16 March 2023. DMS is proud to announce that Prof. Jamie Vaudrey has been selected for the 2023 Faculty Environmental Leadership Award (ELA). This award recognizes individuals who have worked alone or as part of organizations to support sustainability efforts at UConn and beyond.
Since 2005, the Office of Sustainability, within the Institute of the Environment has honored faculty members, students and staff members who have made a positive impact on the environment through their leadership in the classroom, lab, or in the communities which UConn serves
Dr. Vaudrey was nominated, because of her exemplary role as an environmental leader over the past years. She sets the standard for outreach in the Department of Marine Sciences. Communicating science is the fiber that runs through all of her research and teaching. She does this across a broad array of stakeholders often with competing interests. Her outreach extends well beyond advisory to active partnerships with citizen scientists, regulators, municipalities, and industry. It has helped to shape the stewardship trajectories of waters and watersheds regionally, and seagrass ecosystems worldwide.
Her leadership roles in professional societies and on advisory councils have pushed for more integration of scientific results into decision making and broadened participation of underrepresented groups in marine science. Dr. Vaudrey’s key role in gathering the momentum for establishing the Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve was her crowning achievement of years of meticulous, patient teamwork, where she led countless meetings to bring experts, policymakers and public stakeholders to the table and eventually, through dialogue and her own unique way of gentle persuasion, make the CT NERR a reality in 2022.
In addition, Dr. Vaudrey has led numerous, hands-on team efforts in recent years to work on sea grass restoration and living shorelines initiatives, where she has been inspiring students and volunteers by practically working alongside them in the field. Dr. Vaudrey’s compassion for nature and the future of Long Island Sound emanates from her everyday work, which is a key motivating force for every member of her team.
Dr. Vaudrey also works with Save the Sound and helped develop an Environmental Report Card for Long Island Sound which has engaged senators and other state and federal agencies to seek additional funding for research on environmental impacts on local waters. Jamie is also the Coordinator for the Niantic River Watershed Committee, and she is an outspoken advocate for environmental issues in our local marine waters. Her impact on understanding of environmental and sustainability impacts in CT’s local waters reaches far beyond the classroom, but she is devoted to educating the next generation of scientists and managers on these important issues.