Maryellen is a resilience expert with a focus on flood risk assessment, communicating climate risks, and developing adaptation pathways to support long-term risk reduction. She thrives in collaborative, pioneering projects and environments. Her background is in water science and flood modeling, including riverine, stormwater, groundwater, and coastal systems. She approaches every project with curiosity and the readiness necessary for the dynamic nature of this field.

Maryellen has supported the Port of San Francisco's Waterfront Resilience Program since 2018. For the program's multi-hazard risk assessment, she served as a critical intersection point across a large, multi-disciplinary team, leveraging her geospatial skills and resilience expertise to support earthquake and flood risk assessments. She continues to support the program's adaptation strategy development efforts to address urgent risks and build toward long-term resilience.

Maryellen seeks to shape and grow the adaptation field. She reaches across disciplines and cultural barriers, recognizing that there are always shared goals to achieve together. Through Pathways and on her own time, Maryellen participates in efforts to promote knowledge sharing and problem solving among resilience and adaptation practitioners, with an emphasis on the intersections with social justice.