Faculty & staff bibliographic sketches

Laura Lee Lienk

B.S. in Biology
College of William and Mary

M.S. in Science Education & Field Natural History
Cornell University

One of her current projects is the Return of the Natives Restoration Education Project, which provides learning experiences, research opportunities and community-based training projects for ESSP students as well as programs for K-12 schools, and restoration training for teachers. She also coordinates native plant restoration projects in the Salinas Valley, Moro Cojo Slough, and Fort Ord Public Lands.

As the Applied Science and Technology Service Learning Coordinator, Ms. Lienk develops opportunities for service learning through facilitating connections between the university and local agencies, schools and the general community. She also assists ESSP faculty in designing and selecting community partners for Service Learning classes.

Ms. Lienk has served with many state level committees on environmental education, and has directed educational programs, worked as a naturalist, and served with the Peace Corps in Argentina as a teacher/trainer in environmental education. She is also a contributing writer for the curriculum series, A Child's Place In The Environment. She has travelled extensively, studied gas exchange in termite mounds in Namibia, and food plant selection of golden marmots in the Himalayas. Some of her other interests include hiking, backpacking, cross country skiing, and gardening.

Doug Smith (PhD)

Ph.D. in Geology
Univerisity of California, Santa Barbara

Doug Smith (Ph.D. U.C. Santa Barbara) is a Professor in the Division of Science and Environmental Policy at CSU Monterey Bay, and Co-Director of the Watershed Institute. He teaches Geology, Geomorphology, and Hydrology in undergraduate and graduate courses. Advanced courses have GIS, geospatial analysis, hydraulics, river restoration and computer modeling components. All courses have fieldwork components including survey, sediment transport, and hydrology skills.

Doug manages research in the CSUMB Watershed Geology Lab. Research topics include geology, sedimentology, fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, and geospatial analysis in a variety of environmental and scientific investigations. His studies include both watershed and near-shore marine systems, chiefly in central California and Tennessee. Recent examples of both research and applied science projects can be found at his publications page and projects page.

Fred Watson is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Science and Environmental Policy, and a leader of the Central Coast Watershed Studies team at CSUMB. He divides his time between teaching watershed, modeling, and research courses and grant-based research funded by federal, state, local, and private agencies. Formally educated in geography, computer science, and environmental engineering, Fred's current work encompasses a range of fields including water quality, snowpack modeling, remote sensing, aquatic ecology, software development, computer animation, and interpretive video production. The common thread link these is Fred's goal to better understand and communicate the functioning of environmental systems within the context of human use of the environment.

Dr. Watson's Homepage

Fred Watson (PhD)

Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering
University of Melborne, Australia

Marc Los Huertos (Ph.D. U.C. Santa Cruz, 1999) is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Science and Environmental Policy at CSU Monterey Bay. His interests include aquatic ecology, nitrogen cycling, research methods and experimental design, water quality, and agroecology. Current research activities include both watershed and estuarine systems along the Central Coast of California.

Dr. Los Huertos received a B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (UC Santa Cruz) and earned an M.A. in Plant Systematics and Ecology in 1992 (San Francisco State University). In 1999 he received a Ph.D. from U.C. Santa Cruz in Environmental Studies after comparing nitrogen dynamics in native perennial and non-native annual grasslands receiving elevated nitrogen runoff in the Elkhorn Slough watershed. From 1999 to 2006 he was the Research Manager for the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Working with Carol Shennan (Director and Professor of Environmental Studies), Patricia Allen (Assistant Director), Joji Murimoto (Research Associate) and a number of graduate and undergraduate researcher, Dr. Los Huertos developed a productive research program that links environmental and social issues of agro-food systems to applied and practical strategies to improve the sustainability of agriculture along the Central Coast of California.

Since joining CSUMB in 2006, Dr. Los Huertos has involved students in watershed monitoring efforts, the development of an index of periphyton index of biotic integrity, testing the efficacy of management practices to improve water quality and protect food saftey. In a recent statement he made to growers, he explained, "my goal is use science to reduce the conflict between economic activities and environmental protection." To accomplish this goal, Dr. Los Huertos trains students to go beyond the classroom to apply science in real-world settings as members of his research team.

Dr. Los Huertos has three children and enjoys coaching soccer, backpacking, international travel, and live jazz.

Marc Los Huertos (PhD)

PhD University of California Santa Cruz

Suzy Worcester (PhD)

PhD in ....

Lars Pierce (PhD)

Ph.D. in Forest Ecology
Univerisity of Montana

Dr. Lars Pierce is Adjunct Faculty in the Division of Science and Environmental Policy at CSU Monterey Bay. He brings to the ESSP Program teaching and research experience in the integration of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and ecosystem process measurement and modeling to address ecological interactions at a variety of space and time scales. Dr. Pierce has been a NASA Global Change Research Fellow, a visiting scholar at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California and at the CSIRO Division of Water Resources in Canberra, Australia, and a research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. Currently, his teaching and research interests are focused on the use of computer modeling, remote sensing, and GIS to examine the interplay between regional land use change and global environmental change on water resources.

Christina has worked with the Watershed Institute's Return of the Natives Restoration Education Project since 1999 as the Greenhouse Coordinator and the Greenthumbs Volunteer Program Coordinator. Over the course of her work she has been involved in the propagation and outplanting of thousands of native plants.

Christina McKnew

Joel Casagrande

B.S.Earth Systems Science & Polcy
CSU Monterey Bay

Joel Casagrande is a CSUMB graduate (2001), with a degree in Watershed Systems of the Earth Systems Science and Policy Department. His senior project, or Capstone, was a study on the affects of landuse on sediment loads in Gabilan Creek; a heavily impacted stream that runs through the city of Salinas.

Currently, Joel is a full-time research technician for the Central Coast Watershed Studies (CCoWS) at the Watershed Institute. Within CCoWS, Joel is involved in a variety of projects within the Salinas Valley. They include stream sediment load collection and analysis, lagoon monitoring, pesticide/nutrient collection and analysis, and most recently steelhead habitat mapping, reconnaissance and assessment in the Arroyo Seco Watershed. In addition to his work with CCoWS, Joel recently became involved as a field assistant in an ecosystem-modeling project in Yellowstone National Park.

My most recent accomplishment was the completion of a Bachelors of Science in Earth Systems Science & Policy through California State University Monterey Bay. Over the span of my course work I strived to integrate my knowledge of science and policy by working with local agencies to meet a 'real-world' need. I was able to achieve this goal by working with Return of the Natives Restoration Education Project (RON) at the Watershed Institute as a Weed Warrior and education outreach Intern. Currently I am the course instructor for ESSP 122 Integrated Physical Science at California State University Monterey Bay in the Earth Systems Science & Policy department. I also work as the web designer for the Watershed Institute.

I bring the elements of flexibility, curiosity, organization, and most of all enthusiasm to the Watershed Institute collective. In the future I see myself continuing to work on projects that require an integral understanding and application of scientific concepts and methods. I have a desire to continue working with other organizations that wish to integrate the science and policy behind their research into something that local and global communities feel that they can apply to their daily lives.

Home Page

ESSP 122 Integrated Physical Science

Jon Detka

B.S. Earth Systems Science & Polcy
CSU Monterey Bay