Emily A Himmelstoss

Career History

Emily has been with the U.S. Geological Survey for more than 20 years. She began as technical support staff and progressed to project and program-level leadership roles. She has contributed to various marine and coastal research projects, starting with processing shipboard geophysical data along the inner continental shelf to leading multiple coastal projects supported by both appropriated and reimbursable funds. Her work has focused on measuring how natural forces and human actions have influenced the evolution of coastal beaches. 

• Fifteen years leading the development of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) software, an open-access tool used to measure positional change. The tool has a global user base and more than 50k downloads. 
• Twelve years contributing to national-scale projects assessing coastal change and developing the USGS Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) portal, facilitating access to coastal change hazard assessments. 
• Served as a member of the Coastal Change Hazards Leadership Team comprised of research scientists, data experts, and science communicators to establish a collaborative framework for advancing coastal change hazards science, fostering collaborative project development, and aligning coastal research and products with programmatic requirements and stakeholder needs. 
• Steering committee member of the State of Our Nation’s Coast project designed to make discovery and communication of CCH scientific data more effective, efficient, and meaningful for coastal hazards planning and preparedness. This project implemented iterative user engagement that resulted in the development of the Coastal Science Navigator. 
• Designed and co-led a cross-center Technical Capabilities and Applications project designed to provide technical expertise, methodologies, and data visualization support to ensure the sustainability of coastal change hazards assessment products at regional to national scales. Additionally, this project actively supports initiatives that promote data sharing among research projects and coordinates a cross-center technical cooperative that serves as a valuable resource across the Program.