CAW has welcomed several new members from diverse backgrounds in the last few months. We are pleased to share some of them here, along with their accomplishments and what they bring to CAW.
Julia Foulks (Meuse) works with the Seacoast Public Health Network (SPHN); one of the 13 Public Health Networks in the State of NH. Their service area includes the 23 easternmost towns in Rockingham County. Public Health Networks were established to strengthen public health partnerships in emergency preparedness, community health, and substance misuse prevention. They are also responsible for creating Community Health Improvement Plans every 3-5 years to establish priorities based on community needs. SPHN recognizes the need to expand their scope of work and areas of focus to include climate change and environmental health. In their new Community Health Improvement Plan that will be published in 2024 they have added Environmental health as a top priority in their work. As one of the only PHN’s in the state of NH with coastal boarders SPHN feels they have a unique opportunity to explore areas of public health that other regions do not have. Julia attend some recent CAW meetings and the 2024 Climate Summit and is excited to become a member to enhance the work of the Seacoast Public Health Network and continue to explore the relationship between climate and health. She is excited for the opportunity to build new partnerships and learn from other CAW members!
Garrison Beck is a water resource planner and project manager at VHB out of the Bedford, NH, office. His specialties include stormwater management and surface water quality, habitat restoration, and environmental policy. His work focuses on stormwater permit compliance (MS4, construction general permits, etc.) but also stormwater utilities, climate adaptation, and aquatic organism passage. A native of Maine, Garrison attended Colby College for environmental policy. He previously worked for the Midcoast Conservancy where he led water quality monitoring programs, invasive species monitoring and removal programs, dam removal, and culvert replacement. He also spent time lobbying at the Maine State Legislature, writing and ultimately passing legislation to improve the State’s shoreland zoning standards. Garrison currently serves on the board of Maine Lakes.
Annique Fleurock is a water resources engineer at with VHB’s Bedford, New Hampshire, office. She previously work in the VHB Watertown office from 2015 to 2020 before moving to the Bedford, New Hampshire office in 2020. Her work has focused on design of projects focusing on hydraulic modeling, stream restoration flood mitigation, ecological restoration, resilient design, stormwater designs, and developing best management practices for both private and public sector clients. Her experience also included the implementation of sea level rise adaptation, specific resiliency studies, and coastal flood risk modeling. Recently, she led the hydraulic modeling for a 160-acre property, Suffolk Downs, in MA that included updating FEMA floodplain modeling and sea level rise modeling. In NH, Annique attended the first virtual Climate Summit in 2021 which is when she first learned about CAW. More recently she participated as a design member in the Great Bay living shorelines project through NHCAW. She looks forward to joining CAW as an active member and connecting the dots between projects and topics she’s passionate about. Outside of work, Annique loves hiking, snowboarding, gardening, and finding any way to entertain her energetic dog Burton.
Dr. Ellen Douglas is a hydrologist and engineer with broad expertise in the analysis of water-related issues. Ellen was a professor in the School for the Environment at UMass Boston for 17 years, researching the impacts of climate change on coastal and inland communities across New England before joining the AECOM team in August 2023. Her role at AECOM includes managing projects related to climate resilient infrastructure. She has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and technical reports. She was a contributing author for the 2013 U.S. National Climate Assessment and the IPCC Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports. Ellen spent nine months as a Fulbright Fellow in Australia (2013-14) working with the CSIRO on the Water Values and Benefits project. Ellen is a first-generation college graduate and one of only two members of a large extended family to earn a PhD. She lives at CanDo Acres, a small hobby farm in Fremont, NH, along with dogs, goats, and horses. She spends most of her free time managing the farm and riding her horse and her Trek road bike.
Jim Chase is the President of Seacoast Science Center in Rye. He is excited to join a community of conservation–minded management, engineering, and design practitioners under the umbrella of advancing climate resilience in seacoast New Hampshire. The Seacoast Science Center’s pending redevelopment will be substantially shaped by sea level rise forecasts and associated climate challenges. Jim hopes that SSC can become a useful tool for public outreach between the world of professional environmental planners and the seacoast community. It is the goal of Jim and the SSC to leverage the institution’s position as a trusted regional environmental education asset to to introduce a broad public audience to the intersections between climate impacts, personal and community mitigation strategies, and planned development or redevelopment in sensitive areas. Outside of work, Jim has been an avid fly fisherman for over 50 years, having spent countless hours on rivers, estuaries, and the open ocean in pursuit of fish willing to take a fly. ”When my wife and I lived on Plum Island, I promised her that I’d never fish more than 3 times a day, and to this day I’ve never broken that promise!”
Polly Crocker is a Watershed Management Specialist with the NHDES Coastal Program. Polly has worked on the West Coast on resiliency and green stormwater management and is excited to bring her perspective with lessons learned from another part of the country. Eager to learn more about who is motivated by what type of climate challenge and the scalability of regional solutions, Polly is grateful to have an existing network like CAW to tap into. Outside of work, Polly is a snowboard patroller at Ragged Mountain during the winter and a member of her town’s Garden Club.
Payne Construction Services, founded in 1974, is a family-owned company specializing in flood-proofing homes and businesses across New England. With over 75 years of combined experience, the company excels in house lifting, foundation replacement, and helical pile installations to protect structures from flooding and sea-level rise. Payne Construction Services joined CAW to collaborate with other organizations working on coastal adaptation and resilience in New Hampshire. The company aims to contribute its expertise in flood mitigation techniques while also gaining valuable insights on climate change impacts and adaptation strategies to better serve communities in the coastal watershed.
