The Chesapeake Watershed (CW) CESU recently awarded the 2024 CW CESU Student Award to Jordan Coscia and Morgan Crump at its annual meeting held on July 18, 2024 at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) in Shepherdstown, WV. Both students received a plaque and a monetary award of $1,000 in recognition of their significant, exemplary contributions to research projects facilitated through the CESU.

Jordan Coscia

Jordan Coscia is pursuing a Ph.D. in Restoration Ecology at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University under the supervision of Dr. Leighton Reid.   Her research focuses on the restoration and conservation of grassland plant communities in northern and central Virginia.  Of particular note, she has developed strong partnerships with researchers at the Smithsonian Zoo, the National Park Service, the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, the Clifton Institute, among others, in support of this research.

“Collectively, her doctoral research will represent a landmark statement on the past, present, and potential future value of some of Virginia’s most unique and threatened plant communities,” emphasized Reid.

Through the CESU, Coscia has most recently been involved in an evaluation of vegetation management in the Big Meadows landscape of Shenandoah National Park. By analyzing twenty years of vegetation and weather data along with past management actions, the project will provide resource managers with recommendations to protect resources while also achieving the desired landscape conditions.

Morgan Crump

Morgan Crump, a recently selected National Science Foundation fellow, is currently pursuing a dual-Ph.D. in Social Data Analytics and Recreation, Park and Tourism Management at the Pennsylvania State University under the supervision of Dr. Derrick Taff and Dr. Peter Newman.  Crump’s research focuses on human perceptions of anthropogenic, or artificial, light sources in protected areas. Her work began in the Penn State Arboretum but quickly resulted in additional CESU agreements to expand this work into national parks including Acadia, Grand Teton, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

“Morgan has been crucial to the success of several recent National Park Service and Penn State University CESU projects,” said Taff. “Collectively the body of research that Morgan has helped develop is shifting both NPS infrastructure and visitor behaviors to preserve natural dark skies, while also informing how these changes influence ecological wellbeing.”

Crump has presented findings at regional and international conferences and will be co-chairing a session with National Park Service partners at an international conference in September 2024. She has played an integral role in the use of machine learning to increase the capacity of the parks to process and utilize data and in the set up and management of a National Park Service “Listening Laboratory,” which analyzes soundscape data from the parks.

The CW CESU Student Award is presented annually to students who have made meaningful contributions to projects facilitated through the Chesapeake Watershed CESU. The award application will open in February 2025. Until then, please contact Rhonda Schwinabart at rschwinabart@umces.edu with any award-related questions.