People

Rachel oversees the Buzzards Bay Coalition’s research and monitoring efforts. She joined the Coalition in 2011 after managing the Cooks River Sustainability Initiative in Sydney, Australia. Rachel received her doctorate in Oceanography from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program. She’s a native of Maryland, where she grew up enjoying the Chesapeake Bay.

Dr. Deegan is interested in the relationships between ecosystem dynamics and animal populations. With the knowledge that grazing, predation and physical disturbance by animals can influence a host of processes at the ecosystem level, Dr. Deegan’s research combines the ecosystem perspective of energy and nutrient flows with traditional population and community dynamics. She is particularly interested in aquatic ecosystems because of their importance in connecting landscape elements through the flow of water and animals. She has examined problems ranging from the importance of fish in exporting nutrients and carbon from estuaries, and the effect of habitat degradation on fish community structure in coastal embayments, to the response of upper trophic levels to increased nutrients in arctic streams. Prior to joining WHRC, she was a senior scientist at the Ecosystems Center of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. Dr. Deegan received her B.S. from Northeastern University, her M.S. from the University of New Hampshire, and her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.

Tom Bernardin is passionate about data science and research involving computation in a wide variety of domains. In addition to leading Research Computing & Data, he is also the executive director of the Center for Data Science. He has spent time in both academia and industry. Before joining UMass, Tom was a data scientist in the fintech space in New York. He holds a B.S. from New York University's Stern School of Business, and a Ph.D. in economics from UMass. He can often be found running along the many miles of the beautiful roads and trails of western Mass.

Seema Ravandale is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She recently completed her MS in Environmental Conservation from the same institute as a Fulbright Scholar. Before coming to the USA, she dedicated almost a decade of her life to working with nonprofit and philanthropic organizations in India on the issues of water conservation, agroecological farming, and participatory development. Her research interest lies in interdisciplinarity at the intersection of “Science-practice-policy” in water and environmental issues, with a keen focus on the human dimension. She is also a graduate of premier institutes in India, having earned a Bachelor of Computer Engineering and an M.Tech in Technology and Development. Her professional and research interests align with her love for travelling and exploring different cultures, heritages, histories, and cuisines.

Emily Caruso is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Before beginning her studies at UMass, she earned a B.S. in Environmental Science with a focus in geoscience from Union College in Schenectady, NY. Her research interests include water quality, water politics, community engagement, and environmental justice. Emily’s current research focuses on citizen science participation in water quality monitoring, exploring topics such as motivating factors, scientific engagement, and the impact of technology.