Michigan Sea Grant Staff Receive Awards

The Great Lakes Sea Grant Network recognized four Michigan Sea Grant staff members at its annual conference in September 2007.
Outreach Programming Award Michigan Sea Grant staff members Chuck Pistis, Elizabeth LaPorte, and Ron Kinnunen received a 2007 Great Lakes Outreach Programming Award for their work in promoting awareness of Great Lakes rip currents.

The outreach programming award recognizes exceptional leadership, teamwork, and accomplishments having significant impact on the Sea Grant and Extension missions and their benefit to the public.

Michigan Sea Grant and its partners have worked to broaden public awareness of rip currents across the Great Lakes region since 1999. Through a variety of activities, Sea Grant staff helped familiarize weather forecasters and rescue personnel, as well as Sea Grant colleagues, with the phenomenon of rip currents and with appropriate life-saving responses.

Ron Kinnunen, extension educator for Michigan’s upper peninsula, leads local, statewide and regional research and outreach efforts and is a member of the Mackinac County Water Safety Review Team.

Elizabeth LaPorte, communications director, helped lead the development and distribution of national rip current awareness materials and led statewide communications efforts.

Chuck Pistis, extension program leader, helped lead local and regional outreach efforts including distribution of rip current signs for Great Lakes beaches and ensuring comprehension by local Spanish speaking populations.

Michigan Sea Grant also sponsored regional rip current conferences in April 2004 and June 2005, attended by more than 100 people from throughout the region.

Individual Achievement Award

Joyce Daniels, Sea Grant senior editor, received a 2007 Individual Achievement Award recognizing excellence of performance, personal interaction with Sea Grant colleagues and partners, initiative and creativity, and outstanding achievement.
In collaboration with communications and extension colleagues and partners, she has contributed to a number of award-winning Sea Grant publications and products including Fisheries Learning On the Web (FLOW), Fins, Tails and Scales poster, Michigan Sea Grant’s quarterly newsletter upwellings, and online content highlighting the work of Sea Grant researchers and regional extension educators. Daniels received the 2007 Mid Career Award presented to a staff member who has been with Sea Grant seven years or more.

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