Stakeholder Outreach: Effective Communication of Complex Environmental Threats

John Johnson

Professional Programs Manager, Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland

University of Maryland, College Park

John Johnson serves as the Professional Programs Manager at the University of Maryland, College Park, Project Management Center for Excellence. He leads the initiatives that help grow the Project Management Center for Excellence across its three pillars: Academic Excellence, Outreach and Professional Development, and Research. He is primarily responsible for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) program, which currently is educating over 450,000 enrolled learners across the world. Mr. Johnson also teaches graduate courses on Agile and Predictive management at the University of Maryland’s Project Management Program. In partnership with the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, Mr. Johnson is co-leading the new Masters of Professional Studies in Product Management (MPPM), building on his years as a CTO, Startup Co-Founder, and Senior Agile Project Manager.

William “Bill” Dennison

Vice President for Science Application

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences

Dr. Bill Dennison is passionate about using science to solve, not just study, environmental problems. He has decades of experience working at the science and environmental management interface at local, national and international settings and is interested in sharing his experience through this course. Bill is the Vice President for Science Application at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. He founded the Integration and Application Network, a collection of Science Integrators and Science Communicators who partner with groups around the world to engage with diverse stakeholders to co-produce effective science communication products and environmental report cards. Although he was trained as a natural scientist, Bill has been working with social scientists for the past decade to develop holistic solutions to environmental problems.

Bill has been intimately involved in the Chesapeake Bay Program, a large and complex effort to restore the largest and best studied estuary in North America. In addition, Bill helped create the Healthy Waterways initiative in Australia, as well as working closely with various Great Barrier Reef partners. He received his academic training at the University of Chicago (PhD, 1984) while researching seagrasses at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He also received degrees from the University of Alaska (MS, 1979) and Western Michigan University (BA, 1976). He has held positions in numerous science and management boards and panels, including the Science and Technical Advisory Committee for the Chesapeake Bay Program, and the International Riverfoundation.

Bill Brantley

Faculty

University of Maryland, College Park

Dr. Bill Brantley works in the U.S. Navy Inspector General Office as a Senior Training Specialist, leading the project to build the Office’s first learning portal for nearly 1,000 employees in the enterprise. He has been a program manager for the Emerging Leader Program and Supervisor Certificate Program at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He also managed the Executive Coaching and Career Coaching Programs.

Dr. Brantley was awarded the 2019 Emerging Training Leader by Training Magazine and is an IPMA-HR SCP, a Certified Professional in Talent Development, an ROI-certified professional, a certified data scientist, and a Certified Professional in Training Management. In addition, he is a certified Project Management Professional, a certified agile project manager, an accredited professional in business analysis, and is certified in Disciplined Agile.

He has completed over 200 hours of coaching training from the Neuroleadership Institute, the American Confidence Institute, emotional intelligence coaching, and the Global Team Coaching Institute. Dr. Brantley is an adjunct faculty member for the University of Louisville (20+ years) and the University of Maryland (8+ years). He is the author of the Persuasive Project Manager (2019) and Four Scenarios for the Future of the Federal Government (2019).

Dr. Brantley has also created nine award-winning Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) on project management communication and digital transformation for the University of Maryland’s Project Management Center for Excellence. His courses have nearly ten thousand students worldwide.

Richard Arnold

Director of STEM Engagement

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences

Richard Arnold is the Director of STEM Engagement for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in Annapolis, Maryland. He received his BS from Frostburg State University and MS from the University of Maryland in Marine and Estuarine Environmental Science. A global educator with an advanced professional certificate from the Maryland State Department of Education, he has taught Science and Mathematics in five countries. Arnold was selected as a NASA Astronaut in 2004. He has completed two missions to the International Space Station and served in various leadership positions and other technical roles in the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.

Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen

Science Integrator with the Integration and Application Network

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences

Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen is a Science Integrator with the Integration and Application Network of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES). Originally a molecular microbiologist and marine scientist from the Philippines, she was inspired to shift her focus on how science can benefit both nature and society after taking the Science for Environmental Management course taught by Bill Dennison and Don Boesch during her graduate program at the University of Maryland. She was conferred with the first PhD under the new Environment and Society foundation of the Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science graduate program of UMCES. Her dissertation investigated the role of socio-environmental report cards in transdisciplinary collaboration and adaptive governance for a sustainable for future. She received academic training from the University of the Philippines (BS, 2004; MS, 2009) and the University of Maryland (MS, 2013; PhD, 2020).

Vanessa is an emerging transdisciplinary scientist and practitioner, specializing in science communication, socio-environmental assessments and synthesis, and stakeholder analysis and engagement through co-production. She is deeply involved in the development of holistic socio-environmental assessments for the Mississippi River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds in North America and is leading a multi-year international transdisciplinary research consortium involving the US, Norway, Philippines, Japan, and India.