With the Exchange’s new special categories of individual members, we’re thrilled to welcome a full time faculty member from the University of Wisconsin! Meet Julia, an outreach specialist with Wisconsin Sea Grant, where she partners with Great Lakes communities to overcome barriers to green infrastructure implementation. Her work spans everything from updating codes and ordinances to offering GI 101 education and supporting planning, design, and installation efforts. Julia takes pride in being a flexible resource—helping communities with whatever they need to advance their GI goals. She’s also pursuing a PhD in environmental behavior change, focusing on the social and organizational factors that influence GI adoption, particularly in public works. One of her most recent projects involved the construction of an engineered wetland at Barker’s Island Marina, designed to treat runoff before it reaches the Duluth-Superior Harbor and Lake Superior. This initiative was part of a broader collaboration involving Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin Sea Grant programs, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio State University, and the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program. Together, they developed a GI toolkit for marinas, installed four practices, and measured water quality improvements across various sites. 
Julia joins the Exchange with a strong desire to see more GI “in the ground,” a goal she shares with many in the network. She’s excited to grow her professional network, learn from the wide range of expertise among members, and contribute her own skills and experiences in both outreach and social science. She’s particularly passionate about integrating social science into GI work to better address the “people” barriers—those behavioral, cultural, and institutional challenges that can be even more complex than technical ones. Looking ahead, Julia is thrilled to be part of a major flood resilience project with the City of Green Bay, which will transform 11 acres of underused turf along the East River into a large-scale urban wetland. Her enthusiasm and well-rounded experience make her a valuable new member of the Exchange—welcome, Julia!
