Restore the Mississipi River Delta

Meet Sean Crowley

Sean Crowley, Marketing-Communications Director at EDF

Sean Crowley is a five-time PR award-winner who serves as Marketing-Communications Director for Environmental Defense Fund's national Land, Water & Wildlife Program and EDF’s California offices.  His responsibilities include leading EDF’s PR campaign to restore the Mississippi River Delta.  Sean generated more than 400 news stories about last summer’s BP oil disaster quoting EDF spokespersons.  In 2008, his PR expertise helped EDF's farm bill campaign achieve a $4 billion hike in conservation funding over the prior farm bill.

Prior to coming to EDF, Sean was Senior Vice President for Media Relations for five years at M+R Strategic Services, where he served as a PR consultant for numerous corporate, labor and nonprofit clients.  They included a successful coalition campaign–led by EDF–to stop the routine use of antibiotics in animal agriculture because it causes antibiotic resistance in human medicine.

"I joined EDF because I knew first-hand about the staff’s extraordinary talent and that EDF has a decades-long track record of achieving extraordinary results,” says Sean.  “EDF succeeds because it doesn't make ‘the perfect the enemy of the good.’  It fits with my political philosophy: I'm a bleeding heart pragmatist! "

Sean served as press secretary on the Gore presidential campaign and a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee Radio Speakers' Bureau on the Medicare prescription drug issue.  He also was communications director for the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (SD), and press secretary for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and U.S. Representative Sander Levin (MI).  Finally Sean has been a producer/writer for network TV shows and reporter for local TV news stations, including Fox’s "America's Most Wanted" and CNN Business News.  Sean has a B.A. in English from Georgetown University.

Meet Stephanie Powell

Stephanie is the field director for the joint Mississippi River Delta restoration campaign.  She is responsible for running the field operations of the campaign, including writing and implementing a national field plan, contributing strategic and political analysis and working with staff to build grassroots support for restoration efforts.

Before joining the campaign, Stephanie was the executive director of the Southern Energy Network, a regional organization dedicated to working with youth to combat climate change, advance renewable energy and promote a smart, just energy economy.  Previously, she worked for the Gulf Restoration Network, where she organized community members to help protect wetlands, stop water pollution, and minimize the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.

“Growing up in north Florida, my family spent a lot of time outdoors,” says Stephanie.  “Whether fishing with my uncles along black bottom creeks, boating on the coast, or sitting on cypress knees, water and wetlands were a huge part of my culture and my childhood.”

When asked what she loves most about her role, Stephanie replied “David Muth’s crawfish boil!  Or talking about hunting with Andy McDaniels.  But in all seriousness, culture and connection to place are really important to me.  It feels great to wake up every morning and know that I’m part of a team that is not only amazingly talented, but personally connected and passionately dedicated to protecting and restoring one of our country’s most important natural areas.”

Stephanie is a graduate of the Green Corps’ Field School of Environmental Organizing and has participated in the Rockwood Leadership program.  She holds B.A.s in Political Science and Anthropology from the University of Georgia.  Stephanie also serves on the Dogwood Alliance Board of Directors and the Energy Action Coalition Steering Committee.

Meet Derek Brockbank

Derek Brockbank, Coastal Louisiana Restoration Campaign Director

Derek is the campaign director for National Wildlife Federation (NWF), National Audubon Society and Environmental Defense Fund's joint Coastal Louisiana Restoration project.  He is responsible for the federal, state, grassroots and media components of this campaign, working with and directing staff of three national organizations and other local partners to secure and fund a comprehensive restoration plan for coastal Louisiana.

Prior to his current role, Derek was the climate safeguards manager at NWF, running their campaign to protect natural resources and wildlife through global warming legislation.  Previously, he was the grassroots outreach manager as well as part-time field director for the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund.  Derek has also acted as national director of the Sierra Student Coalition and was a member of the Green Corps class of 2004.  He is a graduate of the University of Chicago.

"What fascinates me most about the Coastal Louisiana project – and why I was excited to take this job – is that the Mississippi River Delta is ground zero for solutions to sea level rise," says Derek.  "As the seas rise, the land building restoration that is being pioneered in coastal Louisiana will be modified and used for restoring and strengthening the resilience of wetlands and delta around the country and around the world."

"My favorite part of the job is developing a national communications and outreach effort to support an integrated scientific and policy campaign.  The challenges of Louisiana will not be solved by Louisiana alone.  Figuring out how we can get people around the United States to see the importance of the Mississippi River Delta – and support comprehensive restoration efforts – is what I enjoy the most."

Meet Ahmet Binselam

S. Ahmet Binselam is a geographic information systems (GIS) analyst in the National Audubon Society’s Baton Rouge office. He is Audubon’s lead environmental modeler and has analyzed shoreline change and marsh loss across the coast to inform restoration and conservation efforts, and he has led Audubon’s hydro-ecological modeling efforts for the Atchafalaya Basin.

He has participated mapping and modeling efforts in Louisiana since 1996, and his projects have included the official Louisiana state map, drought and rainfall mapping, storm surge modeling with the LSU Hurricane Center from 2002-08, and the map of Louisiana shoreline change from 1937-2000, which in 2008 won the Best Thematic Map award from the Cartography and Geographic Information Society and American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.

Ahmet holds master’s degrees in geography and systems science from Louisiana State University (LSU) and a bachelor’s degree in computer systems from Gazi University in his native Turkey. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree with focus on GIS and remote sensing at LSU and will graduate in August of this year.

Meet David Muth

David Muth, National Wildlife Federation

David Muth joined the National Wildlife Federation at the beginning of 2011 after working for the National Park Service at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve since 1980.  At Jean Lafitte, he managed the park’s natural and cultural resources, including the Barataria Preserve, a wetland in the upper basin on the outskirts of New Orleans that Congress set aside as a representative example of the delta ecosystem.

A native of New Orleans, David has had a lifelong love of the delta, including its landscapes, history, culture, and wildlife.  He is an avid birder and has served as past President of the Louisiana Ornithological Society, an officer of Orleans Audubon Society, an advisor to Woodlands Trail and Park, and a regional editor covering Louisiana for North American Birds, a journal covering bird sightings and distribution.

At Jean Lafitte, David worked on boundary expansion, canal backfilling, exotic species control, shoreline protection, and beneficial use of dredged material to restore and enhance wetlands.  In his new position at NWF, David looks forward to working with citizens, businesses, non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, scientists and government staff at every level to help bring about lasting and meaningful restoration of the delta ecosystem.

Meet Amy Smith Kyle

Amy Smith Kyle, Coastal Conservation Project Manager, The Nature Conservancy

Amy is a coastal conservation project manager at The Nature Conservancy, where she helps manage the Conservancy's oyster restoration projects in coastal Louisiana.  Amy has more than 20 years of experience working with conservation non-governmental organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, Belize Audubon Society and World Wildlife Fund.  While working with the Belize Audubon Society, Amy helped start up and manage a nature reserve and then studied avian diversity, abundance, and the foraging behavior of the American Redstart in a shade coffee plantation in Gallon Jug, Belize for her thesis research project

Currently, Amy oversees the Conservany's oyster reef restoration projects in Vermillion Bay and the Grand Isle/St. Bernard Marsh area of coastal Louisiana.  "Oyster reefs provide important benefits to wildlife and people," explains Amy.  "They create vital habit for numerous marine species, including fish, shrimp and crabs that support valuable commercial and recreational fishing industries."

Amy holds a Bachelor's of Science in Resource Economics and a Master's of Science in Wildlife Biology from the University of Vermont.