Terry Travers is a graduate student researcher and the Founder/Executive Director of Cultivating Currents, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering youth—especially those outside of traditional education—with hands-on science at the intersection of agriculture, river systems, and ocean health. Terry’s current Master’s research investigates how agricultural nutrient runoff contributes to harmful algal blooms (HABs) across America’s Great Loop, a 6,000-mile circumnavigation of U.S. waterways that feeds directly into the Gulf of Mexico. Her work integrates spatial analysis (GIS land-use overlays, satellite chlorophyll data), NOAA Phytoplankton Monitoring Network (PMN) protocols, and youth-driven citizen science methods to explore the relationship between land use, nutrient loading, and estuarine collapse.
Terry’s career spans over four decades and bridges marine science, sustainable agriculture, education, and data-driven research. Early in her career, she trained in marine science and navigation at Eckerd College and worked with NOAA’s Coastal Ocean Science and Ocean Explorer divisions, where she helped translate complex data into youth-accessible learning tools and served aboard a three-week research mission off the Virginia coast. Later, as a sustainable farmer and education innovator, Terry founded a high school program centered on regenerative agriculture, GIS mapping, and field-based ecological research, providing teens with authentic research experiences in partnership with Virginia State University.
Through Cultivating Currents, Terry is now launching two flagship initiatives:
The Living Loop Lab (L³): a floating classroom and mobile research station (2026–28) that will collect daily nutrient and bloom data, train youth in citizen science methods, and engage Gulf communities in resilience-focused research.Street Science: a dignity-first outreach model that equips homeless, homeschooled, and microschooled teens with NOAA-aligned water science kits and brings place-based environmental exploration directly to shelters, libraries, and waterfronts.These projects are designed not only to expand HAB monitoring capacity in Gulf watersheds but also to democratize science—turning ports, classrooms, and even public parks into hubs of discovery and stewardship.
Terry’s unique expertise lies in bridging rigorous scientific inquiry with inclusive community engagement. Her professional background includes designing databases for the Navy’s Information Management Center, building environmental reporting tools for NOAA, and leading data collection initiatives for farming associations. As a communicator and educator, Terry has also organized state-level conferences, developed project-based curricula, and mentored youth in project design, sampling methods, and scientific storytelling.
Today, Terry’s research and nonprofit work are tightly linked: graduate-level analysis of nutrient runoff and HABs informs youth-friendly citizen science tools, while youth-driven data collection enriches the larger scientific conversation. Her vision is to create a replicable model where young people—whether in Gulf classrooms, microschools, or on the street—are not just learning about water health but actively shaping the science and solutions that protect it.
Terry believes that science belongs to everyone, and that connecting land to water, data to story, and youth to ecosystems can spark a new wave of stewardship rooted in justice, rigor, and hope.