Maria Honeycutt
Maria Honeycutt is a climate and hazards policy analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Services Center and serves as a liaison to NOAA’s Climate Program Office. In this role, she applies her consulting experience in developing community resilience policies and services and her research background in coastal geologic processes to hazards and the impacts of a changing climate.
Before joining NOAA, Honeycutt served as a congressional science fellow in the Office of Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL). Her issue portfolio included hazards policy, emergency management, flood and catastrophe insurance, climate change, fisheries, and coastal resource management. Her position was jointly sponsored by the Geological Society of America and U.S. Geological Survey and was affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science and Technology Policy Fellowship Program.
Before heading to Capitol Hill, Honeycutt spent three years as a principal geologist with URS Corporation, supporting URS’ post-disaster technical assistance contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She spent the preceding four years with PBS&J, involved in coastal erosion and flood modeling for the National Flood Insurance Program. Since 2001, she has been an active member of the Association of State Floodplain Managers and became professionally registered as a Certified Floodplain Manager in 2006.
Honeycutt earned a Bachelor’s with high honors in geology from Smith College, and an master’s and PhD in oceanography from the University of Delaware’s College of Marine and Earth Studies.