Project Team
Dr. Robyn Wilson (PD) is a behavioral decision scientist in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University. Dr. Wilson studies how individual decisions are made in contexts involving risk and uncertainty, and how communication efforts can be structured to encourage more informed choices. She has conducted and continues to conduct research in contexts pertaining to public health, agricultural risk management, and environmental health. (Email: wilson.1376@osu.edu)
Dr. Anne Baird (co-PD) is an Extension Educator in Watershed Management with OSU Extension who has designed and facilitated public participation initiatives for numerous watershed planning efforts using a variety of approaches. Baird has particular experience in structured decision-making, a technique for facilitating complex, multi-objective management decisions among a diverse set of stakeholders. Baird is also researching effective watershed stakeholder experiences and has coordinated communication and integration among researchers and Extension Professionals in the Great Lakes for the Regional Water Quality Program. (Email: abaird@postoffice.ag.ohio-state.edu)
Dr. Deborah Hersha (Post-doctoral research assistant) is an aquatic ecologist at OSU. She conducts watershed scale research focused on the influence of landscape and impairment gradient on the ecology and distribution of protists in headwater streams within the Ohio Sugar Creek watershed. She has worked directly with science teachers and students in the Sugar Creek watershed (i.e., Wooster Local Schools, International Baccalaureate Program) facilitating their own place-based research studies on water quality. D. Hersha has taught and written curriculum at both the secondary (in a "brick and mortar" setting as well as online) and collegiate levels of education. (Email: hersha.5@osu.edu)
Dr. Brent Sohngen is an environmental economist in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Developmental Economics at OSU. He conducts a research and outreach program on the benefits and costs of watershed management. This program has developed educational tools that have been used by landowners to estimate the benefits and costs of riparian zone enhancement. (Email: sohngen.1@osu.edu)
Dr. Joe E. Heimlich is an OSU Extension specialist at COSI through the OSU Extension Community Development Program. Dr. Heimlich's research centers on learning in environmental free-choice settings; he is known for his evaluation of environmental and science education programs across the life span. (Email: heimlich.1@osu.edu)