Meet Zoë Kuntze, Coastal Resilience Manager

My name is Zoë Kuntze and I am the Coastal Resilience Manager working out of the Northeast Regional Center. I am writing this introduction on the verge of my relocation to the Northeast! This is a major move for our little family of three—my husband, our old German Shepherd, and me—as the Great Lakes region has always been home and we have made a wonderful community in Madison, Wisconsin.

I grew up in a coastal community in West Michigan and never took for granted the connection and sense of place I was afforded by living so close to Lake Michigan. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have that proximity to water, and even those who are aren’t guaranteed safe access to it.

I have carried this knowledge with me throughout undergrad and graduate school at the University of Michigan, where I studied biology and conservation, and into my career.

Prior to joining the National Wildlife Federation, I worked with the Cities Initiative, a coalition of mayors and local elected officials from coastal communities across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin. In this role, I managed dozens of habitat restoration projects aimed at addressing climate and coastal hazards. These projects were locally-driven, highly collaborative, and prioritized nature-based solutions that provided additional co-benefits to the community.

Communities are on the frontlines facing these challenges that are costly to address but even more costly to ignore. I worked closely with municipal staff to bring in millions of dollars to Great Lakes communities, make connections to existing technical assistance opportunities, and connect local leaders to their representatives to share the importance of these resources. I am proud to bring this experience into my new role at the National Wildlife Federation!

Percolating the transition phase I find myself in (geographically, professionally, personally), I keep coming back to this truth—to know a place is to love a place. This is what I have learned from my own relationships with landscapes and natural communities, and am continually reminded of by the local people whose deep knowing of and commitment to place and community drive the work I have been so privileged to support.

While it is bittersweet to leave the coastlines and communities I have known for decades, I am so excited to dig into this next chapter and get to know the landscapes and people that make the Northeast region so unique.