Dr Sue Kinsey

Community Action Coordinator

About me

I started out studying geology and micropalaeontology but went on to volunteer and work for a wildlife rescue charity in Poole. Whilst there I spent two months in Cape Town helping to clean and rehabilitate about 20,000 penguins that had been caught in an oil spill. After spells in the Environment Agency working on the oil care campaign and Gloucestershire County Council as the recycling officer, I spent 13 years at the Marine Conservation Society as their senior pollution policy officer trying to get the plastics industry, ministers and civil servants to take marine pollution seriously. I now volunteer at WWT Slimbridge with the reserves team one day a week where I am never happier than in a pair of waders! Leading on from that I was lucky enough to become an exhibit engager and spent a couple of happy summers talking to visitors about Nenes and Bewick’s swans and being an elf at Christmas!

My role

During 2022/23, I was the Engagement Officer for the Flourishing Floodplains project spreading the word to local communities about how amazing our floodplains are. Not only for their beauty, but also because they can help to prevent flooding, are vital for pollinators and the animals that depend on them and can improve water and soil quality. Following on from this in 2023/24 I have morphed into the Community Action Coordinator! My first task is setting up a Community Growing Hub in one of the old polytunnels in Slimbridge. The polytunnel has been cleared, recovered and the watering system reinstalled. A host of volunteers has helped make benches for our plants and with a group of volunteers we will be growing locally sourced floodplain meadow plug plants for use in restoration and creation projects both large and small and we hope that community projects will also make use of this resource.

Experience and interests

• Community and volunteer engagement
• Excellent communication, negotiation and persuasion skills
• Policy and advocacy work
• Practical conservation skills

Publications

Werner, Stefanie & Fischer, Elke & Fleet, David & Galgani, François & Hanke, Georg & Kinsey, Sue & Mattidi, Marco. (2020), Threshold Values for Marine Litter. EUR 30018 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.

Mira Veiga, Joana & Fleet, David & Kinsey, Susan & Nilsson, Per & Vlachogianni, Thomais & Werner, Stefanie & Galgani, François & Thompson, Richard & Dagevos, Jeroen & Gago, J. & Sobral, Paula & Cronin, Richard. (2016). Identifying Sources of Marine Litter - TGML Report. 10.

Appleby, Tom, Kinsey, Susan, Wheeler, Benedict & Cunningham, Emma. (2015). The marine biology of law and human health. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.

Galgani, F., Hanke, G., Werner, S., Oosterbaan, L., Nilsson, P., Fleet, D., Kinsey, S., Thompson, R.C., van Franeker, J., Vlachogianni, T., Scoullos, M., Veiga, J.M., Palatinus, A., Matiddi, M., Maes, T., Korpinen, S., Budziak, A., Leslie, H., Gago, J. and Liebezeit, G. (2013). Guidance on Monitoring of Marine Litter in European Seas. JRC Scientific Reports. MSFD Technical Group on Marine Litter.

Kinsey, S. (2000). Palaeogene benthic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the Halten Ter race area, Norway. Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Agglutinated Foraminifera. Grzybowski Foundation Special Publication, 7, 221-241.