Monica Lynn Miles joins UB as Great Lakes educator

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Monica Lynn Miles, PhD, has been named associate director of the University at Buffalo’s Great Lakes Program.

The role — a joint appointment between UB, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) and Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences — also includes posts as Sea Grant’s Great Lakes Literacy Educator and as its lead representative to the Great Lakes Ecosystems Education Exchange.

Miles replaces Helen Domske, who retired from the post earlier this year.

Miles earned a doctorate from the Curriculum, Instruction and the Science of Learning program in UB’s Graduate School of Education, with a concentration in science education. Her research focuses on the role of identity, racialized experiences, and marginalization in K-12 and higher education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) spaces. She seeks to promote solutions for creating inclusive STEM environments for underrepresented students.

In providing the education and outreach components of UB’s Great Lakes Program, Miles will work with local educators, community leaders, industry, government officials and others interested in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie resources and issues.

“We are looking forward to working with Monica to disseminate and expand the impact of Great Lakes research to a wide audience, especially through the involvement of teachers at all grade levels,” said the program’s director, Joseph Atkinson, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

With Sea Grant, Miles will foster research-based extension and Great Lakes-focused educational outreach, with a particular emphasis on teach-the-teacher and best practices programming for K-12 formal and informal program educators who, in turn, reach thousands of students. Her role will include developing science-based Great Lakes and aquatic ecosystem curricula and professional development tools and workshops for teachers.

New York Sea Grant, one of the largest state-level Sea Grant programs in the U.S., is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York.

“We are excited to welcome Monica to the New York Sea Grant team and to have her share her expertise with our communities. She is bringing new ideas and partners to expand the reach and impact of our Great Lakes programming,” said Katherine Bunting-Howarth, PhD, NYSG associate director and Cornell Cooperative Extension assistant director.

Miles will also oversee the New York Great Lakes Ecosystems Education Exchange, a NYSG program in collaboration with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. She will provide experiential environmental education for K-12 and environmental program educators built around Great Lakes literacy principles and stewardship.

“I look forward to providing New York’s educational leaders with initiatives and resources to increase environmental stewardship and workforce development of the next generations of Great Lakes citizens, and to advance the public understanding of the Great Lakes as an irreplaceable ecological, environmental, and economic resource,” Miles said.

Miles will maintain a New York Sea Grant office at UB.