Congratulations to Amanda Archer, who was honored with the 2024 Outstanding in Outreach Award from the New Jersey Association for Floodplain Management (NJAFM) for her work hosting and coordinating the NJCRC’s Technical Assistance Coffee Chat series. The award was announced at the NJAFM’s annual conference, held Oct. 22-24 in Atlantic City.
Archer is the coastal training program coordinator at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve and the chair of the NJCRC Technical Assistance Coffee Chat Workgroup. The virtual coffee chats leverage the existing NJCRC network of professionals and connect local stakeholders with practitioners from the government, non-profit, private, and academic sectors that can offer technical assistance to enhance coastal resilience. Recent chats she has coordinated include the “Let’s Get Real About NJ PACT REAL” miniseries and a tutorial on the New Jersey Restoration Tool Organization Suite,
“Amanda dedicates herself to finding the right people to participate in these chats, mainly the program developers to engage and educate and inform,” NJAFM Board of Trustees member Elissa Commins said in announcing the award. “She is also dedicated with sharing the knowledge, tools and expertise with communities that can benefit them. It is a unique platform in an interactive setting where there is no judgement and there are no stupid questions. Most importantly – she fosters relationships of those willing to share their knowledge and expertise with those who need it.”
To learn more about the coffee chats or suggest a future topic, email amanda.archer@marine.rutgers.edu.