Andy Lade

Marketing Coordinator

Understated on all fronts, Andy identifies the Category 5 Hurricane Katrina in his hometown of New Orleans as a turning point in his life. “It suddenly became abundantly apparent that my home and way of life were at risk,” Andy says as he reminisces about New Orleans being underwater for weeks and having to move to Houston for a full semester of school. In the years that followed, Andy took an interest in how anthropogenic coastal erosion contributed to the 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage to New Orleans and the surrounding area. After completing an undergrad degree in Communication (with minors in geology and Spanish), Andy completed two graduate degrees: one in coastal geology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and the other in Environmental Public Policy from Oregon State. Along the way, he was a Marketing Coordinator at a New Orleans-based non-profit, taught geosciences and oceanography, completed a National Academies of Sciences fellowship with NOAA and Louisiana’s Coastal Protection Restoration Authority (CPRA), and worked as a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, where he performed ESA Section 7 consultations. Andy joined Inter-Fluve in 2022 where his role blends business development, proposal development, procurement, and no doubt, he’ll find his way into some project work (he’s also a certified Geoscientist-in-Training).

New Orleans rubbed off on Andy in other ways too. “It’s just a fun town,” Andy says, eyes beaming, as he tells of Mardi Gras parades and the giant energetic drum lines that annually parade through town. Today, on more nights than not, you’ll find Andy playing drums with several bands. His favorite? FunkShip. It’s a 10-piece funk band. He’s also been drumming up ideas for a backyard shrimp farm.