Environmental Public Education Office Honored with National Awards

Contest recognizes excellence in communication

Delaware Sea Grant’s communications team, the Environmental Public Education Office (EPE), took home awards in three categories of the 2018 Communications Contest of the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW). The team earned first place for two efforts for Coast Day 2017, the poster advertising the event, designed by Art Director Tammy Beeson, and the collection of highlighted exhibits “Makerspace: Discoveries on land, in the air, and at sea.”

The exhibits won for best community outreach campaign in the nation in 2017 and featured eight stations with examples of ways Delaware Sea Grant staff and researchers at the University of Delaware College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment (CEOE) develop unique ways to answer scientific questions and educate the public. CEOE is the administrative home of Delaware Sea Grant.

Coast Day invites the public to CEOE’s Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes the first Sunday of October each year to educate the community about the environmental sciences and to showcase Delaware Sea Grant’s efforts to join science and action to improve coastal towns. This year’s event is Oct. 7, and more information is available at www.decoastday.org.

Karen Roberts, who was EPE’s science writer in 2017, won second place in the national contest’s category for specialty articles in science and technology. The pieces awarded for their high quality included one focused on the robotics research in CEOE’s School of Marine Science and Policy and another that described discoveries about the strength of olivine, the most abundant mineral in the earth’s mantle and a key factor in understanding plate tectonics.

“Our team here is terrific,” commented Mark Jolly-Van Bodegraven, director of communications and environmental public education. “We’re honored and humbled by this recognition, and I know we will continue the high quality of work that resulted in these awards.”

The NFPW contest is open to entries from anyone over the age of 18 from anywhere in the world. With 64 categories ranging from writing and editing to photography and graphic design, it is meant to recognize every type of professional communication work.