TEAM
CoastX Team
CoastX is led by an experienced team of educators, entrepreneurs, and blue economy professionals.
Susan Johnson
Co-Founder
Executive Director
Susan has over 35 years of experience as a Maine educator and designer of powerful and innovative learning environments that put students at the helm of their learning.
She has worked as a classroom teacher and led Promising Futures, a high school transformation grant program, for the Maine Department of Education.
She has spent the last 10 years as the Expanded Learning Opportunities Coordinator at Traip Academy building an internship program, wooden boat building program (4 boats completed and 2 on strongbacks!) and the Changemaker Innovation program supporting students’ innovative and entrepreneurial
investigations into the superpowers of seaweed and the blue economy.
Susan has raised and administered almost $6 million in federal, state, and private funds.
Ian Grant
Co-Founder
Chief Operating Officer
Ian brings over 25 years of start-up and innovation experience. He founded/co-founded 3 companies that were all acquired.
He launched and ran the University of New Hampshire's Entrepreneurship Center (ECenter) for over 7 years helping students bring their ideas to become launched companies. He coached students to many wins at UNH and National business plan competitions. The ECenter won multiple recognition awards for its programs. He raised $8 million in philanthropy for the UNH ECenter.
Ian's passion for the ocean started as a child when he summered with his family at MDIBL in Salisbury Cove, ME
Matt Scheuer
Co-Founder
Director Science & Technology
Matt is an entrepreneur and engineer passionate about using technology to benefit the ocean.
He launched Electrona Robotics, a startup that developed a low-cost ROV platform for ocean exploration and education.
Matt has been involved in numerous environmental technology and education projects. He is currently working on subsea research gliders at Hefring Engineering in Gloucester.
Jiff Cornwell
Director of Blue Art Program
Artist-Educator Jiff Cornwell has been teaching classes and workshops on the NH Seacoast, Western Mass, and Guatemala in a myriad of settings, including Alternative Schools for teens, Adult Education, Art Schools, International Travel Programs, as well as Vocational and NGO programs in Guatemala.
She is a firm believer in the power of imagery, creative energy, and art exploration to offer paths to deep insight and positive change for all who engage in art making.
Jenna Ehnot
Associate Director Science & Technology
Jenna Ehnot is a young ocean engineer focused on marine robotics from seafloor mapping and exploration. She brings seven years of experience in robotics and a passion for community education to the CoastX team.
Jenna graduated with her Master of Science in Ocean Engineering from the University of New Hampshire in December of 2025, working primarily with Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping.
Her research applied machine learning to camera streams aboard USVs to enable object detection and safe vessel navigation.
In the summer of 2025, Jenna joined CoastX on the water for a few days as a subject matter expert, and is excited to be back for more this year!
Ally
Parkinson
CoastX Marketing Intern
Ally Parkinson is our intern for the second half of the summer through the UNH ECenter Internships at Start-ups Program. She will stay on as a part-time intern after the summer.
Ally wrote, “I’m an upcoming senior at the University of New Hampshire majoring in Marketing and minoring in Tourism Management. I’ve had a strong passion for videography and digital content creation ever since I took a media class in high school and I’m excited to explore that more through CoastX’s guidance. I’m honored to be part of such an impactful and educational program!”
Betsy
Wish
CoastX Artist-in-Residence
Betsy Wish is a multifaceted artist and community figure based in Kittery, Maine. After retiring from a career in education, she relocated to Kittery in 2007, where she immersed herself in the local arts scene and community initiatives. Known for her inventive mixed-media sculptures, Wish often incorporates recycled materials, reflecting her commitment to environmental sustainability. She has conducted various workshops at the Kittery Art Association, including sessions on eco-sculpture and mixed-media gift boxes, fostering creativity and environmental awareness among participants
Beyond her contributions to the arts, Wish is affectionately known in the community for her unique initiative dubbed "kayaking with cookies." For over a decade, she has paddled along the local waterways, accompanied by her dog Maggie, delivering homemade cookies to lobstermen as a gesture of goodwill and community building.
Scott Heisey
CoastX Artist-in-Residence
Scott Heisey is a trained artist, and third generation NH lobsterman with over 40 years experience fishing coastal waters. Scott is in a unique position to intimately observe both the amazing diversity within the Piscataqua River Basin as well as the ever increasing changes in the local fisheries due to disruptive environmental impacts.
Robin Cornwell
CoastX Artist-in-Residence
July 27-31 Blue Immersion: Developing Your Artistic Voice
Robin Cornwell is a fabric artist combining printmaking, dyeing, felting and hand quilting in her wall hangings. Prints are made from her hand carved blocks, stencils, Gelli plate, batik and often real leaves, onto her hand dyed fabrics using a colorful palette of bold colors and combinations. Her artwork is portrayed in images of flowers, leaves, abstract forms and expressive hand poses. Her works are made up of a variety of printed cloth pieces combined in a visually pleasing combination, pieced together and then hand quilted to emphasize the images and to add texture to the background.
Robin is a graduate of Plymouth State University with a BA in Art Education. She taught middle school art for 38 years in NH. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues in NH, and she has been a presenter at many workshops for educators and other artists over the years. She currently lives in Wolfeboro,
NH with her beloved German Shepherd, Maizie.
Michael Stasiuk
CoastX Artist-in-Residence
June 22-26: Blue Art Adventures: A Deep Dive into the Creative Current
Michael Stasiuk is a multimedia sculptor who lives and maintains a studio in Portsmouth, NH. His found object sculptures are represented in private and corporate collections including The Art Complex Museum, The Tobias Lear House, The Museum of Old York, Wellington Management and New England Biolab. He is included in the Schiffer Found Object Art 1 and 2 books. Greenhut Galleries of Portland, ME and The Page Gallery of Camden, ME represent his work. He credits two decades as a gallery artist with Mary Harding of the George Marshall Store Gallery in York, Maine; as well as Meredith Moses of the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA.
Michael works with a child-like sensibility fueled by many years of teaching and collaborating with children and adults. He was the theatrical Propmaster for the Mudd Butt Mystery Theatre Troupe in Telluride, Colorado for 28 years collaborating with children and adults around the world bringing characters of all sizes to life in a variety of materials.
Michael has taught at Haystack Monson, Arrowmount and Pocosin Schools for the Arts, and has been the featured guest artist with the Ah Haa School’s New Year’s Eve Gala in 2014 as well as a guest installation artist in 2023 at the school in Telluride.