I am an Associate Professor of Environmental Communication in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine in Orono. I live and work on Marsh Island within the Penobscot River and homelands of the Penobscot Nation and Wabanaki Tribal Nations where issues of water and territorial rights and encroachment upon sacred sites are ongoing. My research, teaching, and service commitments address these and related injustices of colonialism, racism, and wealth inequality.

I’m broadly interested in relationships between water and communication and how tides, rivers, and oceans shape diverse collaborations for justice, decolonization, and resilience. I use engaged research methodologies to co-create knowledge about water and communication in the context of coastal shellfishing communities, river restoration and freshwater conservation initiatives, and large-scale science-based collaborations.

I received a Ph.D. in communication with a concentration in sustainability science from UMaine in 2013. Prior to joining the faculty at UMaine, I was a postdoctoral research fellow with the New England Sustainability Consortium’s Safe Beaches and Shellfish Project, an NSF-funded project to conduct interdisciplinary research related to coastal water quality and public health.systems associated with lakes, rivers, and wetlands. I have an interdisciplinary background, starting with a B.A. in Political Science from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and the an M.S. in Environmental Studies-Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England in Keene, NH in 2008 where my thesis  focused on science communication for vernal pool conservation. I served as the conservation and education director at Lakes Environmental Association (LEA) from 2001-2010. In that role, I developed place-based environmental education programming for people of all ages. I’m currently a Faculty Fellow with the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, co-PI on the National Science Foundation’s Research Traineeship in Conservation Science and senior personnel on the Maine eDNA Project.

Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about my work or opportunities for joining my research group at the University of Maine. I am on sabbatical from September 2022 through August 2023 and will be delayed in responding to emails during this time.

Contact

Dr. Bridie McGreavy
Department of Communication and Journalism
438 Dunn Hall
University of Maine, Orono 04469

bridie.mcgreavy@maine.edu
(207) 581-1943