Meghan E. Wren grew up on and in the water and with all sorts of boats, eventually finding herself a sailor on the Schooner PIONEER; the 1877 Barque ELISSA; and on the Brigantine ROMANCE. These ships and their people inspired her to follow her own vision of an indigenous traditional vessel as a champion of ‘her place’, the Delaware Bay. At 23, she founded what has become the Bayshore Center at Bivalve and served for 29 years as its Executive Director. She spearheaded and oversaw the restoration, program development and operation of the 1928 oyster schooner AJ MEERWALD; lobbied and achieved the native NJ workboat’s status as New Jersey’s Official Tall Ship; restored the 1904oyster Shipping Sheds & Wharves in Bivalve as the homeport to the MEERWALD and historic destination; launched the Delaware Bay Museum and created a community and volunteer supported institution for the stewardship of NJ’s Delaware Bayshore.

After Super Storm Sandy devastated many of the NJ’s Delaware Bayshore communities, she chaired the Cumberland County Long Term Recovery Group and the NJ Bayshore Recovery Planning Committee where she raised money and coordinated individual recovery efforts with local, state and federal partners and lead the creation of a plan for resiliency in the region. In 2013 Ms. Wren became the first person to swim the 13.1 miles across the Delaware Bay from DE to NJ; which she did to raise awareness and funds for the Bayshore community’s Sandy recovery.  

Under Ms Wren’s leadership the Schooner AJ MEERWALD and the Bayshore Center at Bivalve received numerous awards, including: excellence in historic preservation from the NJ State Historic Preservation Office; Watershed Awareness Award by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection; Governor’s Heritage Tourism Award; the Dr Ruth Patrick Excellence in Education Award by the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River; and Tall Ships America’s 2005 Sea Education Program of the Year Award. Ms Wren is the 2016 Don Turner National Award for Historic Preservation recipient; 2017 EPA Environmental Champion; 2018 Woman of Distinction by the America Association of University Women and was named Sail Trainer of the Year in 2009 by Tall Ships America.