Haley Plaas joined the North Carolina Sea Grant’s advisory board in 2021. She is a Ph.D. student at UNC Chapel Hill in the Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, and her work is primarily concentrated at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, NC.

NCSG Advisory board headshot for Haley PlaasIn 2019, she was the recipient of the North Carolina Sea Grant and Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership Fellowship. During her fellowship, Plaas mentored an undergraduate science communication intern and forged an ongoing collaboration with community scientists from the Chowan Edenton Environmental Group. 

Plaas has a bachelor’s in Biology and Marine Science from the University of Miami. Her research is focused at the intersection of water and air quality, specifically investigating the impact of harmful algal blooms on air quality to better understand this potential threat to human respiratory health.