Shawn White — Lake Champlain Sea Grant’s new Watershed Forestry Partnership Coordinator

Lake Champlain Sea Grant is pleased to welcome our new Watershed Forestry Partnership Coordinator, Shawn White. In this role, Shawn will oversee the Watershed Forestry Partnership, a basin-wide group of organizations involved in riparian forest restoration.

“We are excited to have Shawn join our team to extend the important work of the Watershed Forestry Partnership,” said Kris Stepenuck, Extension Program Leader and Associate Director of Lake Champlain Sea Grant.

Before this, Shawn was the project manager for the Friends of the Winooski River for eleven years where she managed restoration projects, strengthened relationships with non-profit, government, and academic partners, and organized public events, educational materials, and workshops to promote healthy streams, habitats, and communities.   She has held multiple positions in higher education at Norwich University, the Community College of Vermont, and Green Mountain College, and has been an active educator, teaching biology, natural history, and environmental and river science to diverse audiences from kindergarteners to graduate students and community organizations.

Shawn received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas in Molecular Biology and her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in Botany, focusing on the evolution of flowering plants. She has since pivoted from academic lab work to fieldwork and looks forward to integrating both of these passions into her work with Sea Grant.

In her spare time, Shawn enjoys exploring the woods, paddling her new kayak, turning her backyard into a mini nature preserve, playing the violin, and spending time with her family.

“I love trees and forests, and working with Lake Champlain Sea Grant promoting riparian forest restoration is my dream job!” said Shawn. “Not only do I get to help figure out to make riparian projects more successful, I also get to work with all the great people in the restoration community.”

Her decade of experience partnering with Lake Champlain watershed practitioners including Lake Champlain Sea Grant will inform her work going forward. If you want to learn more about what Shawn is working on or in the Watershed Forestry Partnership, Shawn.Whitet [at] uvm.edu (email Shawn) or learn more on our website.