Jeanne Herb, Executive Director, Environmental Analysis & Communications Group, Rutgers University

October 4, 2020

Effective coastal management takes us all

Live from the Social Coast Forum 2020, Peter Ravella, Tyler Buckingham, and Bill O'Beirne sit down with Jeanne Herb, the Executive Director of the Environmental Analysis & Communications Group, at the Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.  Coastal management is people management and, as Jeanne explains, it is critical to incorporate strong community engagement and collaboration themes into the process of climate change response if we are to succeed.

Jeanne leads applied research projects related to environmental sustainability and policy, health equity, and climate change.  She works closely with state and local decision-makers, communities, and non-governmental organizations to implement evidence-based best practices.  Jeanne co-facilitates several academically hosted multidisciplinary initiatives that are designed to integrate science and evidence-informed best practices into planning, policy and decision-making: the award-winning New Jersey Climate Change Alliance, the Sustainable Raritan River Initiative, the Planning Healthy Communities Initiative, and the Coastal Risk and Resilience Initiative.

Show Transcription
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Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.