Noelani Villa is a Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering at the University of New Mexico. She received a Fulbright NAF Fellowship in Flood Management in Netherlands. Her fellowship allows her to spend nine months as an independent researcher at the Delft University of Technology. Through hydrodynamic modeling, she hopes to demonstrate the importance of tidal marsh restoration in flood risk mitigation. During her fellowship, she will receive mentorship from Dr. Jose Alvarez Antolinez at the Delft University of Technology and Dr. Bregji van Wesenbeeck at Deltares, an independent institute for applied research in water. Her goal is to use the knowledge she develops during her time abroad to support the restoration efforts of Coast Salish communities in Washington State. Her Ph.D. advisor is Dr. Mark Stone, Professor and Regent’s Lecturer at the Department of Civil, Construction, & Environmental Engineering.
