Lauren Emer
Lauren Emer is a PhD candidate exploring human relationships with rivers. Her work conceptualizes humans as co-inhabitants of river systems and focuses on understanding and identifying the diverse ways in which people interact with rivers. The objective of her work is to contribute an asset-focused approach to peoples’ interactions with rivers and nature in general. Lauren’s work is currently based in Florida in the Little River and the Ocklawaha River. She has previously worked in Colombia, Ecuador, and her home state of North Carolina.
Lauren is committed to making academia a more inclusive and accessible space. She has supported and led diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in environmental sciences for nearly 10 years and has co-created the Scholar Team for Research, Engagement, and Advancing Minority voices. She is also a past participant and active facilitator of the Emerge program in the Society for Freshwater Science, which serves historically underrepresented students and early career scholars as they grow into their careers.
Outside of her professional interests, Lauren loves to knit, dance, play tennis, and pet dogs.
Contact: Lemer006@fiu.edu
Active Project Details
Little River Stewardship
The Little River is protected and maintained by various offices, organizations, and community groups throughout Miami-Dade County. This research aims to identify all the groups that 'steward' the Little River—whether through conservation, management, education, transformation, advocacy, or monitoring—along with determining where they are active and what their current efforts focus on.