Nancy Balcom is a Senior Extension Educator for UCONN Extension and Connecticut Sea Grant at the University of Connecticut, conducting outreach and education programs on aquatic invasive species. Balcom earned a MA from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary.
Nancy’s focus is coastal and estuarine species (http://web2.uconn.edu/seagrant/whatwedo/ais/index.php). With colleagues from the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the CT Institute of Water Resources, she led the development of the State of Connecticut Aquatic Nuisance Species Management Plan, which was adopted in 2007 (http://seagrant.uconn.edu/whatwedo/ais/ctmgmtplan.php). Recent projects include an outreach program focusing on the proper disposal of live marine baitworms by Long Island Sound anglers in partnership with the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, co-authoring three HACCP plans (suction harvesting; mechanical harvesting; biological sampling / monitoring), and collaborating with a research team from the University of Connecticut to better understand recruitment characteristics of the lightbulb tunicate (Clavelina lepadiformis), a recent introduction to eastern Long Island Sound.
Nancy has served as an appointed member of the Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Panel, a regional panel of the federal Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force, since its inception in 2011 (http://www.northeastans.org). She served as Panel co-chair and past chair from 2010 through 2013. She contributed to the development of the Invasive species Community of Practice in eXtension. With Sea Grant colleagues from Illinois-Indiana, Oregon, Louisiana, New York and Connecticut, she collaborated on developing content and activities for the Nab the Aquatic Invader! web site for students (http://www.iiseagrant.org/nabinvader).
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