MARI WEB WORKSPACE

Transatlantic Solutions to Sea Level Rise Adaptation: Moving Beyond the Threat October 30-31, 2013; Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Ms. Burks-Copes is a Research Ecologist in the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Environmental Lab located in Vicksburg, MS. Over the course of her 19-year career, she has focused primarily on the development of tools to assess the restoration of habitats, communities and landscapes across the country. She is the Project Manager for a ground-breaking study addressing risks to coastal military installations in the face of sea level rise and storm impacts that she will present today, but she is also involved in the development of ecosystems goods and services tied to green-blue infrastructure – something the USACE is calling “natural and nature-based features” to reduce coastal flood risks and improve ecosystem integrity for the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study to address post-Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts. On top of all of that, she is currently wrapping up 5 large-river studies spread across the US focused on characterizing ecosystem response to management and goods and services returns on investments for dredging and operations. She earned a BS from the University of New Mexico in 1991, an MS from NM State University in 1993, and is currently pursuing a PhD from the Univ. of Florida (in her spare time!).