Olivia Spildooren
As the River-Friendly Coordinator, Olivia works with residents, schools, businesses, and golf courses to increase their environmental literacy, promote behavior change, and create in-the-ground projects to protect water quality and restore wildlife habitat. Olivia administers this certification program throughout north and central NJ in partnership with the New Jersey Water Supply Authority, Raritan Headwaters Association. Olivia also provides technical assistance to River-Friendly Affiliate groups such as Rahway River Watershed Association, South Jersey Land and Water Trust, and Sustainable South Jersey to run certification programs in their areas.
Prior to joining the Watershed, Olivia gained robust experience dealing with water quality issues through a science, education, or outreach lens from her time at the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring. In addition, Olivia worked as a stewardship intern at The Watershed and spent many hours on the reserve removing invasive species as well learning about green infrastructure maintenance while taking care of the rain gardens and green roof. In her role as River-Friendly Coordinator she has gotten hands-on experiences designing, installing, or maintaining many types of green infrastructure from naturalized detention basins, rain gardens, green roofs, rain barrels, and even constructed floating wetlands Olivia graduated from Dickinson College with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and minor in Chinese language.
Abstracts this author is presenting: