Home | Education Groups | Examples of Broader Impacts Projects | Reference Materials

Education and outreach projects at VIMS take many different forms, reach a broad range of audiences, and cover a diverse array of topics. The Education Workgroup is a team of professionals who help foster science communication skills across the campus community and coordinate education and outreach programs for external audiences.  For a sampling of some of the programs we provide and the audiences we serve, please see the contact chart below.

In addition to their regular programming, members of the Education Workgroup often collaborate with VIMS scientists to assist in the development and implementation of Broader Impacts (BI) components of research proposals. VIMS researchers looking for assistance with Broader Impacts are encouraged to contact any of the educators below. 

Best Practices for Planning your Broader Impacts (BI):

• Contact BI collaborators at the start of project planning
• Integrate BI elements throughout the entire project (not just a workshop at the end of the project)
• Consider a multi-layered approach that offers different elements to a variety of audiences (students, teachers, the general public, resource managers, etc.)
• Include adequate time and funding for BI elements (including salary for the educators involved)

Educator	Email	Dept/Center	Target Audiences
Kristen Sharpe	knsharpe@vims.edu	Advancement	General Public, Donors
Celia Cackowski	ccackowski@vims.edu	Advisory Program	K12 Teachers, Informal Educators, Graduate Students
Karen Duhring	karend@vims.edu	CCRM	State & Local Government, Resource Managers, Citizen Scientists
Cirse Gonzalez	cagonzalez@vims.edu	CBNERR	Coastal Professionals, Decisionmakers, Resource Managers
Lisa Lawrence	ayers@vims.edu	Advisory Program	K12 Teachers, Informal Educators, Graduate Students, Culinary Community
Sarah Nuss	mcguire@vims.edu	CBNERR	K12 Students, K12 Teachers, Informal Educators, Families
Tara Rudo	tjrudo@vims.edu	CBNERR	K12 Students, K12 Teachers, Informal Educators, Families
Bethany Smith	bsmith@vims.edu	Advisory Program	K12 Teachers, Informal Educators, Graduate Students
Candice Vinson	cmvinson@vims.edu	Advancement	General Public, Donors