a B.S. in Economics from Lehigh University and a M.S. in Natural Resource Planning from the University of Vermont.
Municipal Stormwater Educator, NEMO
amanda.ryan@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5231
Amanda Ryan is a Municipal Stormwater Educator primarily responsible for statewide outreach and education to communities and institutions regulated by the state Municipal Separate Stormwater Sewer Systems (MS4) general permit.
Amanda has experience in regional planning, municipal conservation, and served two tours as an active duty Coast Guard officer. Amanda is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a B.S. in Marine and Environmental Sciences. She received a Masters of Environmental Science and Management from the University of Rhode Island.
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Office of the Provost & Professor of Natural Resources, Department of Natural Resources & the Environment
john.volin@uconn.edu
(860) 486-0137
John Volin is the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Connecticut. John received his Ph.D. in forestry, specializing in physiological ecology, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also did a postdoctoral fellowship. Before joining UConn, he was Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences as well as Director of the Environmental Sciences Program at Florida Atlantic University. John has conducted research in ecosystems around the world, focusing on invasive species and restoration ecology. He has been awarded more than $23M in extramural funding for both research and foundational activities. Previously at UConn, John served as Head of the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Director of the interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences Program, and the Associate Director of the Eversource Energy Center. John also founded and directed the Natural Resources Conservation Academy, a new program in conservation and land use planning targeted at high school students, which is designed to help educate the next generation of environmental leaders.
Geospatial Educator
emily.wilson@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5226
Emily Wilson is a Geospatial Educator at CLEAR. Since joining UConn in 2000, her role has been to provide GIS and remote sensing information and support to CLEAR programs including the NEMO Program, the Geospatial Training Program and other related research and outreach efforts. Emily does a significant amount of work on the CT ECO and CLEAR websites with the goal of providing easy access to geospatial information and maps.
Emily is a graduate of Connecticut College with a BA in environmental science and botany. She received her M.S. in forestry and remote sensing from the University of Maine.
Forestry Program, Forest Sustainability
thomas.Worthley@uconn.edu
(860) 345-5232
Tom Worthley is Assistant Extension Professor at the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension Service and the University of Connecticut Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. He has written a number of scholarly articles and also teaches courses in Forest Ecology and Management and Dendrology. He has worked extensively on tracts in the UConn Forest and beyond in both outreach and educational activities.
The bad news is that we’ve lost some good people to retirement. The good news is that we’ve managed to stay around long enough to lose some good people to retirement.
CLEAR Co-Director, Professor of Geomatics
Dan Civco is a Professor Emeritus of Geomatics in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Connecticut. Dan He has more than 35 years experience as an earth resources scientist and educator specializing in remote sensing and GIS applications. He has been involved extensively in research addressing both inland and coastal wetland resources, land use mapping and change analysis, impervious surface detection, and natural resources inventory and analysis. Further, he has been involved in algorithm development and refinement for processing remote sensing and other geospatial data. Dan was the Director for Research of CLEAR from its inception in 2002 until his retirement in 2016, and he is the founder of the Laboratory for Earth Resources Information Systems (LERIS). Dan cannot be replaced, but part of his legacy is a small cadre of remote sensing experts at UConn that continue to do innovative work in the Civco tradition.
Assistant Educator, UConn Cooperative Extension
Joel started with the NEMO program, CLEAR’s predecessor, as a graduate assistant within the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. After graduating with a Masters in Natural Resources Management and Engineering in 1994 he continued full time with NEMO through the Cooperative Extension System. For the last 10 years of his career he spent most of his time working with the Extension Forestry team and the CLEAR Land Use and Climate Resilience Team. Over the years, Joel’s wide-ranging expertise in remote sensing, GIS, general computer IT and drone technology was critical to a long list of CLEAR projects. Joel has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University. Prior to joining the University Joel worked as an Engineer in the US Air Force, separating, honorably, as a Captain. His separation from CLEAR was no less honorable, although we are jealous that he gets to hike the beaches and woods and fly his drones all day.
Affiliated Faculty work closely with CLEAR Core Faculty on collaborative projects, but have lives of their own.
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Mark Boyer, Geography Department Mark, a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and political scientist who specializes in globalization, works with a number of CLEAR faculty on climate resilience projects like the Climate Corps, on which he is a Co-PI. Mark’s faculty page. |
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Laura Brown, Department of Extension Laura is a Community & Economic Development Educator who works statewide on asset based community, regional and economic development in urban communities. Part of her portfolio is leading a new multi-departmental effort focused on Connecticut’s multi-use trails, in which CLEAR participates. Laura’s faculty page. |
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Todd Campbell, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Todd is a Professor of Science Education in the Neag School of Education. His research focuses on cultivating imaginative and equitable representations of STEM activity, in both formal and informal science learning environments. Todd works with CLEAR faculty (and others) on several large NSF-funded projects, providing the education research firepower behind our natural resource/STEM outreach and instructional efforts. Todd’s faculty page. |
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Maria Chrysochoou, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Maria is Professor and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the UConn School of Engineering. Her research expertise includes environmental geochemistry, contaminated site and brownfield remediation, beneficial use of industrial by products and recycled materials, and clay mineralogy. In addition, she is the Director of the Connecticut Brownfields Initiative. As the chief instructor of the Brownfields Corps class, Maria is a big part of the new Environment Corps project. Maria’s faculty page. |
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Sylvain DeGuise, Connecticut Sea Grant College Program
Sylvain is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science, but more important for CLEAR purposes, he is the Director of Connecticut Sea Grant. Sea Grant and CLEAR have been strong partners for many years and several CLEAR core faculty are also associated with Sea Grant (or visa-versa). Sylvain is a member of the CLEAR/Sea Grant climate resilience team. Sylvain’s faculty page. |
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Tessa Getchis, Department of Extension and Connecticut Sea Grant Tessa is a Senior Extension Educator and aquaculture specialist with Connecticut Sea Grant and the UConn Extension Program. Her focus is on shellfish husbandry, shellfisheries management and the aquaculture permitting process. CLEAR’s geospatial faculty work with Tessa on the Connecticut Aquaculture Mapping Atlas, an online tool to enhance access to information for fishers, the shellfish industry, and the regulatory community. Tessa’s faculty page. |
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Miriah Kelly, Department of Extension Miriah is an Evaluation Specialist in the UConn Extension System. She is a mixed methods researcher and an expert in communication and collaboration, working on the evaluation components of numerous projects throughout the Extension network and beyond. Miriah works with CLEAR faculty on several projects, including a STEM Teacher Training project funded by USDA. Miriah’s faculty page. |
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Mike O’Neill, UConn Extension
Mike is Associate Dean of CAHNR and Associate Director of the UConn Cooperative Extension System. Mike is an agricultural water expert and works with a number of CLEAR staff on several large USDA-funded projects for which he serves as the Principal Investigator. Mike’s faculty page. |
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David Moss, Department of Curriculum and Instruction David is Associate Professor and Director of Global Education in the Neag School of Education, specializing in curriculum studies and internationalizing U.S. teacher education. His current research interests are in the areas of global/international education, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and curriculum reform. David works with CLEAR faculty (and others) on several large NSF-funded projects, conducting research on natural resource/STEM outreach and instructional efforts. David’s faculty page. |
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Bob Ricard, Department of Extension Bob is a Senior Extension Educator with the Department of Extension and teaches in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. As part of CLEAR, Bob conducts the Tree Warden School and assists the Tree Wardens’ Association of Connecticut, Inc., which he formed in 1992. Bob’s faculty page. |
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Gary Robbins, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment Gary is a Professor of Geology and hydrogeologist who studies and teaches primarily about groundwater. Gary works with members of the CLEAR Water Team on research related to the Low Impact Development practices on the UConn campus and elsewhere. Gary’s faculty page. |
