Welcome Four New Alliance Staff Members

The plants in our native garden aren’t the only thing that is growing around here! You may have noticed a trend of new employee blog posts over the last few months, and that’s because we’ve added seven staff members to our team so far in 2022! It is with great excitement that we announce four new staff members! Read on to learn more about each of these passionate new employees and hear how they will help us increase our impact.

Robinne Gray

Robinne Gray is joining us as our new Development Specialist out of the headquarters office in Annapolis, MD.

Robinne has lived in the Chesapeake Bay watershed since 2008. She spent her childhood in the desert southwest (Salt River watershed) and lived for many years in the Finger Lakes region of central New York (St. Lawrence Seaway watershed). Throughout her career, Robinne has raised funds for educational, cultural, and faith-based organizations before finding her home in the environmental sector. She enjoys connecting supporters to the mission of the Alliance, building the health and resilience of the Bay and its communities. Robinne studied Urban Studies and City & Regional Planning at Cornell University. For fun, she studies natural history and botany and enjoys hiking and paddling explorations around the mid-Atlantic region.

Rob Frank

Rob Frank is a Pennsylvania Forests Projects Associate working out of the Lancaster office. He helps implement forest plantings and coordinates with volunteer efforts to plant and maintain forest areas. Another of his duties is facilitating the Riparian Rangers program which helps to increase successful buffer establishment. Prior to joining the Alliance, Rob worked in watershed conservation, water quality monitoring, and volunteer restoration projects.

When Rob isn’t planting trees, he’s spending time with his family. He’s always finding things like bugs, mushrooms, skeletons, and four-leaf clovers.

Emma Gregory

Growing up just outside of Annapolis, Emma has always felt connected to the Chesapeake Bay. Many of her happiest childhood memories come from running through the woods during annual family camping trips in Western Maryland or splashing in the brackish water at Cove Point during summer break. These experiences helped spark her passion for protecting the environment and instilled in her a deep love for the outdoors. Emma studied environmental science at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, which is where she was first introduced to the Alliance. As a freshman she volunteered as an intern in the Annapolis office, supporting Project Clean Stream and the silent auction at the Taste of the Chesapeake.

It was during this time that Emma also discovered her passion for environmental justice. While at George Mason, she co-founded and led a student organization centered around engaging students in educational and advocacy opportunities for environmental justice. She also launched the Virginia Environmental Justice Summit, which is now in its third year of bringing together student activists from throughout the state of Virginia around issues of environmental justice.

Although her path has taken her around the world, from studying abroad in the Amazon rainforest of Peru and at the University of Oxford to working on the shores of Lake Tahoe and in the mountains of Colorado, she is thrilled to be back where her journey began: the Chesapeake Bay. As the Equity and Inclusion Projects Specialist, Emma is delighted to have the opportunity to combine her two most deeply-held passions: creating a more equitable and inclusive conservation movement and working closely with local communities on issues that matter the most to them. When she’s not working, you can find Emma climbing, mountain biking, hiking, camping, or on the couch with a good book and her cat, Ginny.

Maya Sterett

Maya Sterett is the Alliance’s new DC Projects Associate.

Maya grew up between Colorado, California, and Virginia, establishing her passion for exploring both rugged mountains and sandy beaches. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, with a B.A in Environmental Studies.

While in college, Maya helped design and establish the college’s residential composting program. When she wasn’t persuading her community to compost, she interned on small remote islands off the coasts of Maine and California, researching seabird productivity.

Interested in hands-on service to her country, Maya served two rounds as an AmeriCorps member. The first round, she served in Washington, DC through City Year, and the second as a Massachusetts TerraCorps member with the Merrimack River Watershed Council. While working with TerraCorps, she became interested in pursuing a career in urban conservation and sustainability.

In her free time, Maya enjoys trying out recipes from around the world, hiking, and reading. Her dream is to live and work abroad to learn how other countries are tackling environmental challenges.