Kathryn Baltes is the communications and outreach specialist at MIT Sea Grant. She has a masterÂ’s degree in geochemical oceanography from the University of Hawaii and has been doing coastal and ocean outreach since 2012.
Community development and volunteer work have been important to Kathryn throughout her life. In 2007, she took a year off after undergrad to do the AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer program coordinating service-learning and volunteer work at Eckerd College.
Prior to her move to MIT Sea Grant, Kathryn worked at the National Sea Grant Office in Silver Spring, MD. She managed the website presence and represented the communication efforts of all 33 Sea Grant programs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) headquarters.
Kathryn has been down to the bottom of the ocean in a manned submersible and lead a water quality assessment of the Hawaiian Islands. She has sampled water and SCUBA dived off the coast of both Ni?ihau and Kaho?olawe. One of her proudest accomplishments is the swim she and her sister co-founded and co-directed. DavidÂ’s Old Silver Swim is an all-volunteer run open water swim race in her home town of Falmouth, MA which raises money and awareness for ALS. The swim started in 2010 and to date, has raised over $100,000 for Cape Cod ALS, an organization that supports families with loved ones who have been diagnosed with ALS.
When Kathryn isn’t working with communities on coastal issues, she is most likely getting lost in a book, hiking, biking, kayaking, backpacking, or swimming in the ocean.
