The city of St. Augustine has named Jessica Beach as its Chief Resilience Officer.
On top of her existing duties as the city’s stormwater engineer, Beach will now be leading efforts to protect the city from flooding and sea level rise.
“As the city’s subject matter expert on flood mitigation, storm resiliency and intervention methods to combat the increasing recurrences of sunny day flooding and extraordinary storm events, Beach will provide an advantage to our city as we create plans and projects to keep history above water,” City Manager John Regan said of Beach’s promotion.
Related: St. Augustine Struggles To Fight A Global Threat On A Small-Town Budget
Beach has been unofficially in the role since former CRO Michael Cullum retired from the post last summer.
Before coming to St. Augustine, Beach spent 13 years working for the St. Johns River Water Management District.
“I am honored to get to contribute to the city of St. Augustine in this capacity,” said Beach. “This role will allow me to turn my passion into action, all while continuing to serve the city that I love.”
Brendan Rivers can be reached at brivers@wjct.org, 904-358-6396 or on Twitter at @BrendanRivers.