Meet Maddy Schumacher, LCC’s New York Education & Field Engagement Associate!
Autumn 2026 E-News
Maddy Schumacher, MSc (she/her), joined the Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) this September as the New York Education & Field Engagement Associate. Maddy lives in the Adirondacks High Peaks region and has over a decade of experience working in and around watersheds. She is looking forward to connecting with New York people, organizations, and communities within the Lake Champlain basin, especially through hands-on environmental education, pollution reduction, and watershed restoration efforts as well as serving as support for LCC’s community science volunteers in New York.
Maddy’s connection to aquatic ecosystems began as a child growing up on a small lake in central New Hampshire. She spent her days snorkeling alongside schools of fish, collecting snails and funky flora floating by the shoreline, and boating with her family. After invasive plants and stormwater began to change her childhood lake, she began working as a S.C.U.B.A. diver in high school, helping to remove invasive milfoil from the Lakes Region waterways.
At St. Lawrence University, she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and business and studied cryptic coloration of plankton in Adirondack lakes and bogs. After her undergrad, Maddy moved to Burlington and worked for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation as an Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Technician for the Lakes and Ponds Program. With VTDEC, she monitored lakes and ponds, supported invasive species prevention and removal efforts, and trained community science volunteers.
Maddy went on to earn a master’s degree in environmental science from the University of Idaho, where her research explored the impact of recreational boating and natural wave activity on sediment resuspension within the nearshore of a large oligotrophic lake. After graduate school, Maddy returned to the Adirondacks, where she worked as a backcountry guide and incorporated environmental education into canoeing and backpacking programs for children throughout the Adirondack Park and Lake Champlain watershed.
In her new role with LCC, Maddy looks forward to building relationships with people and partner organizations along the New York shores of Lake Champlain, and within the lake’s Adirondack headwaters. Outside of work, Maddy enjoys skiing, biking, and paddling the High Peaks region with her partner, Aiden, and their pup, Max.
Connect with Maddy at Lake Champlain Committee: maddys@lakechamplaincommittee.org
LCC is grateful to the Lake Champlain Basin Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and NEIWPCC for funding under assistance agreement (LC00A01526) to help support the first year of Maddy's position.