People

Headshot_AnneJefferson_smallforwebAnne J. Jefferson grew up on the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota and spent summers on Lake Superior. These two places imbued her with a love of water and the dynamic way it shapes landscapes. Anne is a Professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. She also directs Lake Champlain Sea Grant, the Vermont Water Resources and Lake Studies Center, and the Northeastern States Research Cooperative. You can read more about Anne’s background in her CV and you can learn more about her research and teaching by browsing this site. Contact Anne.

Current Research Group

Nageen Farooq is a PhD student who joined the Watershed lab in Fall 2020. Nageen has a M.Eng. in Environmental Technology and Management and a B.Ss. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Agriculture Faisalbad, Pakistan. Nageen’s PhD research focuses on the mobility and geomorphic effects of anthropogenic debris in streams, as part of an NSF-funded project.

Suffiyan Safdar is a a PhD student who joined the Watershed lab in Fall 2022. Suffiyan has a MS in City and Urban Environments from École Centrale de Nantes and B.Eng. in Urban Engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan. Suffiyan’s PhD focuses on fine sediment transport and its connection to fluvial geomorphology in urban and restored streams.

Lakelyn Taylor is a post-doctoral researcher who joined the Watershed lab in August 2023. She has a PhD in Strategic Communication from the University of Central Florida. Lakelyn’s research focuses on flood warning communications and is supported by NOAA via the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology.

Andrea Stumpf is a research technician/laboratory manager. Andrea joined the Watershed Lab in September 2023. She has a M.S. in Environmental Science from Villanova University.

Alumni

Post-Doctoral Researchers

Pedro Avellaneda was a post-doctoral researcher in the Watershed Hydrology group from February 2016 to August 2017. Pedro has a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of New Hampshire. Pedro is now at the San Francisco Estuary Institute.  Pedro’s time as a post-doc at Kent State yielded three papers (Avellaneda et al., 2017, Jefferson et al., 2017, Avellaneda et al., 2020).

PhD students

Zia Ul Hassan earned a PhD in Applied Geology from Kent State University in December 2023. Zia’s PhD dissertation is “Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change and Stormwater Management on the Flow Regime of Urban Streams: Case Studies of Cleveland, Ohio and Denver, Colorado.” Zia’s work was part of the NSF-funded STORMS project. He has a paper in review at Journal of Hydrology and two more in preparation.

MS students

Anne had 16 students complete M.S. degrees at UNC Charlotte and Kent State University

  • Jeff Timmons earned his MS in Geology from Kent State University in December 2020. Jeff’s thesis research focused on lake effect precipitation and snow as drivers of spatial variability in surface and groundwater isotopes in northeastern Ohio. Jeff’s work was supported by a GSA student research grant and a grant from the Kent State Geology department. Jeff is now a Geologist for the Bureau of Land Management in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
  • Hayley Buzulencia earned her M.S. in Geology from Kent State University in November 2019. Hayley’s research focused on sulfur dynamics in an urban wetland. She was co-advised by Dr. Lauren Kinsman-Costello. Hayley’s research was supported by funding from Cleveland Metroparks. She now works as Senior Watershed Inspector for Seattle Public Utilities.
  • Mary Plauche earned her M.S. in Geology at Kent State University in June 2019. Mary’s thesis research focused on how urban infrastructure influences the spatial and temporal variability of chloride and nitrate in headwater streams. Her work was supported by a GSA student research grant, the Department of Geology, and the Kent State University Research Council. Mary now works as a staff scientist at SLR Consulting in  Marietta, Georgia.
  • Catherine Ruhm earned her M.S. in Geology from Kent State University in November 2018. Catherine’s research focused on soils and geomorphology of abandoned surface mines now located in Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP). Catherine’s work contributed to a paper in Land Degradation and Development (Ruggles et al., 2021) with another paper currently in review at Geoderma. 
  • Garrett Blauch earned his M.S. degree in Geology at Kent State University in August 2018. Garrett now works for AECOM as a GIS specialist in Portland, OR. Garrett’s research was published as Blauch, G., and Jefferson, A.. 2019. If a tree falls in an urban stream, does it stick around? Mobility, characteristics, and geomorphic influence of large wood in urban streams in northeastern Ohio, USA. Geomorphology. 337: 1-14, doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.03.033
  • Laura Sugano earned her M.S degree in Geology in May 2018. Laura’s research focused on comparing the hydrologic and water quality effectiveness of bioretention cells and green roofs. Her work was supported by Cleveland Metroparks. She was co-advised by Dr. Lauren Kinsman-Costello. Laura works as a staff assistant geologist for Roux Associates in the greater Chicago area.
  • Eric Traub earned his M.S. degree in Geology at Kent State University in May 2016. He was co-advised by Dr. David Singer. Eric now works for Wood in Denver as a hydrogeologist. Eric’s research was published as: Singer, D.M., Jefferson, A.J., Traub, E.L., and Perdrial, N. 2018. Mineralogical and geochemical variation in stream sediments impacted by acid mine drainage is related to hydro-geomorphic setting. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene. 6(1): 31. doi:10.1525/elementa.286
  • Kimberly Jarden earned her M.S. degree in Geology at Kent State University in April 2015. Kimm is a Senior Sustainability Specialist in the Global Sustainability Department at Goodyear in Akron, Ohio. Kimm’s research was published as (Jarden et al., 2016) and (Turner et al., 2016).  
  • Darren Reilly completed his M.S. in Geology from Kent State University in April 2014, co-supervised by Anne Jefferson and David Singer. Darren’s thesis research focused on sources of groundwater contamination for residential wells in northeastern Pennsylvania. He currently works for AECOM in Long Beach, California. Darren’s research was published in Environmental Earth Sciences (Reilly et al., 2015).
  • J. Brock Freyer completed his M.S. degree in Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte in spring 2013, and he is a Wetland Ecologist for the State of Vermont. Brock’s research was published in Anthropocene (Freyer and Jefferson, 2013).
  • Mackenzie Osypian completed her M.S. degree in Civil Engineeringat UNC Charlotte in spring 2013, and she works as an environmental engineer for the State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation.
  • Alea Tuttle completed her degree M.S. degree in Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte  in summer 2012, and she now works for Clearwater Environmental, in Asheville, North Carolina. Alea’s thesis generated two publications (Tuttle et al., 2014; McMillan et al., 2014) .
  • Brandon Blue completed his M.S. degree in Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte in summer 2012 and he now works as an environmental manager for CEMEX in Miami, Florida.
  • Ralph McGee completed his M.S. degree in Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte  in spring 2011, and he works for Hart and Hickman in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ralph’s research was published in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (Jefferson and McGee, 2013).
  • Cameron Moore completed his M.S. degree in Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte in spring 2011. Cameron is now a geologist at Mid-Atlantic Associates.

Undergraduate Researchers

  • Morgan Fletcher, 2023
  • Kylie Snyder, 2022
  • Annika Dudik, 2022
  • Alexis Mitchell, 2022
  • Chloe Heestand, 2022
  • Makayla Kearns, 2021-2022
  • Sarah Audet, 2021
  • Nicole Cano, 2021
  • Azure Fernsler, 2020
  • Alex Maillot, 2018-2019
  • Cody Unferdorfer, 2016
  • Jill Sarazen, 2015
  • Sean Robertson, 2014
  • Allison Reynolds, 2013-2014
  • Sidney Bush, 2014
  • Kayla Holleman, 2009
  • Shawn Majors, 2006