I work for Michigan Sea Grant. My waterbody is Lake St. Clair near where I grew up.

My experiences with my family going to fishing to a number of different places and being mentored by other neighbours and friends who would be going over there. So that really started my interest in the great lakes and it’s certainly well expanded and turned into a career. I really still value Lake St. Clair in the heart of the Great Lakes. With the Michigan Sea Grant we do a whole spectrum of research and education outreach. I am part of the education outreach program. I’ve worked with coastal communities along the northwest lower Michigan. I live in Traverse City now and have been for a number of years. So I worked with a number of communities there on their waterfront issues.

The Great Lakes are really a coastal magnet for tourism, for the economy, and for enjoyment and quality of life. I personally work with just adults, but we try where we can to reach out to the next generation and make sure they work this opportunity to steward to these wonderful freshwater treasures. We love lake Michigan. We enjoy taking visitors who come to Traverse City to Sleeping Bear Dunes, one of our freshwater treasures. Many beached and camping and many islands in Grand Traverse Bay. So we have that connection. We don't live on the bay, but we live a couple miles away from it but access it as much as possible I could imagine living in other places, but not far from the Great Lakes coast. We have beautiful inland lakes in Michigan but there is something wonderful about the scale the magnitude, the weather changes over the Great Lakes that really draws me to the Great Lakes coast.