Seed, LLC

Dr. Stephanie Koch has always been guided by a simple conviction: experience is the best teacher. That belief carried her across the country and around the world — living in South Carolina, California, Israel, and Denmark, and logging more than five months at sea studying marine environments. Wherever she went, she found the same thing: people searching for purpose and joy, and a talent of her own for helping them find it.

Stephanie holds a B.S. in Marine Science from Coastal Carolina University as well as a M.S. and Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, one of the world's leading oceanographic research centers. Her expertise has led her to collaborate with aquariums (e.g., Newport Aquarium and Monterey Bay Aquarium), non-profit organizations (e.g., WAVE foundation and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership), and government agencies (e.g., NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, USA, and Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Mexico). Stephanie has continued these collaborations after moving back to Northern Kentucky to be near family and teach. 

She has spent the past nine years in higher education designing field-based experiential learning experiences, leading study-abroad field programs in the Galapagos and New Zealand, and advising hundreds of students. Through it all, she found her greatest moments were those where she put students in contact with something new that started them on their own professional journey. 

Seed is the culmination of that realization. As co-founder and curriculum architect, Stephanie brings her doctoral-level research background, her extensive experience advising students through pivotal decisions, and a life spent seeking out meaningful experiences. She designs every part of Seed's curriculum around a single goal: putting students in contact with something new, and giving them the tools to understand what it means for them.

PhD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
MS, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
BS, Coastal Carolina University

Since she was a college student, Dr. Shannon Galbraith-Kent has read the world through the language of ecology — and found the deep value of connections. Every species, every student, every community finds its footing through relationships. Those ideas became her foundation and guide.

Shannon earned a Ph.D. in Ecology from Rutgers University, an M.S. in Biology from Eastern Kentucky University, and a B.A. in Biology from Thomas More University. Her academic path took her from the forests of her Boone County home to interdisciplinary research projects in the New York City region, studying what holds living communities together, while earning funding awards from the National Science Foundation and the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

For nearly 20 years as a college faculty member, Shannon has worked closely with hundreds of students navigating consequential decisions about their futures. She has seen a consistent pattern: the students who struggled weren't short on talent — they were searching for purpose. From leading a study-abroad field course in Scotland, to building successful programming that connects students with alumni and professionals for mentorship, she has seen students thrive in real relationships with people doing real work.

In northern Kentucky, Shannon has coached youth soccer for years, serves as a publicly elected Supervisor for the Boone County Conservation District, and holds a gubernatorial appointment to the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund. And, the same principle holds true across every role: students, species, teams, and communities find their footing through relationships — and helping young people find theirs is the work she was made for.

As co-founder of Seed, Shannon brings her scientist's eye for pattern and relationship together with her deep, trusted network across the Greater Cincinnati region. She partners with students and families to help students discover who they are — and to grow, deliberately and confidently, from that foundation.

PhD, Rutgers University
MS, Eastern Kentucky University
BA, Thomas More University