Prior to her coming ashore at Sea Grant, Krista Stegemann volunteered at Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville, Australia. Reef HQ is the world's largest living coral reef aquarium and the Australian Government's national education center for the Great Barrier Reef, pictured in background. Credit: Krista Stegemann; (background) Linda Lees/DeviantArt.

Contacts

Krista Stegemann, Ocean & Marine Outreach Coordinator, NYSG, E: ks2336@cornell.edu P: (631) 632-8730
 
New York, NY, August 22, 2018 – Krista Stegemann joined New York Sea Grant (NYSG) at the beginning of July as the Ocean & Marine Outreach Coordinator. Stegemann will work to support the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to implement the New York Ocean Action Plan (OAP) through outreach, education, and stakeholder engagement.

The OAP is a 10 year, sixty-one point action plan focused on improving the health of our ocean ecosystems and their capacity to provide sustainable benefits to New Yorkers.

"We needed someone to help us translate this complicated ecosystem based management plan to the public," said Karen Chytalo, Assistant Director of NYSDEC's Division of Marine Resources. "As always, Sea Grant came through and hired Krista, who is quickly becoming an excellent contributing member of the ocean team."

Located at NYSG's Stony Brook University office, Stegemann comes to this new position from the NOAA Marine Debris Program in Silver Spring, Maryland. In her role as Communications and Education Specialist there, Stegemann assisted the program in their mission to educate students, teachers, and communities to bring the issue of marine debris to the forefront.

Stegemann — who earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of New Hampshire and a Master of Science from James Cook University in Australia in Marine Biology — also has experience as the founding fifth-grade science teacher at an inner-city charter school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

“We are fortunate to have Krista joining our team to address the myriad of ocean issues of importance to those living in the marine district. Her experience working on marine debris, knowledge of NOAA, and her time in the classroom make her an excellent resource for our coastal communities,” said Katherine Bunting-Howarth, NYSG’s Interim Director.

More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 33 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly. Our program also produces an occasional e-newsletter,"NOAA Sea Grant's Social Media Review," via its blog, www.nyseagrant.org/blog.