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Like many South Florida residents, I found myself asking questions that seemed like they should have simple answers—but weren't.

💧 Is my drinking water safe?

🌊 Is it safe to swim, paddleboard, or fish?

🌧️ Why does my neighborhood flood?

💦 Why is the water so murky?

🐚 How can we better protect our waterways and marine ecosystems?

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Those questions became deeply personal after I contracted a serious MRSA infection following a paddleboarding outing several weeks after more than 200 million gallons of wastewater had spilled into Fort Lauderdale's waterways. While no one could say with certainty where the infection originated, my doctors believed contaminated water exposure was the likely cause.

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That experience changed my life.

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With a background in broadcast journalism, I assumed finding reliable information would be straightforward. Instead, I discovered a significant information gap. The information residents needed wasn't always easy to find, easy to understand, or available when they needed it most—especially when it came to issues affecting public health, water quality, flooding, and environmental safety.

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As I began researching these issues, I realized my story wasn't unique. Residents throughout our community were asking many of the same questions about drinking water, water quality, flooding, stormwater management, coastal resilience, and the health of our waterways and marine ecosystems.  The deeper I looked, the more I realized these weren't separate issues.

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Everything is connected.

The choices we make, the infrastructure we build, and the way we manage water all influence one another. What happens on land affects our rivers, canals, estuaries, and coastal waters. Those waterways influence our drinking water, marine ecosystems, public health, economy, and ultimately the resilience of our communities.

That realization became the foundation for Residents for Resilience.

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Since it's hard to care about what you don't know about, R4R was created to help close the information gap by connecting residents with trusted experts, scientific research, universities, educators, environmental organizations, businesses, and government leaders.

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Together, we're translating complex environmental and water-related information into practical, easy-to-understand knowledge while fostering collaboration that transforms innovative ideas into real-world, science-based solutions.

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Our Four Focus Areas

💧 Safe, Clean Drinking Water

☔️ Flood Mitigation

⛈️ Stormwater Management

🌊 Protecting & Restoring Our Waterways and Marine Ecosystems

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While each of these issues is important on its own, none exists in isolation. By connecting people, science, information, and innovative ideas, we can better understand environmental challenges, identify their root causes, and work together to develop practical, science-informed, and nature-based solutions.

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Because informed and connected communities - 

build a stronger and more resilient South Florida! 

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