Julie Luecke lives in Bowie, Maryland, near the headwaters of the Patuxent River, but grew up surrounded by the much saltier waters of the Lynnhaven River, Chesapeake Bay, and Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach.
She attended the College of William & Mary for undergrad, during which time she interned with CBF’s Virginia Oyster Team and decided to pursue a career in oyster restoration. During her time as the Virginia Oyster Restoration Specialist at CBF, she assisted in material acquisition, installation, and spat-on-shell production and deployment for 13 oyster restoration reefs and 4 living shorelines, as well as created a standardized reef monitoring program and obtained her USCG Captain’s License. Now, she manages the Maryland Oyster Restoration Team and has overseen the record-breaking deployment of 800 reef balls in one summer.
In her free time, Julie loves hiking, traveling, reading, and cooking. Her favorite place in the watershed is the Brock Environmental Center and the Lynnhaven River it overlooks (shh – don’t tell her new Maryland colleagues)!
