Preparing communities for coastal storms, enhancing the water quality of Green Bay, protecting wetland habitats – does all this sound like a job for a super human? Well, Julia Noordyk is up to the challenge. She begins work as Wisconsin Sea Grant’s water quality and coastal communities specialist out of the Green Bay Field Office on March 1.
Her position is a combination of existing and new duties. Julia will be learning about the Green Bay habitat from Sea Grant’s Vicky Harris before Harris completes her post-retirement projects in June. Given Harris’s 37 years of experience, some would say absorbing this knowledge will be a super-human feat in itself. Coordinating the Great Lakes Sea Grant coastal storm hazard network to deliver mitigation and coastal storms adaptation products across the Great Lakes will be among the job’s new duties. Her position will be partially funded by the NOAA Coastal Storms Program Office.
A former NOAA coastal management fellow, Noordyk comes to Sea Grant from the Maine Coastal Program where she was a senior planner working on outreach programs in offshore wind energy, water quality and coastal public access. Noordyk has a master’s degree in conservation biology and sustainable development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor’s in zoology from Colorado State University.
She brings a varied perspective, having worked in a wetland in the south of France, teaching zoology in Madison and helping with the condor recovery program in California. By the way, Noordyk said that cartoonist Gary Larson perfectly characterized condors in his Far Side cartoons. “They are big, goofy birds,” she said. “They sort of lumber around, frightened of their own shadow.”
With all this traveling under her belt, Noordyk is looking forward to setting down roots in Green Bay. “This job is the first official step into my career,” Noordyk said. “I’m excited about the chance to become part of the community and to be able to work within it.”
In fact, helping communities is what attracted her to her new Sea Grant job. “I like working with people and using tools to get groups together to solve problems,” Noordyk said. “I am also thrilled to work on the environmental pieces – the water quality, habitat restoration and coastal hazards. These are the type of issues I can’t wait to dig into.”
“We are pleased that Julia has decided to join us at Wisconsin Sea Grant,” said Phil Moy, University of Wisconsin Sea Grant assistant director for outreach and research. “Her enthusiasm, skills and abilities make her a terrific addition to our staff.”
Although she will miss her colleagues and the beauty of Maine, Noordyk is looking forward to exploring northern Wisconsin and being closer to family. Apparently, even super heroes need support.
