Lauren Kinsman-Costello

Lauren Kinsman-Costello is an associate professor in the biological sciences department at Kent State University who also co-directs Kent State’s Center for Ecology and Natural Resource Sustainability. She also leads the H2Ohio Wetland Monitoring Program. Kinsman-Costello studies nutrient cycling in hydrologically variable aquatic ecosystems — including urban wetlands, restored agricultural wetlands, Great Lakes coastal wetlands and arctic peatlands. 

Kinsman-Costello received her doctorate from Michigan State University, where she studied wetland nutrient cycling in southeast Michigan at the Kellogg Biological Station. She completed postdoctoral research in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Michigan, studying underwater groundwater seeps in Lake Huron. Her work has been funded by a broad range of local, regional and federal funding sources including the Cleveland Metroparks, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation. Her work is published in journals including Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Biogeochemistry, and Geobiology. 

Robert Hamilton IV

Robert Hamilton IV is an associate professor of biological sciences at Kent State University at Stark. He has worked at Kent State for 19 years. Hamilton earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Bowling Green State University, Master of Science in Biology from Howard University, and doctorate in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University. He currently teaches a variety of courses for Biology majors and non-majors. His research interests focus on freshwater ecology within wetlands and streams. Hamilton studies invertebrate communities, water chemistry, and species interactions within these systems.

Eric Saas

Eric Saas leads the H2Ohio Wetlands Program for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Eric has been with ODNR since December of 2019. Prior to that, he monitored water quality in Ohio’s rivers and lakes at the Ohio EPA for over a decade. Eric has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Muskingum University and a Master of Science in Natural Resources from the University of New Hampshire.

H2Ohio

H2Ohio is Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s statewide water quality initiative designed to address complex issues impacting Ohio’s waters. H2Ohio uses a comprehensive and collaborative approach guided by science and data to improve the quality of Ohio’s waterways. The role of the Ohio Department of Natural Resource (ODNR) within H2Ohio is to restore wetland ecosystems, expanding their natural capacity to reduce water pollution. Since the H2Ohio Initiative was launched in 2019, ODNR has funded over 200 wetland restorations across Ohio totaling over 18,000 acres of restored wetlands and associated habitat.