Erika Koontz

Erika is a master's student at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), enrolled in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Science graduate program. She works with advisors Dr. Cindy Palinkas and Dr. Lorie Staver at the Horn Point Laboratory, where she used to work as a technician. She is studying the impacts of different living shoreline and hardened structures on submersed aquatic vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay. She will also conduct research on bay-wide trends in shoreline erosion and seek to understand changes that have occurred over the last century.

A native Marylander, Erika has found a lot to love and learn about the state known as 'America in miniature'. She graduated from Washington College in Chestertown, MD with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. There, she worked on a geographic information systems analysis of agricultural fields to optimize best management practices that reduce nutrient pollution. After spending the last 2.5 years as a technician at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, she is excited to return to UMCES as a graduate student. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, biking, and running to prepare for triathlons.