Maran Brainard Hilgendorf is the Communications Manager for the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program. She joined the staff in January 2000 to provide staff support for the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), develop annual public information and education workplans and implement those projects, including coordinating National Estuaries Day events, producing videos, managing outreach grants, publishing a 12-page quarterly newsletter, developing the program web site and more. From 1998 to 2000 she served as Director of Marketing and Communications for The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, an organization dedicated to the conservation of Southwest Florida's natural environment. She handled a comprehensive marketing and communications program for the organization’s work in research, policy, wildlife rehabilitation, nature centers, school programs, camps and other education initiatives as well as membership and donor development. From 1984 to 1997 she worked with Ohio Sea Grant College Program, a cooperatively funded university-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program that studies the oceans and Great Lakes. As assistant director she was responsible for a multi-million dollar granting process (from 1990 to 1995, $11.3 million was received for 44 projects) and for a comprehensive communications program. Ms. Hilgendorf received a B.S. in Journalism from Ohio University in 1982 and completed a Management Business Administration Program that same year.
Catherine Corbett is the Senior Scientist for the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program. She joined the staff in February 2000 to provide staff support for the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and facilitate the implementation of the technical goals of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan and the long-term monitoring strategy. From 1993-1995, she worked as a wildlife biologist in Tazekka National Park of the Middle Atlas Mountains in Morocco as a Peace Corps volunteer, conducting field research for the annual Barbary sheep (Aoudad) census, park species inventories, cave management plan and a survey of pastoral use by semi-nomadic park inhabitants. She also created educational exhibits in Arabic, English and French for a park ecocenter and facilitated the installation of fuel-efficient cookstoves to several park villages, including training of female villagers in their construction. Since that time, she has worked at several non-governmental organizations, such as IUCN-The World Conservation Union and the Quebec-Labrador Foundation/Atlantic Center for the Environment (QLF), on natural resource management issues. Her work included conflict mediation in her role as the coordinator of QLF’s Middle East Fellowship Program in 1996 for five environmental conservationists from Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Ms. Corbett received a B.S. degree in Zoology and Minor in Physical Geography from Miami University of Ohio in 1991 and a Master's degree in International Development, with an emphasis on natural resources management, from Clark University of Massachusetts in 2000.
Dr. Lisa Beever is the Director of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program in Florida. She joined the NEP staff in March 2002 but participated in its programs within a year after it was established in 1995. She presented original research at the CHNEP’s first watershed summit and implemented a restoration grant on behalf of a local non-profit organization. From 1993-2002, Dr. Beever was the director for the Charlotte County-Punta Gorda Metropolitan Planning Organization. Her agency won the highly competitive Environmental Excellence award from Federal Highway Administration for work that was accomplished in partnership with the NEP. Prior to that, she served as Lee County, Florida’s Environmental Sciences Director, in charge of environmental planning, permitting, and enforcement. She wrote the Protected Species Ordinance, which became the model for local listed species ordinances in the State of Florida. She began her career in 1985 as a planner with the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department. Dr. Beever earned her PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University in 1987 and a Master of Landscape Architecture from North Carolina State University in 1983.
Liz Donley joined the NEP staff in August 2003 as the Program's first Grants and Contracts Manager. She will work with CHNEP partners to identify and capture funding for projects that forward the priority actions presented in the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. Ms. Donley has more than 20 years of technical and regulatory experience, with more than 13 years directly related to environmental compliance, enforcement and restoration contracts. She has managed all aspects of environmental restoration projects, provided technical support and project management expertise, developed and implemented capture plans for multiyear, multi-million dollar Federal contracts, has written successful proposals, and has created project teams and managed subcontractors. Previously, she was involved in land acquisition for Everglades restoration projects. Ms. Donley received her B.S. in zoology from Michigan State University, M.S. in Environmental Science for Johns Hopkins University and J.D. from the University of Maryland.
Jaime Greenawalt Boswell joined the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program on a part-time basis in April 2006 to provide additional support to the Technical Advisory Committee. She was brought on as a full-time Environmental Scientist in August. Jaime graduated in 1999 with a B.S. in marine biology and a minor in chemistry from Millersville University in Pennsylvania. She received her master’s degree in fisheries and aquatic sciences from the University of Florida in 2002. She has been an active member of the Charlotte Harbor scientific community since 2003 when she began her career with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation marine laboratory as a benthic ecologist and GIS specialist. Her research has focused on fisheries population dynamics, fisheries habitat and seagrass ecology. Together with scientists from the Mote Marine Laboratory and Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Jaime has played a key role in the study of bay scallop population dynamics and restoration in Pine Island Sound. She has also cooperated with scientists and managers from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center to assess seagrass species composition and abundance in relation to water quality in the greater Charlotte Harbor region.