Geographically explicit, data-rich Chesapeake Bay report cards have been developed annually by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science for 16 years. But over the past several years, the report card expanded to include the Chesapeake watershed and the suite of indicators has expanded to include economic indicators, social indicators and an environmental justice index. This expansion of the report card scope has provided important new insights into the system level processes that lead to conditions in Chesapeake Bay. Further development of the report card is being guided by a series of stakeholder listening sessions in a variety of watershed locations. Read the 2022 Report Card here.

Moderator:

• Denice Wardrop, Executive Director, Chesapeake Research Consortium

Speakers:

• Bill Dennison, Professor of Marine Science and Vice President for Science Application at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES)
  Dr. Bill Dennison has been studying Chesapeake Bay for 21 years, specializing in submerged aquatic vegetation. As part of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Bill founded the Integration and Application Network (IAN). This group of science communicators and science integrators has developed science communication products, engaged a diversity of stakeholders and developed socio-environmental report cards locally, nationally and globally.
• Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen, Science Integrator at the Integration and Application Network (IAN)
  Dr. Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen is a Science Integrator with the Integration and Application Network and an associate faculty of the Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science Graduate Program of UMCES. Vanessa specializes in complex socio-environmental systems and stakeholder engagement. She has been leading the effort in expanding the saliency of the Chesapeake Watershed report card through the addition of socially relevant indicators and incorporation of community perspectives.