How a Saints Blogger Became Our Coast’s Digital Guru

WELCOME TO OUR STAFF Q&A SERIES WHERE YOU CAN MEET THE PEOPLE BEHIND RESTORE THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA! TODAY WE’RE CHATTING WITH Ryan chauvin, Digital Marketing and Communication manager with national audubon society AND RESTORE THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA.
CLICK HERE TO MEET MORE OF OUR TEAM.

Hi, Ryan! Tell us a little about what you do with Audubon and Restore the Mississippi River Delta?

Ryan testing out a new 360 headset.

Hi! I’m the Digital Marketing and Communication Manager for Restore the Mississippi River Delta. That’s a lot of words to say “I manage all of our digital platforms.” From social media (you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) to email (you can sign up to get updates from us) to boring stuff like SEO (you can’t really take any action here, so just Google us), I help our great team connect with as many people as possible.

How did you become interested in working in coastal restoration?

The short answer is that my family is from Louisiana, so how could I not be interested in coastal restoration? The longer answer is that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my political science degree, so I moved to Washington, DC to get a Master Degree and started working in environmental communications (for both the EPA and The Pew Charitable Trusts.) After a brief stint in Houston, working at a digital marketing agency, I found that I missed environmental work AND wanted to move “home” to New Orleans. Luckily, I found this position about 2 years ago and it’s been a great fit ever since.

What are some of the most important projects you’ve worked on?

Coast 360! Louisiana’s coastal crisis can be a difficult issue for people to wrap their heads around because the scale of the problem is so immense. We’ve always found the best way for people to understand it is to have them go on a flyover or boat tour of some of the degraded areas. Because we can’t get everybody on a boat in Chauvin, Louisiana, this great new video is the next best thing. This 360° video really does a great job of putting you in the middle of the wetlands. We’ve only just recently finished the video, and I can’t wait to find new ways to get people to experience Louisiana’s coast in a completely new way.

Who are some of the best people to follow or go-to resources for learning more about coastal issues?

There are so many digital resources to help people get involved with our issue. Unsurprisingly, my inclination here is to talk about all the digital resources available to people in Louisiana. As linked above, the best way to stay informed on what we’re doing is by following us on social media and signing up for our email list. But beyond that, there are great tools to help understand and contextualize our crisis. Start with CPRA’s Master Plan Data Viewer, which allows you to put in your address to see how the coastal crisis affects your neighborhood. You can see which Master Plan projects are planned near you, flood risk, and land change predictions for the next fifty years. This is the same data used by the state in the Master Plan and it’s a great way to to break down a complex issue into tangible information.

If you could have any other job for a day, what would it be?

If I could only have the job for one day, I think I’d choose to be a Saints beat reporter (I’ve run Saints blog with a friend of mine for a few years), as long as that one day was during the football season. Writing offseason sports coverage seems like THE WORST job, so I’m happy to hand back the job after I’m done.

Anything else you want to share with us?

Yes, go follow us everywhere so you never miss a post! Thanks for reading!