Tiffany A. Sprague M.S.

Profile Tiffany Sprague
Professional Title
Organizational Development Manager

About

Organizational Development

At NRRI, Organizational Development focuses on improving NRRI’s capacity and performance by aligning its people, structure, metrics, rewards and development opportunities with its strategic plan and management processes. The process is long-range, ongoing and intentional, and focuses on building NRRI’s capacity to improve overall effectiveness.

In this role, Tiffany oversees:

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee

Advisory body within the Office of the Executive Director that informs senior leadership on DEI decisions, and strives to continuously improve workplace culture through education, assessments and communication, while also creating a safe and supportive work environment.

Employee Engagement Action Team

Staff-led initiative to develop, recommend and help implement action plans in response to opportunities raised in employee engagement surveys and related dialogues.

Employee Champion

Individual and group discussions to evaluate workplace morale, identify problems impeding productivity and satisfaction, engage senior leadership to identify pathways for improvement, and create a safe space for confidential peer-to-peer consultation for all employees.

External Community Engagement

Identify and engage diverse populations by creating engagement action plans leveraging innovative activities and techniques in outreach and community science.

While Sprague supports all researchers at NRRI with community engagement, her specific background and training focuses on watershed and stormwater science. She focuses on transferring stakeholder research needs to fellow researchers at NRRI, facilitating teams to develop project proposals with comprehensive outreach plans, and writing both scientific and public-friendly reports. Valuable data collected by University researchers are effectively communicated to stakeholders and the public, giving these data a new life as they are integrated into resource management and decision making.

Sustainability

Moving the Institute to a low-waste facility through staff education, enhanced recycling programs, and collaborations across the U-system.

Recent Projects

Green Stormwater Infrastructure for North Shore Communities - Publication of guidebook for residents and small business on proper water management techniques

Green Infrastructure Code Audit - Build capacity of planners and managers in Duluth Urban-area communities to utilize green stormwater infrastructure through a code audit of local stormwater codes and ordinances

One Block at a Time - Enhance community resilience to natural disaster, floods and large storm events through Great Lakes-wide networks focused on green infrastructure implementation

CrowdHydrology - Water level citizen science for Duluth-area streams

Chronology - Stream photography citizen science

Education

  • M.S., Water Resources Science; University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN; 2019
    • Area of Emphasis: Watershed Management
    • Minor: Applied and Computational Mathematics
  • B.S., Biology; James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA; 2009
    • Area of Emphasis: Ecology and Environmental Biology
    • Minors: Mathematics; Environmental Management

NRRI News Articles

Two women outside prepare a sign.

Efforts to improve neighborhood climate resilience goes hyper-local, while providing community outreach guidance.

A man stands at a podium with a microphone in front of a presentation slide.

NRRI scientists present findings on projects with broader water community.

A man swings a large steel cap onto an orange hot vertical kiln.

U.S. Department of Energy and NRRI fund project to develop biocarbon to replace fossil carbon in steelmaking process