Madeline Kaufman

Maddie received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Marine Biology from the University of Miami (UM), where she studied coral reef restoration. She is now a professor of Tropical Coastal Restoration at UM, engaging graduate students in lectures and fieldwork covering dune, mangrove, seagrass, sponge, oyster, and coral restoration. She is also the Program Director of Debris Free Oceans (DFO), a Miami-based nonprofit that empowers local communities to stop plastic pollution so that all have access to a healthy environment and clean oceans. Maddie manages, implements, and reports on all of DFO’s programs, including community events, education in schools, and sustainability consulting for local businesses and governments. She currently oversees their Plastic Free Cities project, where she trains high school students to help businesses in their neighborhoods reduce waste, and is launching Zero Waste Miami, uniting a coalition of local stakeholders with the goal of building partnerships to catalyze circularity projects. She has delivered presentations about plastic pollution to 2000+ students, has coordinated 90+ events, and has recruited many local businesses to #PlasticFreeMB and Plastic Free 305, two business certification programs that she co-created with the City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County. Maddie is a PADI-certified Divemaster and engages the public in scuba cleanup and coral restoration dives. She is also an American Academy of Underwater Sciences scientific diver (having logged over 450 dives), sits on Florida Sea Grant’s Miami-Dade County Extension Advisory Committee, and volunteers as FWC-authorized sea turtle monitoring personnel.