About New Jersey Coastal Resilience Collaborative

Leadership Bios

(In alphabetical order)

Amanda Archer, Managing Director and Technical Assistance Coffee Chat Workgroup Lead

Amanda Archer is the Training & Engagement Coordinator at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve – Rutgers University and also serves as a Managing Director for NJCRC. Her role at the Reserve is to advance resilience in NJ coastal communities through science communication, stakeholder outreach, and training for coastal decision-makers. She plays a key role in fostering collaboration among government agencies, academic institutions, and community leaders on a diverse portfolio of initiatives focused on coastal community resilience, habitat restoration, and watershed management. Amanda also leads the NJCRC Technical Assistance Coffee Chat Workgroup, creating spaces for shared learning and innovation. Her favorite place along the New Jersey coast is the Mullica River estuary, where she is deeply committed to preserving its ecological integrity for generations to come.

Lisa Auermuller, Co-Chair

Lisa Auermuller serves as the Executive Director of Rutgers’ NSF-funded Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH). In this role, Lisa is the central manager of the overall operations of the multi-institutional effort.  Lisa establishes mechanisms for collaborative sharing of findings among project partners, conducts regular outreach to promote coordination and collaboration with government agencies and community leaders, and facilitates meaningful and routine collaboration and sharing among project partners. Prior to 2023, Lisa was the Assistant Manager of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JC NERR) in Tuckerton, NJ, where she had been employed since 2002.  Lisa oversaw the day-to-day management of JC NERR’s Coastal Center as well as the Reserve’s education, outreach, communications, and Coastal Training Program.

Nick Brown, Board of Directors

Nick Brown is a Coastal Scientist at HDR and has been a partner of the Collaborative since 2022. His role at HDR includes providing coastal services including resilience and adaptive planning to mitigate tidal flooding, storm impacts, and long-term climate impacts including sea level rise. Nick works with many local organizations, municipalities, and agencies to develop solutions to challenges in the coastal zone of New Jersey. He loves spending time cycling and paddling in E.B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

Mike Galvin, Field Site Visit Workgroup Lead

Mike Galvin is the Chair of the Field Site Visit Workgroup and a member of the NJCRC Board of Directors. Mike is also the National Service Line Leader for Water Resources at JMT, a multi-disciplinary, 100% employee-owned consulting firm that has been an NJCRC partner since 2023. Mike has extensive engineering experience designing and implementing ecological restoration, stormwater management and flood mitigation projects. Once winter hibernation is over, you can find Mike and his family swimming, fishing, bird watching and building resilient sand castles as they explore the impressive New Jersey coastline.

Dr. Edward J. Mahaney, Jr., Board of Directors

Based upon the skills, training, and varied experiences gleaned from a 45-year teaching and administrative career in special education, and a concurrent period of public service as a Planning Board Member, Councilman and Mayor of the City of Cape May for 21 years, Ed developed a commitment to the protection and enhancement of the beauty, value, and sensitivity of New Jersey’s coastal environmental assets.  Ed understands that these assets as the major basis of our local economies, our individual livelihoods, and the balance of nature in our environment.  Thus, Ed has established Mahaney Consulting, LLC, and he has contributed and learned about sustainability and resilience as a long-time member of the Sustainable Jersey Board of Trustees and the former Co-Chair and current Board of Directors member of the NJCRC.

Liz Semple, Co-Chair

Liz Semple is the Director of Coastal Programs at The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey and serves as a Co-Chair for NJCRC. Her role at TNC is to enhance ecosystem health and coastal community resilience through marsh and estuary system restoration. She plays a key role in collaborating with and building upon coastal restoration efforts at the state, regional and local levels. Liz had a long successful career with NJDEP prior to joining TNC and is a founding creator of the NJCRC. Liz co- leads the NJCRC Coastal Ecological Restoration Workgroup and the newly formed Policy Workgroup.

Karl Vilacoba, Communications Workgroup Lead

Karl Vilacoba is the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute communications director and the project manager for the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal. Prior to joining the UCI, Karl worked for the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, where he oversaw a variety of public outreach efforts and served as managing editor of InTransition, a national transportation magazine published in partnership with the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Karl previously spent a decade as a news reporter and editor for newspapers in the Jersey Shore area and at USA Today’s Manhattan Bureau. A lifelong Shore resident, Karl also served for several years as a member of the Lake Como Environmental Commission and Unified Planning & Zoning Board, helping guide the borough’s recovery after Superstorm Sandy.

Related Links

NJCRC Workgroups

Directory of Coastal Resilience Technical Advisors

Coastal Resilience and Climate Change Resource Library