Ellen Sturup Comeau is the Water Resources Agent in Beaufort County. She’s been in this position for just over four years. She graduated with a degree in Conservation Biology from St. Lawrence University in 2013. Ellen’s professional career began as a field technician, gathering bird population, nesting, and vegetation data for prospective PhDs across the US and Latin America. Afterward, she joined the AmeriCorps program in Knoxville, TN. As a first-year AmeriCorps member, she used her field biology skills on a community farm, growing 10,000lbs of produce for donation and providing educational workshops. Ellen continued to grow as an educator in her second year in the AmeriCorps program by launching the City of Oak Ridge’s stormwater department’s stormwater education program.
Thanks to her varied education and professional background, she considers herself something of a jack-of-all-trades. However, she’s the go-to person in the office regarding pond management, bird identification, planted buffers, and all things stormwater runoff-related. She’s also helpful when it comes to creating virtual educational experiences and content. These skills truly help her be the best Extension Agent she can be. Ellen educates residents on how to reduce their stormwater footprints. She also works with professionals to develop the skills they need to install and maintain low-impact development strategies. Her other duties involve coordinating the Lowcountry Stormwater Partners (LSP) consortium. The LSP is a network of partnerships between Clemson Extension, local governments, and interest groups dedicated to protecting and preserving Lowcountry waterways. Together, they work to prevent stormwater pollution.
She loves that there is no such thing as routine in her position. She’s involved in multiple projects with different topics, goals, and partners. Today, she’s conducting site visits, writing factsheets, and planning webinar series. Tomorrow will be different. This variation lets her be creative and design unique education opportunities. Last year, Ellen created websites, infographics, rack cards, blog posts, newsletters, videos, at-home lesson plans, project guides, and webinars. She reached more people, more times, in more unique ways than she ever has before. Ellen treasures how her creativity and flexible programming lead to progress and pride in her work.
Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer
