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Home / Blogs / Celebrate Our 2024 Taste Award Winners
August 6, 2024
If you’re a fan of the Alliance, you probably know that every year, we celebrate the Chesapeake at our largest annual fundraiser, the Taste: Celebrate the Chesapeake. The event features an evening of local food, beverages, live music, silent auctions, raffles, and, last but certainly not least, award presentations. This September, we’re excited to once again bring the Taste to three beautiful venues in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland to celebrate with all that partner with the Alliance to bring clean water to our Chesapeake communities.
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One of our favorite parts of the Taste is honoring champions who have gone above and beyond to help improve the Chesapeake Bay watershed. We celebrate five individuals for their contributions – four Watershed Champions from each of our regions, and the Fran Flanigan Environmental Leadership Award. Named in honor of our founding Executive Director, Fran Flanigan, the Alliance recognizes a person whose long-standing commitment to the Chesapeake reflects the Alliance’s mission of fostering inclusive partnerships and building equitable environmental stewardship.
Please join us below to learn more about the five recipients who will be recognized at this year’s Taste events.
Rodrick (he/him) became a Riversmart Homes Ambassador (RSH) at the very beginning of the program in 2020, and has loved every moment of it. From volunteering and tabling at events like Rooting DC to removing invasive plants at the Anacostia Park and canvassing neighborhoods in Ward 7 and 8, Rodrick has enjoyed sharing his green thumb with his neighbors.
Aside from being a RSH ambassador, Rodrick is an avid gardener and volunteer for community beautification events through various organizations, including the Alliance, The University of District of Columbia (of which he is an alum of the master gardener program) The Anacostia Watershed Society, the Mayor’s Office, and clean up day events held by his neighbors and Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Unofficially, Rodrick is also the neighborhood resource for all things gardening, creating a perfect opportunity to get to know his fellow neighbors.
We look forward to celebrating Rodrick on Thursday September 19th at the Annapolis MD Taste event!
Suzanne Kilby Etgen (she/her) is the founding Executive Director of the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy (WSA), a nonprofit whose mission is to train and mobilize community leaders to drive change for sustainable landscapes and clean waters. Since 2009, Suzanne has helped to start seven other WSAs in Maryland, and several others in the Chesapeake Region and beyond. Suzanne draws her inspiration from the impact local leaders have on their communities and the environment. In addition to leading the Anne Arundel WSA, Suzanne contributes her expertise in social science and behavior change across various workgroups and committees in the Bay. Suzanne’s passion for her work of empowering and engaging local champions makes her worthy of our 2024 award.
Growing up on the shores of the South River in Annapolis, Suzanne has a deep love for local waterways and values the importance of community. Now living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, she spends time outdoors with her daughters, Rose and Caroline, and husband Rob. She enjoys cooking, hiking, gardening, paddle boarding, playing cards and board games and spending time with her very large crazy family.
We look forward to celebrating Suzanne on Thursday September 19th at the Annapolis MD Taste event!
Jules Vastine (they/them) is the former Executive Director of the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM) at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They were responsible for leadership of the ALLARM program and providing technical assistance to watershed communities interested in using science as a tool for change. Jules has worked in the volunteer monitoring/citizen science field for twenty years. In 2019, they were appointed to the National Water Quality Monitoring Council as the volunteer monitoring representative. In 2018, they were elected to the Association for Advancing the Participatory Sciences and reelected in 2021.
Having grown up in the Chesapeake Bay region, Jules enjoys working with community organizations to build their capacity to monitor, protect, and restore water quality in Pennsylvania and New York. For the last seven+ years, Jules has been a critical partner with our Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC) partnership, providing expert technical assistance, and a large dose of humor, in our work together.
In addition to their love of working with communities to do stream monitoring, Jules enjoys hiking, biking, cooking, and yoga.
We look forward to celebrating Jules on Thursday September 5th at our Marietta, PA Taste event!
Katie Register (she/her) has devoted most of her career to improving Virginia’s environment by reducing marine debris and plastic pollution. In 1995, she founded Clean Virginia Waterways (CVW) and served as its Executive Director until the fall of 2023. She continues to work with CVW as Director of Research and advises its new generation of leaders.
Her extensive research focuses mainly on land-based sources of plastic pollution and litter. In addition to research, Katie has worked to influence policies and laws that will decrease plastic pollution and was consulted on consumer behavior change campaigns. Since 1995, she served as the Virginia coordinator of the International Coastal Cleanup. She is also co-founder of the Virginia Plastic Pollution Prevention Network which builds collaborations to combat this type of pollution.
Katie’s pioneering work and leadership in preventing plastic pollution has led to numerous awards including the Virginia Environmental Stewardship Award in 2002 awarded by Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Tayloe Murphy. She also won the Governor’s Community Service award from Governor George Allen, and was appointed to the Virginia Litter Control and Recycling Fund Advisory Board by Governor Ralph Northam. Most recently, Katie has worked with the Alliance to help coordinate partnership opportunities with our Project Clean Stream iniatitive.
We look forward to celebrating Katie on Thursday September 12th at our Richmond VA Taste event!
When you think about the leaders who have had the greatest influence on the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort, Carin Bisland always comes to mind. Carin (she/her) recently retired from the Environmental Protection Agency after spending more than 30 years serving the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership. During that time, she led the partnership through the development of two Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreements, the installation of the Chesapeake Bay Total Daily Maximum Load, and countless other efforts designed to protect the habitats, water quality, and living resources of the Bay.
Prior to 1991, Carin worked at the EPA headquarters office during the development and expansion of the National Estuary Program where she coordinated the west coast estuary programs. She was also a researcher at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, investigating the flow of nutrients through different landscapes with a specific focus on wetlands.
Carin is deeply respected within the Chesapeake Bay community and known for her passion and collaborative spirit. We look forward to celebrating her incredible career and dedication to the Chesapeake Bay on Thursday September 19th at the Annapolis MD Taste event!
Thank you to our 2024 Taste Award winners for their dedication to our amazing watershed. We look forward to celebrating their efforts around the watershed with you in September. Remember to visit our Taste page to learn more about the events and get your tickets!
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