Lake Champlain Sea Grant Welcomes Flood Resilience Educator Sarah Noyes

Sarah Noyes has joined the staff of Lake Champlain Sea Grant as the flood resilience educator in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. Based in Vermont, Noyes will work with municipalities and partnering organizations in the Lake Champlain basin to promote enhanced flood resilience through outreach and education that reflects science-based research. She will develop and deliver programs and tools that will help community leaders understand and effectively prepare for and respond to the impacts of climate change.

Noyes will help educate municipal leaders about the importance of protecting river corridors, floodplains, and their ecosystems and the connections between local policy decisions and downstream impacts. She will provide resources to help protect communities from flooding and other weather-related hazards and to aid them in seeking financial support following floods or other environmental disasters.

“I am eager to contribute to work that will make Lake Champlain basin communities more resilient to flooding,” said Noyes. “I am excited to be a part of the Lake Champlain Sea Grant team, and I feel so grateful to be living and learning in Vermont!"

Originally from Connecticut, Noyes graduated from The George Washington University in 2020 with a B.A. in environmental studies. As an undergraduate, she contributed to research on sea level rise in coastal forests and communities of the Chesapeake Bay. Following graduation, she continued this work as a research assistant and developed a community science initiative to engage people in documenting signs of sea level rise. She built an app, website, and public-facing map to allow community members to collect and share the data.

Noyes moved west to work as a naturalist and backcountry interpretive hiking guide in Avon, Colorado. In these roles, she wrote and implemented public programming focused on aspects of Rocky Mountain ecology and conservation. A former varsity sailing team captain, Noyes has recently been spending long hours on Lake Champlain managing and mentoring 60 collegiate sailors as University of Vermont’s assistant sailing coach.

“We are excited to welcome Sarah to our Lake Champlain Sea Grant team as she brings many outreach skills to enhance our resilience programming, particularly in supporting initiatives to protect river corridors,” said Jeffrey Schloss, Acting Extension Leader.