PDE Staff | Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

Brian Yerger

Brian Yerger is PDE’s Business and Operations Director. In this role, he works with all aspects of the Partnership to ensure the organization is performing in an efficient and effective manner. With over 25 years of financial and operational experience, Brian has a diverse background encompassing Chief Financial Officer, Renewable Energy consultant, Equity Analyst, and chairperson of a Delaware-based non-profit.Read More

Chesa Blom

Chesa Blom is PDE’s Estuary Engagement Manager. In this role, she organizes public environmental events in the Philadelphia area, such as the annual Delaware River Festival. She also coordinates the storm drain marking volunteer program and dog waste reduction outreach work on behalf of the Philadelphia Water Department.

Cyndi Slothour

Cyndi Slothour is PDE’s Office Administrator. As such, she is responsible for assisting in the day-to -day operations of the company’s main office. Cyndi comes to PDE with a background as a professional administrative assistant for over 25 years in Wilmington, Delaware.Read More

Elena Aughey

Elena Aughey is PDE’s Staff Accountant. In this role, she handles most accounting related procedures. This includes, but is not limited to, the entering and payment of invoices, financial reporting, deposits, and the art of billing to our partners.

Aughhey has worked in accounting for more than 17 years, and working for PDE allows her to use her skills to help others.

Elizabeth Horsey

Elizabeth Horsey is the Development Director for Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. Her primary duties include fundraising, event planning, grant administration, and database management. Prior to joining PDE in 2008, Horsey worked as a technical writing editor for safety, health, and environmental standards.Read More

Ella Rothermel

Ellie Rothermel is PDE’s Urban Resilience Assistant Manager. In this role, she contributes to all steps in PDE’s scientific processes, from planning how to organize studies, to collecting information in the field and summarizing data for final presentation. Although Ellie mainly assists with restoration and living shorelines research, she helps facilitate wetland and shellfish data management as well.Read More

Eve Quinones

Eve Quinones is PDE’s Urban Waters Program Manager. In this role, Eve provides leadership for the Urban Waters Federal Partnership program and supports other outreach-based initiatives in urban areas located in the Delaware Estuary. Eve comes to PDE with a B.S.

Haley Burns

Haley Burns is the Delaware Estuary Program Manager at PDE. In this role, she assists in the management of the Delaware Estuary Program’s Steering Committee and Estuary Implementation Committees, PDE’s Board and Board committees, government affairs, and other activities. Prior to joining PDE, Burns earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees and spent time working in museum services and higher education.

Jamie Bucholz

Jamie Bucholz, Ph.D. is PDE’s Freshwater Mussel Technical Manager. In this role, Jamie helps manage several projects relating to freshwater mussel propagation. Bucholz earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, her master’s degree from Central Michigan University, and her Ph.D.

Jana Savini

Jana Savini is the Coastal Collaborations Manager at PDE, where she supports the operation of the Delaware Resilient and Sustainable Communities League (RASCL) and facilitates several collaborative partnerships and projects throughout the estuary. She brings a diverse professional background to her role, having previously worked as a zookeeper at the Philadelphia Zoo, where she cared for a wide variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, and invertebrates.Read More

Jessica Klinkam

Jessica Klinkam (Jecy) is the Coordinator of Restoration Science at PDE. She coordinates estuary restoration projects such as living shoreline deployment, as well as monitoring and support of PDE’s ongoing oyster shell recycling program. Jecy graduated in 2022 from the College of William & Mary with a Bachelor’s in Biology and a minor in Marine Science.Read More

John Harrod

John Harrod is PDE’s Engagement Director. In this role, he works with the science and engagement teams to help connect diverse audiences to the outdoors and affect positive environmental change. Prior to joining PDE, John worked in habitat and water quality conservation, community engagement, and environmental leadership for over 20 years.Read More

Jonetta Lucas

Jonetta Lucas is PDE’s Finance Director. In this role, Lucas is responsible for performing the month-end accounting transactions, account analysis, preparing monthly reporting and assisting in the year-end audit procedures.

Before joining PDE, Lucas lived in New York where she held accounting positions with several real estate and property management companies such as Tishman Construction Corp., Cushman & Wakefield, and Scholastic Inc.

Karen Forst

Karen Forst is PDE’s Senior Grants Manager. In this role, she oversees the writing and management of PDE’s grants and other funding opportunities, and works with staff to identify current and future funding needs. Forst worked for PDE from 2006 – 2014 as the Development Director and the Director of Institutional Giving, and then rejoined the PDE staff in 2018 in her current position.

Kate Layton

Kate Layton is Communications Manager for Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. In this role, she promotes PDE and its activities to build awareness and engagement for protecting and enhancing the Delaware Estuary.

Before joining PDE, Layton served as the Public Outreach Manager for the Dover/Kent County Metropolitan Planning Organization in central Delaware.

Kathy Klein

Kathy Klein is PDE’s Executive Director.

Kathy first joined PDE in 1997 and served as the Executive Director until 2007. Before her return to PDE in 2018, she was the executive Director of the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin and worked as a strategic planning consultant with the Philadelphia Water Department.

Ken Williamson

Ken Williamson is a Restoration Specialist at PDE. In this role, he works in the Oyster Shell Recycling Program, facilitating oyster shell pickups from various nearby restaurants in northern Delaware and Philadelphia. In addition to helping maintain the oyster shell lots, Ken assists with the installation and monitoring of living shoreline projects and oyster shell bagging events.

Kerry O’Connell

Kerry O’Connell is PDE’s Lead Development Coordinator. In this role, she oversees the day to day administrative duties of the Development team and maintains grant and donor databases. O’Connell earned her Bachelor of Art Degree in Art from the University of Delaware and has over 10 years of non-profit experience.

Leah King

Leah King is the Grants Coordinator at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. She plays a crucial role in advancing the organization’s mission through grant writing and administration. With five years of experience in securing funding for non-profits, Leah excels in developing compelling proposals and managing grant-related tasks to support the Delaware Estuary Program’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP).

Leah Morgan

Leah Morgan is the Assistant Manager of Estuary Science at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. Her responsibilities in this role largely include facilitating PDE’s Oyster Shell Recycling Program by coordinating with restaurant partners, planning volunteer shell bagging events, and managing use of recycled shell in restoration projects.Read More

LeeAnn Haaf, PH.D.

LeeAnn Haaf, Ph.D. is PDE’s Estuary Science Assistant Director. In this role, LeeAnn performs research on coastal wetlands and forests, helps manage a variety of research projects, and leads scientific reports on the status and trends of the health of the Delaware Estuary.

Marguerite DiGiorgio

Marguerite DiGiorgio is PDE’s Engagement Assistant Coordinator. In this role, she supports the Schuylkill Action Network by facilitating the connection of partner organizations that are focused on source water protection and engages the public through PDE-organized stormwater education and community events.

Martha Maxwell-Doyle

Martha Maxwell-Doyle is PDE’s Programs Director. In this role, she expertly coordinates and integrates both internal and external programmatic activities.

With over 35 years of experience in environmental protection, resource management, and risk mitigation, Martha Maxwell-Doyle has held leadership positions in two National Estuary Programs—PDE and the Barnegat Bay Partnership.Read More

Nancy Nyamumbo

Nancy Nyamumbo is the Staff Accountant at PDE. Part of her work includes accounts payable, and helping with preparation of funding invoices. Nancy joined PDE in 2021 as an Accounting Associate. Previously, she worked at Capital One Bank.

Nancy moved from Kenya in 2016 where she worked at various Financial Institutions.

Sally Ehlers

Sally Ehlers is PDE’s Science and Engagement Specialist. In this role, she works with the science and engagement teams to support freshwater mussel projects and water-related outreach activities.

Prior to this position, Sally worked with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Freshwater Mussel Assessment Team, where she conducted field surveys and supported mussel propagation efforts.