Erika Koontz

Erika is a Master’s student at the Horn Point Laboratory (HPL) of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) in Cambridge, Maryland. She is mentored by Drs. Cindy Palinkas and Dr. Lorie Staver. Her research focuses on living shoreline design in order to evaluate how different designs affect sedimentation rates and impacts to submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the middle Chesapeake Bay region. She will also utilize geographic information systems (GIS) to evaluate wave energy at living shoreline sites and understand shoreline erosion trends Bay-wide. Her research is generously supported by the Maryland SeaGrant Fellowship Program. Before starting her graduate degree, she worked at HPL as a Faculty Research Assistant (FRA), with Dr. Tom Fisher on agricultural water quality trends. Afterwards, she worked as a technician at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, MD, studying the biogeochemistry of tidal wetlands.