executive director

Stanton Hales, Jr., Ph.D.

Dr. Stan Hales brought a diverse background and wealth of experience in education, research, and management when he was hired as the BBP Director on July 1, 2007. Before joining the BBP, Dr. Hales was a Senior Fish and Wildlife Biologist in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s New Jersey Field Office, where he coordinated planning and other activities and authored The Hackensack Meadowlands Initiative: Preliminary Conservation Planning. Previously, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the Coastal Conservation Research Program (CCRP) at Richard Stockton College. The CCRP was a collaborative student-based research program supported by many organizations, including the Wetlands Institute, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Hales has overseen the tremendous increase in the capacity and expertise of the BBP staff.  From 2014 through 2018, he also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Association of National Estuary Programs, which coordinates and communicates outreach and other efforts by all 28 National Estuary Programs.

Dr. Hales’ research activities have focused on growth, mortality, and movements of estuarine fishes, but also include published studies on ecotoxicology, population genetics, reproductive ecology, zooarchaeology, and other topics.  He received his B.S. from Davidson College, his M.S. from the College of Charleston, and his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF OUTREACH

Nina Sassano

Nina has come full circle, having originally worked as a Field Technician for the BBP in 2011-2013, she returns as Associate Director of Outreach. After growing up along the NJ shore, Sassano received a BS in Marine Science from Stockton College (now University) and jumped right into a term as an NJ AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassador for the Mullica River watershed.

Sassano left the Garden State to pursue a master’s degree focused on the reproductive lifecycle of the bay nettle jellyfish at East Carolina University. While in the south, she worked as a Research and Volunteer Coordinator for UNCW’s MarineQuest and an Educator and Student Coordinator for UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant. With a return to NJ and over a decade of experience in marine science education, project management, and coordination, she is excited to be back with a team protecting the coast she calls home.

PROGRAM SCIENTIST

Andrew McGowan

Andrew came to the BBP in August of 2023 after spending the previous eight years as the Manager of Estuary Science for a fellow National Estuary Program in Delaware. His experience with living resources and estuarine habitats includes work with forage fish population modeling, horseshoe crab movements, oyster reef restoration, seagrass mapping and restoration, and salt marsh trajectories under increased sea level rise. He also led the creation of a continuous water quality monitoring network focused on uncovering dissolved oxygen impairments in upper tributaries.

Andrew received his B.S. from East Stroudsburg University, his M.S. from Salisbury University, and has published papers on forage fish populations, horseshoe crab movements, and bat assemblages. His interests include the restoration of estuarine habitats, in particular seagrasses and shellfish beds, the ecological importance of forage fish, and the economic and ecological impacts of estuarine water quality issues.

WATER QUALITY SPECIALIST

Nicole Petersen

After graduating from Stockton University with a B.S. in Environmental Science, Nicole began her career working with the NJDEP as a biological technician and went on to gain years of water quality experience overseeing treatment and laboratory operations at major surface water treatment plants and well systems. Nicole joined the BBP staff as a field and lab technician in 2015 where she worked on a range of projects including diadromous fish surveys, wetland monitoring, and seagrass monitoring. It was here that her love of field work and research to improve and protect our natural resources and environment was reinvigorated.

Nicole’s experience was instrumental in launching the BBP’s Continuous Water Quality Monitoring Program in the Barnegat Bay and earning NJDEP certification for the BBP lab. As the Water Quality Specialist, she enjoys administering the continuous monitoring program and supporting other BBP projects that involve water quality. She is excited to continue and expand upon our water quality monitoring to aid in research and regulatory processes.

wetland and watershed coordinator

Ceili Pestalozzi

Ceili has a diverse background in environmental science experience working in a variety of different ecosystems. She received her B.S. in Biology from Stockton University, where she gained experience working with Diamondback Terrapins in coastal salt marshes.  From there, she took her foundations in biology and chemistry to obtain a Master’s degree in Ecology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY.  Her thesis research focused on water level regulation and its effect on water quality and plankton communities in coastal freshwater wetlands of the Upper St. Lawrence River.

Ceili started working for the BBP in early 2015 as a field and lab technician.  She worked on variety of projects throughout the watershed, including wetlands assessments, water quality monitoring, fisheries monitoring, and outreach programs.  Her strong leadership skills lead her to accept a position at Rutgers University where she coordinated instructional laboratory operations for the Department of Life Sciences. Ceili’s passion for environmental science and coastal sciences lead her back to BBP in 2020 where her primary role was the coordination of watershed management plans (WMPs) for several sub-watersheds within the larger Barnegat Bay watershed. In her current role, Ceili will continues to work on the WMPs as well as manages wetland research and restoration projects.

field specialist

John (JJ) Egan

JJ Egan has been a lifelong Jersey Shore resident, and has spent most of his time on or in the ocean and estuaries around New Jersey. This passion has lead him to pursue a career in Marine Science.

JJ originally joined the Barnegat Bay Partnership as a Field Technician in the Spring of 2022, and worked primarily as the lead on the long-term seining project. This was a perfect fit, considering his long-standing interest in estuarine fishes. He continued to work with the BBP on wetlands projects and the spring eel population study, and eventually stepped into his current role as the Field Specialist.

Before joining the BBP, JJ received his B.S. in Marine Science from Stockton University and his MS in Environmental Studies from The College of Charleston. While in Charleston, he worked at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources in the Coastal Reserves and Outreach Division.  He undertook a number of tasks, including the day-to-day operation of the Marine Gamefish Tagging Program, which would give birth to his thesis project about the state of catch-and-release fishing in South Carolina. After Graduate School, JJ worked in the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program, where he conducted sampling on gillnet, trawl, clam dredge and high-volume fishing vessels.

STEWARDSHip specialist

Bailey Sanders

Bailey Sanders grew up in Toms River, New Jersey and attended Rowan University, where she studied freshwater zooplankton. After graduating from Rowan University in 2020 with a degree in Biological Sciences, Bailey continued her studies by pursuing a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from Minnesota State University, Mankato, where she studied benthic macroinvertebrate populations in agricultural drainage ditches. She graduated with her MS in May, 2023.

After returning to New Jersey, she served in the AmeriCorps New Jersey Watershed Ambassador program as the 2022-2023 Barnegat Bay Ambassador, who is hosted by the BBP. Bailey fell in love with teaching the public about benthic macroinvertebrates, which started her transition from pursuing a research-based career to becoming an informal educator. Now, she continues on the informal educator path as the new Stewardship Specialist for the Barnegat Bay Partnership.

wetlands and watershed specialist

Samantha Adamczyk

Sammie started out as a volunteer with the BBP after graduating from Unity College with a B.S. in Marine Biology. After assisting with eel monitoring and juvenile fish sampling, she soon returned to Unity to get her Master’s in Natural Resource Management. She officially joined the BBP team as a Field and Lab Technician in the spring of 2020, and has enjoyed working on a variety of projects, including stream crossing assessments, water-quality monitoring, and wetlands work. Sammie took her knowledge of water-quality instruments to the NJDEP lakes program in 2021, where she performed routine water-quality monitoring and physical habitat assessments. Shortly after returning to the BBP, she transitioned into her current position, where she continues to monitor both coastal and inland habitats as well as run the community science program, Paddle for the Edge.

epa region 2 program coordinator

Barbara Spinweber

Ms. Spinweber is EPA Region 2’s Barnegat Bay Program Coordinator, assisting in the implementation of the Clean Water Act National Estuary Program in the Barnegat Bay watershed.  She began her career as a Biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York District and has previous experience in EPA’s wetlands, nonpoint source, Great Lakes, National Environmental Policy Act, and Urban Waters programs.  She obtained a B.S. in Biology at Rutgers University with a minor in Natural Resource Management and a M.A. in Environmental Management from Montclair State University.