(Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Chesapeake Bay Expertise Database
CBED allows scientists, managers, research funders, and other interested parties to identify experts at CRC member institutions and other CBP partner institutions through searches by scientific discipline, management area, research interests, or institution. Please choose your search category (Expertise, First Name, Last Name, etc) from the drop-down list, enter your keyword in the text box, and the click search.
To become part of the CBED, simply register your own expertise data here. The application process is form driven and usually takes under 5 minutes. Your application will be processed within 2 weeks.
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Dr. Camellia Okpodu
Institution : Norfolk State University |
Department : Biological Sciences, DIA designated Center of Academic Excellence |
Position : Professor |
Expertise : Climate/Weather Impact Analysis (biochemistry and living resources), Environmental Education, Toxicology, Trace Metals, Water Quality, Environmental Education
Chesapeake Management Areas : Water Quality, Toxic Contaminants, Stewardship, Climate Resiliency |
Research interests : Dr. Camellia Moses Okpodu, Professor and former Chair of Biology at Norfolk State University (NSU), is the director of both the NSU Defense Intelligence Agency's designated Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence (DIA designated IC-CAE) and the Group for Microgravity and Environmental Biology (GMEB). She has a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and a minor in Biochemistry from North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC). Before joining NSU, Dr. Okpodu was the Marshall Rauch Distinguished Professor of Biology at Elizabeth City State University (Elizabeth City, North Carolina). She has more than 18 years of experience as an administrator and over 23 years of experience as both a program director and a research scientist. She has served as a project director on a number of research initiatives involving both high school and undergraduate students.
Her career has included the directorship of many different types of STEM education projects funded by NASA, NIH, NRO and NSF. Dr. Okpodu has served as an educational consultant to governmental agencies, private foundations, public school divisions, and institutions of higher learning. Dr. Okpodu is a "STEMotivator and Edu-tainer." She enjoys sharing with others her passion, purpose, persist model for resilience. She is a member of the Sigma Xi, Beta Kappa Chi Scientific Honor Society, the American Society of Plant Biology and the Ecological Society of America.
She has worked on interdisciplinary projects with the government and with the private sector. She is currently working on projects with Virginia Tech on understanding how plants respond to climate change and Old Dominion University via the University of North Carolina’s Coastal Resilience project, which aims to have an understanding how minority communities respond to the environment.
Dr. Okpodu is a member Sigma Xi, Beta Kappa Chi National Scientific Honor Society, and the American Society of Plant Biology. Her academic and professional awards include the Gordon Research Conference Travel Award, the Intelligence Community Faculty Scholar Award, and both the Award of Recognition and the Special Recognition of Merit Award from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. In 2013, her biography was included in the National Library of Congress as a Science History Maker.
Although she enjoys the professional accolades, her proudest accomplishment is that as a single mother. She raised three college educated women - two who have followed her into STEM (Dr. Samelia Okpodu Pyuzza and Ms. Elizabeth Okpodu) and one who shares her love of the Arts (Ms. Koren-Grace Okpodu). Dr. Okpodu feels that her daughters are a prime example of her strategy in offering an integrated approach to learning.
Dr. Robert Orth
Institution : Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) |
Department : Biological Sciences |
Expertise : Crabs, Ecology, Land Use, Marine Life, Seagrass, Water Quality
Chesapeake Management Areas : Vital Habitats, Water Quality, Healthy Watersheds, Stewardship, Climate Resiliency |
Research interests : habitat restoration and conservation and understanding the principles and processes governing the persistence, alterations, and dynamics of submersed aquatic vegetation communities
Dr. Cindy Palinkas
Institution : University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) |
Department : Horn Point Laboratory (HPL) |
Expertise : Coastal/Estuarine Hydrodynamics, Coastal/Estuarine Sampling and Monitoring, Oceanography, Sea Level Rise, Sediment, Marshes, human impact on sediments
Chesapeake Management Areas : Vital Habitats, Water Quality, Climate Resiliency |
Research interests : Sediment transport and deposition in intertidal, fluvial, and estuarine environments; sediment-vegetation feedbacks; tidal marsh response to human and environmental changes; physical impacts of shoreline stabilization structures
Dr. Michael Paolisso
Institution : University of Maryland |
Department : Anthropology |
Expertise : Algae Blooms, Climate/Weather Impact Analysis (flooding), Crabs, Fisheries, Local Community Organization, Oysters, Sea Level Rise, Social Sciences, socio-ecological resilience, cultural environmental research; climate change governance
Chesapeake Management Areas : Sustainable Fisheries, Healthy Watersheds, Land Conservation, Environmental Literacy, Stewardship, Climate Resiliency |
Research interests : Cultural and socio-economic analysis of climate change impacts for coastal communities and developing multi-level networks to reduce socio-ecological vulnerability to climate/environmental change.
Dr. John Parker
Institution : Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) |
Expertise : Ecology, Forests, Invasive Species, Regional Restoration Project Design/Management
Chesapeake Management Areas : Vital Habitats, Healthy Watersheds |
Research interests : Forest ecology and ecosystem function, including in the riparian zone. Wetlands and mangroves. Biological invasions and herbivory. Climate change impacts on species' distributions and interactions.
Dr. Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman
Institution : University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) |
Department : Environmental Science |
Expertise : Biogeochemistry, Ecology, Forests, Land Use, Nutrient Cycling, Water Quality, Green infrastructure, built environment, urban BMPs
Chesapeake Management Areas : Water Quality, Healthy Watersheds, Climate Resiliency |
Research interests : water balance of urban trees and urban forests; ecological function of green infrastructure designs; climate resilience of watershed-scale BMPs; biogeochemical cycling and nutrient retention of urban forests, urban trees, and green infrastructure; soil ecology of green infrastructure
Dr. James Pease
Institution : Virginia Tech (VT) |
Department : Agricultural and Applied Economics |
Expertise : Agricultural BMPs, Agricultural Runoff, Alternative Energy, Environmental Economics, Land Use, Nutrient Cycling, Nutrient Pollution, Social Sciences, Socioeconomic Modeling, Water Quality
Chesapeake Management Areas : Water Quality, Land Conservation |
Research interests : Transfer of poultry litter
Dr. Scott Phillips
Institution : US Geological Survey (USGS) |
Department : Ecosystem Restoration |
Expertise : Coastal/Estuarine Sampling and Monitoring, Communications, Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Stream Health, Water Quality
Chesapeake Management Areas : Sustainable Fisheries, Vital Habitats, Water Quality, Toxic Contaminants, Healthy Watersheds, Land Conservation, Climate Resiliency |
Research interests : Syntheses and communication of technical information. Leading integrated science efforts.
Dr. Andrew Pinsonneault
Institution : Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) |
Department : Biogeochemistry/Photobiology |
Position : Postdoctoral Ecologist |
Expertise : Biogeochemistry, Coastal/Estuarine Sampling and Monitoring, Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Nutrient Cycling, Water Quality
Chesapeake Management Areas : Water Quality, Climate Resiliency |
Research interests : The production, transformation, and export of wetland dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen.
Dr. Allen Richard Place
Institution : University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) |
Department : Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology |
Position : Professor |
Expertise : Algae Blooms, Alternative Energy, Crabs, Genomics/Genetics, Nutrient Pollution, Toxicology, Water Quality
Chesapeake Management Areas : Sustainable Fisheries, Water Quality, Toxic Contaminants, Climate Resiliency |
Research interests : Development of fishmeal free diets for aquaculture; monitoring and detection of algal toxin in the Chesapeake Bay; environmental genomics