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Mary-Margaret McKinney is Director of Coastal Restoration for Native Shorelines, a division of Davey Resource Group. She holds BS in Botany and MS in Forestry degrees from NC State University and is currently a PhD candidate in Integrated Coastal Sciences at East Carolina University.
Mary-Margaret has been intricately involved in ecological restoration since the mid-90s and believes successful projects hinge on respecting the needs and perspectives of all involved stakeholders. Her experience in field research, regulatory compliance, project management, and stakeholder involvement has led to her current daily focus: ensuring the resilience of our coast to ever more frequent storms and sea level rise.
As an Environmental Scientist for Landmark Design Group from 1996 to 2001, Mary-Margaret performed mitigation site planning, EIS/EA preparation and public involvement, and wetland delineations and permitting throughout NC and VA. She was instrumental in developing the first Memorandum of Understanding for a private mitigation bank in VA and the opening of the first commercial wetland mitigation bank in VA. As President of Carolina Silvics, from 1999 to 2020, Mary-Margaret directed vegetation management on over 275 restoration sites; oversaw SFI BMP compliance for the NC Forestry Association; assisted the US Navy on environmental contracting projects in NC and VA; and collaborated with the NC Coastal Federation to transition oyster shell-bag living shorelines from a research-level idea into a commercially viable option for coastal NC landowners.
As Director of Coastal Restoration for Native Shorelines, Mary-Margaret manages the first company in NC begun exclusively to design, permit, and install living shorelines and co-invented the patented QuickReef® living shoreline system. Together with non-profit, government, academic, and landowner partners, she has managed over 150 successful living shoreline projects.
In her spare time, Mary-Margaret enjoys spending time with her college-aged children and pets. She loves to travel, read giant fantasy novels, drink coffee, bake, and crochet.
Engineering With Nature® is the intentional alignment of natural and engineering processes to efficiently and effectively deliver economic, ecological, and social benefits through collaboration.