Faculty Activities

Richard Burroughs has completed a new book, Coastal Governance, which provides a clear description of how U.S. coasts are currently managed and identifies new approaches that could be applied to lingering challenges. The book familiarizes professionals and students with the policy process and probes factors that determine which issues get attention and how. By presenting and evaluating sector-based, spatial, and ecosystem-based management, the text equips readers to assess the effectiveness of approaches to wastewater, oil, dredging, wetlands, state coastal programs, fisheries, and watersheds. The book is one of the volumes in the Foundations of Contemporary Environmental Studies Series produced by Island Press.

Students working with Rick have collected field data in Canada, China, and Ghana as well as California and Rhode Island. These research projects have allowed students the opportunity to consider in depth how societies manage specific elements of coastal and ocean systems and the consequences on society and the environment that flow from those choices. Each of these projects will culminate in research papers for Master’s or PhD degrees in the Department of Marine Affairs.

Rick continues as a Commissioner for the Narragansett Bay Commission where substantial progress has been made on a combined sewer overflow control system and where nitrogen removal facilities have just moved into construction. At Mystic Seaport in Connecticut he serves on the International Council where he has been involved in the restoration of a local fishing vessel, the Roann, which formerly fished out of Pt. Judith, Rhode Island.

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Tracey Dalton traveled to Belize and Honduras this summer (2006) with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and students to examine governance factors of linked social and ecological systems. For this three-year project funded by NSF’s Human and Social Dynamics Program, the research team will visit thirty marine reserves and their associated communities throughout the wider Caribbean and examine the social and ecological factors that influence their performance. She and Prof. Robert Thompson began a two-year RI Sea Grant-funded project to understand spatial and temporal patterns of use in the Narragansett Bay. With a team of Coastal Fellows and a graduate student, they conducted over thirty observational surveys of the Bay this summer. Last spring, she served on the sub-group of the Zoning Working Group for the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. She continued her research on public participation in resource management, authoring an article in 34 Coastal Management 351-357 (2006) titled “Exploring participants' views of participatory coastal and marine resource management processes.”

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Timothy Hennessey has been appointed to the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Canadian Water Network, a consortium of researchers established as one of the ten Centers of Excellence by the Canadian government. He also gave presentations on his research on the ecology of governance at the Coastal Society's 19th International Conference in Newport, R.I. in May, the Coastal Zone Canada meeting in St. John, Newfoundland in June and at the Coastal Zone Pacific meeting in Brisbane, Australia in September.

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Lawrence Juda has continued his work in the study of governance and the implementation of ecosystem-based management for ocean/coastal areas at the national and international levels. He worked with a team of researchers at the University of Rhode Island under the terms of a grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) on governance and socio-economic aspects of large marine ecosystems (LMEs). This group prepared A Handbook on Governance and Socioeconomics of Large Marine Ecosystems iwlearn.net/abt_iwlearn/history-of-iw-learn/pns/learning/lme-gov-handbook.pdf/at_download/file that was published with a foreword by Dr. Veerle Vanderweerd, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Coordinator for the Global Programme of Action for Land-Based Pollution and the Head of the UNEP Regional Seas Programme. As part of this project the team ran a week-long workshop in Newport, RI in March 2006 for government officials from seventeen countries and nine GEF-funded LME programs from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. More recently he served as a consultant to the UN Office of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea on the subject of ecosystem-based management.

In other work, Prof. Juda is the author of "The Report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy: State Perspectives," 34 Coastal Management 1-16 (2006) and he published a study entitled "The European Union and Ocean Use Management: the Marine Strategy and the Maritime Policy." This latter article appears in 38 Ocean Development and International Law 259-282 (2007) and is an extension of his work in the area of comparative analysis of national ocean policies begun in an earlier article "Changing National Approaches to Ocean Governance: The United States, Canada, and Australia," 34 Ocean Development and International Law 161-187 (2003). Working with Dr. Dong-Oh Cho of the Korea Maritime Institute, a comparative analysis of ocean governance in the United States and the Republic of Korea, A Comparative Analysis of Ocean Governance: the Republic of Korea and the U.S, was published in 2006. In 2010, Prof. Juda completed a follow-up study of emerging marine policy in the European Union, “The European Union and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Continuing the Development of European Ocean Use Management,” 41 Ocean Development and International Law 34-54. He is now working on a comparison of American and European efforts to operationalize ecosystem-based management and, long-term, on a book relating to evolving multilateral treaty law and international attempts to advance ecosystem-based approaches for ocean/coastal areas.

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Seth Macinko:2009 was a busy year for Seth Macinko. He continued service on the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council, the Scientific and Statistical Committee of the N. Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the Science Panel of the N. Pacific Research Board. In June he released a report to the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries concerning the implementation of “sectors” in the New England groundfish fishery (the report was co-authored with MAF PhD candidate William Whitmore and is available to download from Dr. Macinko’s URI website). In June he also presented three papers (one on behalf of MAMA student Charlie Festa) at the Congress on Marine Tourism conference (CMT2009) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. In July, he presented at the 5th conference on People And The Sea (MARE V) in Amsterdam. In October, he presented at the Congress of Latin American Marine Sciences (COLACMAR/MarCuba) held in Havana, Cuba. In January 2010, he attended the Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage (MAF graduate student Tarsila Seara presented preliminary results of a project they worked on concerning the fate of crew in the crab fishery in the Bering Sea following implementation of a catch shares program).

He is on sabbatical for the 2010/2011 academic year. He spent part of the summer bringing a 40 year-old sailboat from the Gulf coast of Florida to Rhode Island including memorable stints crossing Lake Okeechobee and sailing 15 miles offshore of Georgia under full moon in 25 feet of water. He is spending the fall semester in Bristol, England where he will be working with a colleague at the University of the West of England (UWE) on the public right of fishing in common law countries. While in the UK, he will present at the “Empowering Coastal Community Stakeholders” Symposium on the Isle of Arran in October and at the Oceans Symposium at the University of Oxford in November. In the spring semester, he will be in Puerto Rico hopefully improving his Spanish and monitoring how the debate over catch shares plays out in the context of the Caribbean Fishery Management Council jurisdiction.

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Bruce Marti is the author of a new article: "Cruise Line Logo Recognition," in 18 Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing 25-31 (2005). He also has submitted an article regarding the Alaskan cruise market for publication in Geoforum. During the past summer he visited northern Europe and Iceland, examining cruise ports.

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Dennis Nixon spends most of his time serving as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences, but also continues to teach his graduate and undergraduate courses in coastal and marine law. He also provides advice on legal and insurance issues for UNOLS, the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System, through a grant funded by the National Science Foundation. In October 2005 he will be part of the U.S. delegation at the International Research Ship Operators Meeting in Chennai, India, and will deliver a paper on oceanographic research vessel law. Service activities include his work as the Secretary and General Counsel of the Point Club, a self-insurance program for commercial fishermen, and Chair of the URI Small Research Vessel Control Board. In his spare time, he continues to race sailboats and compete in triathlons.

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Richard Pollnac: From 2006 through this year (2008) Prof. Pollnac has been involved as a co-principal investigator in an NSF funded project examining factors influencing success of marine protected areas in the Caribbean. In the summer of 2008 he initiated the final social science data collection period of the research with two of his graduate students (Sarah Smith and Kate Mulvaney), beginning in Dominica and Bonaire. Pollnac left Bonaire and went to a fisheries social science meeting in Houston (14-18 June 2008), and the students continued data collection in marine protected area associated communities on other Caribbean islands (see student activity section). He has produced several papers concerning factors influencing success of marine protected areas in the Philippines, the most recent being “Modeling social factors that influence marine protected areas’ success” a paper presented the 173rd National Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, February, 2007. Pollnac conducted fieldwork concerning networking of marine protected areas in Cebu, Philippines July-August, 2007 as part of a study entitled “Governance Feasibility of marine ecosystem-based management: A comparative Analysis” funded by the National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis. Some of the results of this field work were presented in a paper co-authored with Patrick Christie (University of Washington) at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. July 7-11, 2008.

In the spring of 2007 Pollnac traveled to Chile to present a paper “Modeling Factors Influencing Fishermen’s Control over Marine Resources” in the symposium Una revisión de las Áreas de Manejo y Explotación de Recursos Bentónicos (AMERB) a 10 años de su implementación: ¿qué hace falta modificar o perfeccionar? At the Congreso de Ciencias del Mar de la Sociedad Chilena de Ciencias del Mar, Iquique, Chile, May 26 to 31, 2007. He has also been involved in a world-wide study of job satisfaction among fishermen directed by Maarten Bavinck of the University of Amsterdam. He and one of his PhD students (Dawn Kotowicz) presented a paper on job satisfaction among Thailand fishermen at the 4th International Conference of the Center for Maritime Research, Amsterdam 5-7 July 2007. Data for the paper were collected by Dawn Kotowicz in Na Pru Village, Thailand. Pollnac has also been working on a project profiling fishing communities in the Northeast Region for NOAA Fisheries funded by CMER. Two of his students (Sarah Smith and Azure Dee Westwood) compiled the profiles and were involved in developing a taxonomy of fishing communities. Pollnac and his students visited sub-sets of the communities in the Fall of 2007 and Spring 2008 to “ground truth” the analysis of the secondary data. Pollnac and his students presented papers reporting the results of this research in the symposium Multidimensional Approaches and Scale to Understanding Social Change in Fishing Communities at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Tampa, Florida, 2007 and at the 7th NMFS Economic and Social Sciences Workshop, Port Townsend, Washington May 6-8, 2008. See the faculty section for a listing of his recent publications.

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Robert Thompson has continued to conduct research on local government responses to global climate change. He and Professor Opaluch from the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics hosted a three-day, "all hands" meeting of the Consortium for Atlantic Regional Assessment at Alton Jones Campus in May. This is a three and a half year regional study that is funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Approximately 60 people from the research team (including researchers from Penn State University, Carnegie Mellon, the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, and URI) and the advisory board (which includes business leaders, NGOs, government officials, and researchers from other universities) attended the meeting. At the meeting, Professor Thompson delivered a talk on the close connections between the biophysical environment, climate, and culture in southern New England.

Professor Thompson has the following articles coming out this fall: Overcoming Barriers to Ecologically-Sensitive Land Management: Green Developments and the Development of a Land Ethic. Journal of Planning Education and Research. 24(2); When sustainability is not a priority: an analysis of trends and strategies. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. 6(2); and Pursuing sustainability from the middle: the experience at the University of Rhode Island. The Declaration. 7(2). He also presented a paper at The Coastal Society's 19th International Conference in Newport, RI, entitled "Offshore Wind Power and the Papers." Along with Professor Burroughs, Professor Thompson has been awarded two new grants to study the feasibility of a intermodal, mixed-use ferry terminal at Quonsett Point. One grant is from the URI Transportation Center and the other is from the RI Economic Development Corporation.

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Current Graduate Students News

In April 2012, Shannon Hulst completed her Master's thesis titled "Planning for Shoreline Retreat in Matunuck: The Relevance of Coastal Geologic Processes and Climate Change". Shoreline retreat is ongoing in Matunuck, as are discussions between the Town of South Kingstown, private property owners, and the Coastal Resources Management Council regarding how to address that shoreline retreat. Shannon's research offers insight into how those involved in this case think about the situation, and how certain strategies may promote enhanced collaboration. Shannon's thesis can be accessed here.

Kira Dacanay will be defending her Master’s thesis on public perceptions of shellfish aquaculture in Rhode Island’s salt ponds. During the spring 2010 semester she worked with Prof. Pollnac on a project in the Philippines, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and collected data in 52 coastal villages in the Visayas, Philippines. Currently, she is employed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in coastal land use regulation.

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Ali Glassie received a grant from the Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies Program to conduct thesis research in Newfoundland. Ali's project aims to identify the values and concerns of fishing communities in Newfoundland and New England through contemporary folk song lyrics, and compare those to the values implicit in the fishery policies to which the songs respond.

In Newfoundland, Ali attended the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival and numerous informal jam “sessions” where she collected song lyrics, and interviewed lyricists. Ali also spoke to policy practitioners at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and researched at Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Center for Newfoundland Studies.

Despite a very busy research schedule, Ali managed to see some of the sights: the picture below shows abandoned fish stages in the Battery, St. John’s.

Now, back at URI, Ali's focus will shift to finishing the New England portion of her research, and analyzing the lyrics she has collected.

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Benjamin Goetsch, in the Joint URI MAF/Roger Williams University (RWU) Law School program, is a Sea Grant Law Fellow at RWU. His client, the Massachusetts Nature Conservancy, is interested in conservation and active restoration projects within eel grass and shellfish beds that utilize some form of shellfish propagation. However, Massachusett’'s regulations for wetlands and aquaculture are often handled at the municipal level, leading to regulatory patchwork which differs from town to town. Therefore, his research and work so far has been to examine the different approaches towns have taken in implementing wetlands protection, shellfish propagation programs, and commercial shellfish harvesting and aquaculture regulations. His goal is to find towns that would be receptive to the Nature Conservancy’s conservation and restoration strategies and particularly those that already have the regulatory mechanisms in their bylaws to permit such projects.

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Kate Haber and Christina Hoefsmit have been awarded John Knauss Fellowships starting in January 2011. Kate will be working with the newly formed NOAA Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Program and Christina will be working with the Coast Guard in their Maritime Transportation Division at their headquarters in DC.

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Jacqueline Rolleri, a graduate student in the Joint URI MAF/Roger Williams University Law School program served as a summer intern in NOAA’s Office of General Counsel for International Law. She most of her time conducting legal research and writing, and attending meetings with other federal agencies. On the very first day of her internship, she attended a meeting with the Ministry of Culture for Spain, at the Spanish Embassy in D.C. JackieI was involved with a number of substantive projects pertaining to underwater cultural heritage, shipwrecks, World Heritage Sites, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and international shipping regulations.

One of the more exciting projects she worked on pertained to the nomination of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) to the World Heritage List. The attorney she worked with attended the World Heritage Committee meeting in Brazil at the end of July, along with other members of the U.S. delegation. Jackie drafted the talking points for the delegation that dealt with issues of international law and drafted several documents in preparation for the meeting. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were ultimately declared a World Heritage Site, which made the experience that much more rewarding

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Tiffany Smythe, M.A.M.A. 2007, has been working as a coastal manager with the URI Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant. She is one of the core team who has been working with the RI Coastal Resources Management Council to develop the RI Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP), an ecosystem-based marine spatial planning project to facilitate the siting of offshore renewable energy and other uses of RI’s offshore waters. She has led the development of the fisheries, marine transportation, and recreational components of the Ocean SAMP, which have included extensive research, intensive user group stakeholder processes, participatory GIS mapping efforts, and the development of policies and standards to manage these uses within the context of offshore renewable energy. As part of her work she has given numerous presentations on this work at stakeholder meetings, public workshops, public hearings, and national meetings including The Coastal Society biennial conference and the Coastal States Organization annual meeting.

Smythe is also currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Marine Affairs. Her dissertation is exploring practitioners’ capacity to collaborate across jurisdictions and disciplines to develop and implement coastal ecosystem-based management plans. As a former Coastal Institute IGERT Project (CIIP) doctoral fellow, she was recently awarded a CIIP Grant-In-Aid to support her dissertation research. She has also authored a forthcoming article in Coastal Management Journal, “Can Coastal Management Programs Protect and Promote Water-Dependent Uses?” which summarizes her Master’s thesis research and subsequent internship research completed as part of her CIIP fellowship

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Donald Underwood’s research interests include the power, gender, conflict, social institutions, and the decentralization of natural resource management. His thesis research is focused on the role of traditional leaders in Ghana’s artisanal fishery sector. He spent the summer of 2010 conducting fieldwork in the Western Region of Ghana. His fieldwork included surveying fisherfolk in five coastal communities and conducting multiple interviews with leaders and officials. Donald’s thesis work investigates community members’ perceptions of traditional and newly established institutions and seeks to identify what sort of institutional arrangement community members may prefer for the artisanal fishery. His research was supported by the Integrated Coastal and Fisheries Governance (ICFG) Program for the Western Region of Ghana, a joint initiative between the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island.

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Brittany White was accepted into NOAA’s Graduate Sciences Program. This past summer, she worked with the NMFS Southwest Regional Office in Long Beach, CA. Following graduation, she will return to Long Beach and work for three years in their Protected Resources Team on issues regarding the endangered Southern California Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss). To learn more about NOAA’s Graduate Sciences Program, visit http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_grad_sciences_page.html

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Graduate Student and Alumni Publications

• Tundi Agardi,Ocean Zoning: Making Marine Management More Effective (Earthscan, 2010)
• Gustavo Bisbal,"The Best Available Science for the Management of Anadromous Salmonids in the Columbia River Basin," 59 Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 1952-1959 (2002)
• Gustavo Bisbal, "Learning to Decide and Deciding to Learn: Conduits to Wild Salmon in 2010?," in R. T. Lackey, D.H. Lach, and S.L. Duncan (eds.), Salmon 2100: The Future of Wild Pacific Salmon (Bethesda, MD: American Fisheries Society, 2006) pp.151-173
• J. Cinner, and T. McClanahan (in press). "Socioeconomic factors leading to overfishing in an artisanal coral reef fishery." Environmental Conservation
• J. Cinner, M. Marnane, T. McClanahan, G. Almany. "Periodic closures as adaptive coral reef management in the Indo-Pacific. Ecology & Society 11(1) (2006): 31 www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art31
• McClanahan, T., M. Marnane, J. Cinner, T. Clark, W. Kiene. (in press). "A comparison of marine protected areas and alternative approaches to coral reef conservation." Current Biology
• J. Cinner, "Socioeconomic factors influencing customary marine tenure in the Indo-Pacific," Ecology & Society 10 (1)(2005): 36. www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss1/art36
• J. Cinner, M. Marnane, T. Clark, T. McClanahan, J. Ben, R. Yamuna. (2005). Trade, Tenure, and Tradition: Influence of sociocultural factors on resource use in Melanesia. Conservation Biology 19 (5) 1469-1477
• J.Cinner, M. Marnane, T. McClanahan. "Conservation and community benefits from traditional coral reef management at Ahus Island, Papua New Guinea." Conservation Biology 19 (6), 1714-1723 (2005)
• J.E. Cinner and R.B. Pollnac, "Poverty, Perceptions and Planning: Why Socioeconomics Matter in the Management of Mexican Reefs," 47 Ocean & Coastal Management 479-493 (2004)
• Brian Crawford, et al., "Compliance and Enforcement of Community-Based Coastal Resource Management Regulations in North Sulawesi, Indonesia," 32 Coastal Management 39-50 (2004)
• Brian Crawford, et al., "Factors Influencing Progress in Establishing Community-Based Marine Protected Areas in Indonesia," 34 Coastal Management 39-64 (2006)
• Leila Sievanen, Brian Crawford, Richard Pollnac, and Celia Lowe, "Weeding Through Assumptions of Livelihood Approaches in ICM: Seaweed Farming in the Philippines and Indonesia," 48 Ocean & Coastal Management 297-313 (2005)
• Braxton Davis, "Regional Planning in the U.S. Coastal Zone: A Comparative Analysis of 15 Special Area Plans," 47 Journal of Ocean and Coastal Management 79-94 (2004)
• Frank Gable, A Large Marine Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management and Sustainability: Linkges and Concepts towards Best Practices (Woods Hole, MA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, August 2004)
• Abdul Halim, "Adoption of Cyanide Fishing Practice in Indonesia," 45 Ocean & Coastal Management 313-321 (2002)
• Lennox Hinds, "Oceans Governance and the Implementation Gap," 27 Marine Policy 349-356 (2003)
• Karen Hyun, "Solutions Lie Between Extremes: The Evolution of International Watercourse Law on the Colorado River," 35 Environmental Law Reporter 10550-10555 (2005)
• Karen Hyun, "Transboundary Solutions to Environmental Problems in the Gulf of California Large Marine Ecosystem," 33 Coastal Management 435-445 (2005)
• Mous, P.J., Y. Sadovy, A. Halim, J. Pet. (2006). Capture for culture: artificial shelters for grouper collection in SE Asia. Fish and Fisheries 7: 58-72.
• Mous, P.J., J. Pet, Z. Arifin, R. Djohani, M.V. Erdmann, A. Halim, M. Knight, L. Pet-Soede, & G. Wiadnya (2005). Policy needs to improve marine capture fisheries management and to define a role for marine protected areas in Indonesia. Fisheries Management and Ecology 12: 259-268.
• Benrong Peng, Huasheng Hong, Xiongzhi Xue, Di Jin, "On the measurement of socioeconomic benefits of integrated coastal management (ICM): Application to Xiamen, China," Ocean & Coastal Management 49 (2006) 93-109
• Haiqing Li, "Management of Coastal Mega-Cities: A New Challenge in the 21st century," 27 Marine Policy 333-337 (2003)
• Elena McCarthy, The International Regulation of Underwater Sound (Boston: Kluwer Academic Press, 2004).
• Marco Antonio Quesada Alpizar, "Participation and Fisheries Management in Costa Rica: From Theory to Practice," 30 Marine Policy 641-650 (2006)
• Kevin W. Riddle, "Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: Is International Cooperation Contagious?," 37 Ocean Development and International Law 265-297 (2006)
• Christine Santora, "Management Obstacles and Solutions to a Sea Turtle Bycatch Conflict: Can Endangered Species be Protected While Minimizing Socioeconomic Impacts?," 31 Coastal Management (2003)
• Christine Santora, "Sustainable Energy in the Oceans: Offshore Wind in the U.S.," in Diane Rahm (ed.), Sustainable Energy and the States: Essays on Politics, Markets and Leadership (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006) pp.179-201.
• Christine Santora, Nicole Hade, and Jackie Odell, "Managing Offshore Wind Developments in the United States: Legal, Environmental and Social Considerations Using a Case Study in Nantucket Sound," 47 Ocean & Coastal Management 141-164 (2004)
• Wiadnya, D.G.R., P.J. Mous, R. Djohani, M.V. Erdmann, A. Halim, M. Knight, L. Pet-Soede, & J.S. Pet. (2006). Marine capture fisheries policy formulation and the role of marine protected areas as tool for fisheries management in Indonesia. Marine Research in Indonesia. 30:33-45
• William D. Whitmore, Vern K. Baxter, Shirley L. Laska, “A Critique of Offshore Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal Policy 52 Oceans & Coastal Management 10-16 (2009)

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Graduate Alumni Activities

• Lauren Engel has taken a position at the U.S. Department of State in the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs as a Legal/Policy analyst. She is working on the U.S. extended continental shelf project and on maritime boundaries. In this position she is exposed to a wide variety of ocean issues.
• Tundi Agardy heads an independent policy group called Sound Seas, in the Washington, D.C. area and is a well-known expert on marine conservation, specializing in marine protected areas and coastal planning. Much of her work has focused on coastal conservation and sustainable resource use in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Agardy received her Ph.D. in biological sciences and her master’s in marine policy from the University of Rhode Island, was a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is the author of a 2010 book entitled Ocean Zoning: Making Marine Management More Effective (Earthscan, 2010).
• Alison Hammer is the Branch Chief of NOAA’s National Ocean Service Special Projects Division.
• Dick Allen has been a commercial lobsterman since 1964, running his own vessel the Ocean Pearl and received a Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship in Marine Conservation to investigate a bio-economic model to help fishermen plan better for management and conservation of fisheries.
• Monica Allen, who received her M.A. in 1992, has been hired as a public affairs specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She'll be working as part of a public affairs team in Silver Spring, Md., handling media inquiries and assisting with media for Dr. William T. Hogarth, the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at the National Marine Fisheries Service. Monica worked more than 22 years as a journalist for several New England newspapers. For the last 8 years, she has been at The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, MA. She served as the first women to be editor of the editorial page, holding that position for the last five years. During that time, she won several journalism awards for editorials on restoring fisheries and on improving fishing vessel safety.
• Marie-Christine Aquarone is deputy director of the NOAA Large Marine Ecosystem Program. This geographical and ecological concept and and tool for ocean management was the brainchild of Lewis Alexander, the founder and former department head of the URI Marine Affairs Program, and Ken Sherman, director of the Narragansett Laboratory of NOAA-NMFS. Based in Narragansett, Rhode Island, MC also coordinates the Narragansett Bay Window, a program that brings together the perspectives of many researchers and environmental agencies on how to detect long-term trends and patterns in Narragansett Bay, and how to evaluate its overall health.
• Tom Ardito is Policy and Outreach Coordinator for the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, one of 28 National Estuary Programs established by Congress under the Clean Water Act. Among other duties he is editor of the quarterly Narragansett Bay Journal, available online at www.nbep.org. Last year he began work on a Ph.D. in Marine Affairs at URI.
• John Arnold is an environmental consultant for Stratex, LLC, a Portland, Maine, based strategic, environmental technology consulting firm. Before joining Stratex, John worked at Maine Yankee for 16 years as a special projects coordinator, senior environmental engineer, and public affairs director.
• John Catena is Northeast Regional Supervisor, NOAA/NMFS/Office of Habitat Conservation/Restoration Center.
• Michael Conathan His work focuses on driving progressive solutions to the multitude of problems facing the world's oceans. Prior to joining American Progress, Mike spent five years staffing the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard. He oversaw enactment of multiple key pieces of ocean legislation, including the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act, the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observing Act, the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act, and the Shark Conservation Act.
• Ivar Babb is the Director of the National Underseas Research Center for the North Atlantic and the Great Lakes and is a member of the Oceans Technology Foundation that funds marine research overseas.
• Robert Ballou is Chief of Staff at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
• Margaret Pilaro Barrette is working as an environmental planner for the Aquatic Resources Division of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Her primary focus is on the Lower Columbia River and she has been working with environmental interests against a proposal to further deepen the river channel. Margaret also represents the agency on the implementation committee for the Lower Columbia River Estuary Program, works with the Endangered Species Act, assists local governments with shoreline management, and conducts environmental reviews of proposed projects on the state's aquatic lands.
• Nick Battista after completing his term as a John Knauss Sea Grant Fellow, was hired by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine as a legislative aide for ocean and coastal as well as for, energy, environment, natural resources, taxes, small business and a few other issues areas. In this capacity he has been working on promoting marine renewable energy, protecting working waterfronts, and helping Maine's fishermen. He notes that he frequently works with other marine affairs program grads, including Mike Conathan and Karen Hyun. The three of them have been working on a bill called the Coastal Jobs Creation Act.
• Austin Becker has left his position at Rhode Island Sea Grant and the Coastal Resources Center to pursue a Ph.D. at Stanford University in California. At Stanford, he will be in the Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences Program studying the impacts of climate change on global shipping, maritime industries, and ports. He will be working with a team that includes policy, economics, environmental engineering, and climate-change science perspectives.
• Brett Becker is working as a coastal planner in Monterrey County, California.
• Lee Benaka continues to work as a Fisheries Management Specialist in NMFS's Office of Sustainable Fisheries, where he reviews regulations for South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean fisheries and helps coordinate national bycatch policy for NMFS. Lee served as coauthor for an upcoming NOAA Technical Memo entitled "Evaluating bycatch: a national approach to standardized bycatch monitoring programs" and has coauthored an article to be published in an upcoming issue of Marine Fisheries Review entitled "The National Marine Fisheries Service's National Bycatch Strategy." In addition, Lee has been selected for the U.S. Department of Commerce's 2004 Executive Leadership Development Program.
• Sean Bercaw visited the Department of Marine Affairs and gave a fascinating presentation to the Marine Affairs Brown Bag Lunch Series on his return visit to Pitcairn Island of Mutiny of the Bounty fame. His webpage detailing the visit may be visited at www.pitcairnvoyage.com.
• Tina Berger is a Public Affairs and Resource Specialist with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. She coordinates the Commission's Outreach Program that includes a monthly newsletter, press releases, webpage, informational brochures, and maintains the Commission's advisory panel process. Further, Tina coordinates the Commission's Protected Species Program and develops protected species sections to fishery management plans and amendments.
• Carli Bertrand is now with the NOAA Habitat Division in a new position and is working on ocean policy issues such as marine protected areas, offshore energy, and marine transportation.
• Shannon Bettridge is with the Protected Resources Division of NMFS in Silver Spring, MD, focusing on large whale issues. Specifically, she is working on the right whale ship strike reduction strategy.
• Tom Bigford is Division Chief of the Habitat Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• Gustavo Bisbal is a Foreign Affairs Officer with the Department of State, Bureau of Oceans, and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs in Washington, D.C. He serves as the Department’s Officer for CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) and is involved in with putting together a Marine Science portfolio for the Office of Ocean Affairs.
• Dorian Boardman founded Boardman Ecological Services in 2004. It is a women-business enterprise in Rhode Island and she conducts field investigations for the presence of wetlands, collects data, and completes all necessary environmental permits associated with the resource both in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. This can include federal, state and local permits with, but not limited to, U.S. Army Corps, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (EPA), National Environmental Protection Act, Water Quality Permits (Clean Water Act), Wetland Permits (MADEP, RIDEM and CRMC) and local conservation commissions (MA only). Currently, she works with large and medium engineering firms to design projects that minimize impacts on wetland resources. Most of these projects are transportation related and, therefore, she has worked closely with RI Department of Transportation, Environmental Section on many projects. She also has GIS and GPS experience.
• Chris Boelke is working with the Habitat Conservation Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His primary responsibility is the essential fish habitat review of construction projects, licenses, and permits within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He also serves as the oil spill response coordinator for the NMFS Northeast Regional Office.
• Deirdre Boelke (Valentine) has been working for the New England Fishery Management Council since the fall of 2001. She is now responsible for the Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The New England Council is currently developing an amendment to the FMP to control capacity and fishing mortality from the general category scallop fishery. The general category fishery is an open access fishery, and this action is considering limited entry as well as other measures. Deidre and husband Chris Chris had a baby girl, Elizabeth Shea Boelke, born on August 9, 2005 and live in Newbury, MA.
• Andrew Breau is working for the Department of Natural Resources and Energy, New Brunswick, Canada as Submerged Lands Project Manager.
• William J. Brennan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. William Brennan was appointed to this position by President Bush in April 2002 and in this role he is involved in the negotiation of international agreements, coordinates U.S. policy on international oceanic and atmospheric matters, and focuses on international environmental issues. In 1983 he earned an M.A. degree in the Graduate Program in Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island and then worked on the staff of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee in Washington, D.C. In 1987 he was appointed by Maine Governor John McKernan, Jr. to serve as Commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. On leaving government service he opened a private consulting firm in Portland, Maine, providing marine and environmental policy guidance to business and government. He also served on the New England Fisheries Management Council, the Aquaculture and Marine Technology Board, and the Maine Oil Spill Advisory Council. Additionally, he earned a Ph.D. in ecology and environmental sciences from the University of Maine.
• Robert Burrell has accepted a position with Save the Bay and will be its fleet captain/educator for two new 45-foot, educational vessels. Each year some 30,000 students from grades 5-12 will be given tours of Narragansett Bay. The position began right after his retirement from the Navy.
• Sarah Cahill has been selected to serve as the Director of Museum Education and Outreach of Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut as of June 2010. In this capacity she will lead efforts to expand its public history educational programs and increase educational program at the Seaport and in schools. She had previously worked as executive director of the Rhode Island Afterschool Plus Alliance in Providence and worked at Resources for the Future in Washington, D.C.
• LCDR Jay Caputo (U.S. Coast Guard) is stationed in Honolulu, HI, where he is serving as the Fisheries Officer and is working on a domestic enforcement and monitoring plan for the Hawaiian Monument. He will soon be going to American Somoa to coordinate an international patrol boat meeting discussing boarding procedures. He will also be visiting the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) in Honiara, Solomon Islands and participating in a fishery enforcement operation call Kuru Kuru. The hope with this operation is to share VMS data to get an overall fisheries picture to improve enforcement. He writes that “I appreciate all the classes I took in Washburn Hall, as you can see I'm putting degree to good use.”
• Jena Carter worked as Senior Policy Analyst, Natural Resources Policy Studies, Center for Best Practices of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C. She is now the Director of Government Affairs at the Coastal States Organization (CSO). With headquarters in Washington, D.C., the CSO represents the coastal zone management directors of the 35 coastal states and territories.
• CMDR Mike Cerne (U.S. Coast Guard), after earning his MMA, served as Chief of the Fisheries Enforcement Division, U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, in Washington, D.C. for three years. He is now in Kodiak, Alaska serving as the commander of the Coast Guard Cutter Storis, and once again patrols the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. Mike notes that he is leaving the position of the Chief of the Fisheries Enforcement Division in good hands, as he is being replaced by CMDR John Davis, also a Marine Affairs alum of URI. John, he says, brings a wealth of fisheries enforcement experience and enthusiasm to the job.
• Yuh-Chen Chern works in the Marine Fisheries Division, Fisheries Department, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, in Taipei, Taiwan.
• Josh Cinner (M.A.M.A., 2000) has been actively involved in the evaluation of marine reserves in the US, Jamaica, Mexico, Papua New Guinea Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, and Tanzania. He has worked with groups such as the Ocean Conservancy, WWF, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and NOAA on various contracts examining social aspects of resource use and governance. Josh has been the lead social scientist on numerous projects, including a $500,000 Packard funded project examining which management regimes are effectively conserving coral resources in the Indo-Pacific, and a project examining the socioeconomic impacts of coral bleaching in five Western Indian Ocean countries. Josh has conducted socioeconomic assessments in over 50 coastal communities in throughout the world. Josh currently lives in sunny and tropical Townsville, Australia, where he completed a PhD in 2005 and has taken up a 3 year postdoctoral fellowship with Terry Hughes at James Cook University. His recent work explores the social, economic, and cultural mechanisms that allow communities in Papua New Guinea to employ and maintain traditional reef management practices. He has co-authored a book evaluating marine and coastal protected areas in the Gulf of Maine, and has published numerous publications in journal such as Conservation Biology, Current Biology, Ecology & Society, Environmental Conservation and Ocean & Coastal Management. He can be contacted at joshua.cinner@jcu.edu.au
• Rick Comeau works in Middletown RI at MarineSafety International which does professional training for Mariners (BRM, Radar, ARPA, Shiphandling training and port development work). Port Development work is related to using our simulators for proof of concept work and berth layout. He teaches classes in the Marine Security area.
• Kevin Cute is a marine resources specialist with the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council and co-chair of the Policy and Legislation Committee of the Northeast Regional Panel of the federal Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force.
• Mike Daley, one of the first graduates of the joint MMA/JD program of the Department of Marine Affairs and the Roger Williams School of Law, is serving a law clerk to Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Frank Williams.
• Margaret Davidson served as Acting Assistant Administrator for the National Ocean Service and is now Director, NOAA Coastal Services Center in Charleston, South Carolina.
• Braxton Davis received his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Marine Affairs in 2003 has been appointed to the position of Research Assistant Professor at the Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences at the University of South Carolina.
• Eric Denny is Director of Corporate Programs, Outward Bound, Inc. in Rockport, Maine.
• Rick De Voe is Director of South Carolina Sea Grant.
• Amy Diedrich completed her postdoctoral work on ICZM in the Balearic Islands, Spain at IMEDEA (Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies) at the end of 2008. Since then, she has been the lead researcher of a research group for Sustainability Science and Integrated Coastal and Marine Management at SOCIB (Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System). SOCIB, established in 2009 with funding from the regional and national governments, is a multi-platform distributed and integrated system that will provide streams of oceanographic data and modelling services to support operational oceanography Europe and internationally. The specific research objectives of Amy's group include: developing and evaluating decision-making tools and management frameworks, with particular emphasis on coastal and marine spatial planning, the ecosystem approach, marine protected areas, risk analysis, indicators and coastal ocean observing and prediction systems, and conducting research on environmental governance and management systems and the transfer and communication of science to society.
• Elizabeth Dieveney is working at NOAA as the Coordinator for the Coral Reef Task Force and notes that this is a perfect placement for her, both personally and professionally.
• Tim Dillingham is the Executive Director of the American Littoral Society, a national coastal conservation organization based at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The organization has 6,000 members in 42 states and seeks to protect and restore coastal habitat through research, education, advocacy, and public interest litigation. One of the issues of concern is coastal access. In an article appearing in the New York Times on July 4, 2004 concerning litigation to open beach access, Dillingham is quoted as saying "The coast is becoming increasingly privatized...We are seeing a race along the New Jersey coast to lock up access to the beaches and to privatize great lengths of it."
• Jessica Dominguez is a project officer in the Brownfields Programof the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She works with recipients of federal grants for the assessment and cleanup of brownfields sites in New England. She is also the sustainabale development lead for the Brownfields Program and provides guidance on issues of brownfields redevelopment. She has a special interest in restoration and natural resource management in the context of community values and planning. She was selected to be an Environment Leadership Fellow for the New England region for 2008.
• LT Keith Donahue is now in the Coast Guard's Office of Environmental and Operational Standards at headquarters in Washington, D.C. He is working for LCDR Kathy Moore (see below) and is developing the Coast Guard's policy for implementing ballast water enforcement measures throughout the country. He has also been working with the General Accounting Office on an audit of Coast Guard and EPA enforcement of no discharge zones. Keith notes that the MAF Program provided good preparation for the work that he and LCDR Kathy Moore do. They are involved in writing and implementing U.S. regulations and policy and moving U.S. positions in relation to international marine and environmental conventions, particularly the big issue of invasive species.
• Susan Emerson is a Program Analyst for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of Enterprise, Technology, & Innovation. She is on the Environmental Finance Team, a small team dedicated to finding innovating ways of funding projects for environmental protection. Her web site is found at www.epa.gov/efinpage. Her current focus is on updating a finance publication titled "Paying for Sustainable Environmental Systems: A Guidebook of Financial Tools." Examples of financial tools that will be in the updated Guidebook include grants and loans funding projects such as the construction of municipal wastewater treatment plants, tax credits for buying solar panels, and land trusts for open space preservation. She enjoys this position very much and encourages MAF students and graduates interested in pursuing employment with EPA to contact her at emerson.susan@epa.gov.
• Elizabeth “Libby” Etrie is Southern Sector Coordinator at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
• Allison Ferreira works as an analyst for the Northeast Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Her primary task is to work with the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils on the management of the monkfish fishery.
• LCDR Brian Fiedler (U.S. Coast Guard) is the Coast Guard Liaison Officer to NOAA Fisheries in Silver Springs, MD. In that role, he supports the development of living marine resources operations and enforcement policies and agreements. He also aids in the evaluation and development of Coast Guard national and service wide plans, policies, procedures, and resource training requirements.
• Patty Freeland has accepted an internship at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. She is working in the Science, Technology and Law Program in the Policy and Global Affairs Division.
• Laurie Frost is practicing law in the Washington, D.C. area and is involved with regulatory and legislative monitoring and reporting on maritime and marine pollution issues. She is a member of the Coast Guard's Towing Safety Advisory Committee and Chair of the Barge Retrieval, Voyage Planning, and Fire Suppression Working Group. She also serves as a Planning Commissioner for Fairfax County, Virginia and works on land use and zoning issues.
• Elizabeth Fuller (Valentine) and husband Vinton Valentine are now living in Falmouth, MA with their children Claire (4) and Lydia (2). He's a post-doc at the Ecosystem Center at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole. Elizabeth has been consulting for about a year and a half on marina-related topics and recently began working part-time with the Waquoit Bay NERR to update its management plan.
• Elizabeth Gallup who was working at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has accepted a position with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission as an environmental engineer.
• Megan Gamble works for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in Washington, D.C. and serves as the fishery management plan coordinator for winter flounder, spiny dogfish, coastal sharks, and shad and river herring.
• Anne Garnett is Director of the Aquidneck Island Land Trust and lives in Jamestown, R.I.
• Robert Gass is Assistant Regional Coordinator of the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. In this capacity, he has worked on issues relating to regional coordination, project review, special natural areas protection, port and harbor revitalization, and coastal water quality improvement.
• Dan Gegan is Senior Planner in the Warwick, Rhode Island Department of Planning.
• Townsend Goddard is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Rhode Island State Senate Policy Office.
• LCDR Mark Gordon (U.S. Coast Guard) runs the southern region fishery training center in Charleston, S.C. He writes that the Marine Affairs Program provided an excellent perspective and background for his position. In his spare time he is completing a master's degree in public administration at the College of Charleston.
• Mahar Gorospe is working as a part-time consultant for a non-governmental organization called the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (or PATH Philippines). She coordinates research operations between PATH and colloborating NGOs for a Packard funded project called Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (I-POPCORM)
• Jennifer Greenamoyer worked for four years at the Environmental Protection Agency and then for a year as a congressional staffer. She is now working for the Sea Grant Association, as external affairs director.
• Marina Guedes emailed from Paradise Island, East Timor to let us know that she is working for the United Nations as the Advisor for the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries for East Timor's transitional government. East Timor became independent on May 20, 2002. She notes the complicated situation of offshore boundaries in the East Timor area.
• Abdul Halim is the Policy and Financing Manager for the Nature Conservancy's Coral Triangle Center, based in Bali - Indonesia. His main task is to support the government of Indonesia to develop coastal resources management policies that are environmentally benign. He may be contacted at ahalim@tnc.org
• Misty Hamilton works in SE Florida for St. Lucie County's Environmental Resources Department as the Coastal Resources Coordinator. She has been responsible for site plan review and permitting in all coastal areas of the county, along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River, the Indian River Lagoon, and the barrier islands. She also conducts water quality testing along the waterways in the county boat, monitors beach dune restoration projects, participates in public education events and monitors homeowner/condo compliance with night-time sea turtle lighting codes.
• Jennifer Hannum is working as an Environmental Planner for the Delaware Department of Transportation. She works on environmental assessment and permitting.
• Amy Hart (Adams) left her position as water resources planner at the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program in 1995 and launched her own environmental consulting firm. Her experience with her new enterprise that undertakes environmental grant writing, environmental assessment and planning services, and environmental publication development and design is said to be very rewarding and challenging. In a note to Prof. Niels West, Amy observes that she would never have been able to accomplish all that she did without acquiring the M.A.M.A degree from URI's Marine Affairs Program.
• Mary Beth Hart is Coastal Nonpoint Source Program Coordinator for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Long Island Sound Programs.
• Megan Higgins, a graduate of the Joint J.D./M.M.A. Program, has left her position as a coastal analyst at the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council to take a position at the Marine Affairs Institute at the Roger Williams University Law School. She is now serving as the Institute’s Research Counsel. In that capacity she is responsible for managing the outreach arm of the Sea Grant Legal Program, overseeing the work of Sea Grant Law Fellows and conducting work with state and federal agencies, the environmental community and the private sector on legal research projects.
• Peter Hoar is Coastal Ecosystem Program Manager for NOAA/National Coastal Data Development Center (NCDDC), although, he is employed by Planning Systems Incorporated (PSI). Peter notes that the circumstance of national federal programs being run by federal "contractors" (i.e., he is not a "Fed") has become quite common (typically about 60% of staff in NOAA satellite offices), and has quite significant, though I believe as yet un-analyzed consequences for how NOAA and other federal agencies conduct business. Because NCDDC has been placed within the Ecosystem Goal under Ecosystem Observations in the NOAA reorganization process, my program is central to the NOAA/National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service(NESDIS)/NCDDC goal of providing comprehensive and easy access to watershed/coastal/marine data (i.e, all data relevant to coastal issues) and derived products (e.g., GIS). Additionally, he serves as the NESDIS representative on the NOAA Habitat Matrix Team, and within that, the invasive species team. Peter is also NOAA representative on both the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River Basin Panels of the National Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force (under the Aquatic Nuisance Species Act), and serves on the Sea Grant Aquatic Invasive Species grant program proposal review board. All this invasive species stuff came about because of his involvement in the issue whilst a NERR manager, and through one of our NCDDC projects developing an IS early warning system.
• Joan Hoelzel is a Senior Environmental Analyst in the Office of Long Island Sound Program's, Coastal Programs section and works with coastal towns advising them on proper development in the coastal boundary. She also reviews state and federal projects for consistency with the state's coastal management program.
• Bob Holtzman is an acquisitions editor at International Marine (a McGraw-Hill Company), the largest publisher of books about recreational boating in the U.S. Based in Rockport, Maine, he welcomes inquiries about book projects on boating and other outdoor sports for a consumer audience. See www.internationalmarine.com or contact him at: bob_holtzman@mcgraw-hill.com
• Gretchen Honan has been working on a variety of wetland projects, two of which are along the Los Angeles River and relate to riverine habitat. She recently spent half a day on the Sugar Island hopper dredge that was dredging the LA harbor entrance channel. As part of an experimental capping program of the Environmental Protection Agency, they deposited material on top of a DDT-contaminated site.
• Megan Higgins, another of the first graduates of the joint MMA/JD program, is working as a coastal policy analyst for the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council. She is involved with habitat restoration projects. One project, the South Shore Habitat Restoration Project, is concerned with the coastal ponds in southern Rhode Island. She is also working on a management plan for Greenwich Bay.
• Lennox Hinds is a Senior Advisor on Oceans, Marine Affairs and Fisheries in the Canadian International Development Agency. He is the author of "Oceans Governance and the Implementation Gap," in 27 Marine Policy 349-356 (2003).
• Eric Hutchins works for the NOAA Restoration Center in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In his role as the Gulf of Maine Habitat Restoration Coordinator he provides financial and technical assistance to a wide range of coastal habitat restoration projects includiing dam removals and salt marsh restoration projects throughout the Gulf of Maine, including New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
• Karen Hyun received her MAF Ph.D. in 2008. While in the MAF Graduate Program she was selected from a wide field of applicants to receive a Switzer Environmental Fellowship. Fellows are chosen because of their work directed toward improving environmental quality and their demonstration of the potential for leadership in their fields of study. She is now on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife.
• LCDR Keith Janssen (U.S. Coast Guard) left CG Headquarters in July of 2001 and assumed the duties of Executive Officer of Marine Safety Office Charleston. The unit's mission has been drastically changed since 9/11 with a much larger focus on port security than in the past. The unit still pursued the Coast Guard's environmental protection mission by referring an illegal discharge and two Oily Water Separator bypass cases to the U.S. Attorney with two additional cases referred to the International Maritime Organization as MARPOL violations. In September of 2002, MSO Charleston responded to a 12,500 gallon discharge from the M/V Ever Reach when it breached its hull on a submerged object in Charleston Harbor. The active response lasted nearly three months, with more than $1 million dollars expended to remove the oil from the harbor. Since that time the harbor has recovered well and only minimal impacts a year later could be found. In June of 2004, LCDR Janssen left Charleston and reported as a Coast Guard Fellow on the staff of Senator Susan Collins in her capacity as Chairperson of the Governmental Affairs Committee. While the committee is responsible for oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, where the Coast Guard is now located, it has a much broader mandate which should prove to be interesting. The Janssen's seventh grade daughter, while he was attending URI, is now a rising sophomore at the College of Charleston.
• Paula Jewell is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Bays Estuary Association. The Massachusetts Bays Program (Mass Bays) is a partnership of citizens, communities, and government that strives to protect and enhance the coastal health and heritage of Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays.
• David Kaiser is a Senior Policy Analyst, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, NOAA, Coastal Response Research Center, at the University of New Hampshire.
• Cindy Knapman is now the communications leader for the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program in Honolulu and work on a variety of topics including coastal hazard mitigation, coastal development, healthy coastal ecosystems, aquaculture, and coastal tourism. She handles all the media inquiries; write and edit publications; revise and update the website; and am starting to focus more on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach a variety of stakeholders. Cindy can be reached at lknapman@hawaii.edu.
• Amy Knowlton works on marine mammal issues for the New England Aquarium in Boston.
• Dawn Kotowicz defended her dissertation on post-tsunami resilience in Thai coastal communities in December 2009 and graduated from the MAF PhD program in May 2010. As of November, she is working as a Social Research Project Manager for the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center at NOAA/NMFS in Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Jon Kurland is the Team Leader/Coordinator for Essential Fish Habitat in the Habitat Protection Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
• Marnie Laing is working with the National Trust for the Cayman Islands as the Development and Education Specialist for its conservation and environmental education programs.
• Mary Landry, Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, oversaw the initial Coast Guard response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In this capacity, she worked with officials from BP and federal regulators to stop the oil flow and to minimize and remediate the effects of the oil spill.
• Yolanda Leon (Ph.D. 2004, Major professor: Dr. Pollnac) is currently a professor in the biology department of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, where she teaches both in Santo Domingo as well as in Hato Mayor, a rural area in eastern Dominican Republic. She is also continuing to work part-time with an environmental NGO called Grupo Jaragua, collaborating in different projects, including one on sea turtles and other projects concerning database management. In September-October 2004 she attended a training course in Japan on GIS and Biodiversity Information Systems. At the time that she prepared this paragraph, she was visiting Japan's Biodiversity Center, on the outskirts of Mount Fuji. The training course included ten participants from around the world including Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Senegal, Madagascar and Papua New Guinea.
• Haiqing Li is Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation in the State Oceanic Administration, People's Republic of China. He recently authored the article "Management of Coastal Mega-Cities--A New Challenge in the 21st Century," appearing in 27 Marine Policy 333-337 (2003).
• Captain Ted Lillestolen is the Associate Deputy Assistant Administrator for NOAA's Ocean Service.
• John Lopez, who received a John Knauss Fellowship, worked in the Washington office of Sen. Edward Kennedy where he dealt with coastal and fisheries issues. Much of his work addressed groundfish policy in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank. Currently, he is the Legislative and Policy Analyst for the Coastal States Organization (CSO) in Washington, D.C. The CSO represents the governors of the 35 coastal states, territories and commonwealths of the U.S. At CSO he works on a wide variety of ocean/coastal issues including coral reefs and is drafting a fellowship/intern program between CSO and the Department of Marine Affairs.
• Carissa Lord is working with Pam Pogue at the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency as the Mapping and Modernization Planner. She is involved with a consulting group on the state-wide Map Modernization effort, updating and digitizing the Flood Insurance Rate Maps in Rhode Island. Among other things, she hopes to increase community participation in the Community Rating System. Being on a very small team, she has the opportunity to get involved with a variety of assignments and recently attended, for example, the Blackstone River Valley forum in Lincoln, RI, where she gained a better understanding of the importance of watershed planning and how all stakeholders can play a role in hazard mitigation.
• Jung-Eun Kim is now at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom working on a Ph.D. degree.
• Kristin Mallek Uiterwyk is a Research Analyst at the Urban Harbors Institute (UHI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Two recent projects involved assisting the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs with (1) developing a suite of indicators to assess the effectiveness of the Massachusetts Ocean Management Plan, and (2) examining the compatibility and incompatibility related to various different ocean uses. In addition to some new projects advancing the previous work related to indicators and ocean use compatibility, Kristin is also currently involved in a research project to gather information about recreational boating in Massachusetts. Kristin can be reached at Kristin.Uiterwyk@umb.edu.
• Liz Matthews is the Assistant Director of the Global Marine Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York.
• Jennifer McCann, Rhode Island Sea Grant Extension Leader for Coastal Programs, received the 2010 Northeast Sea Grant Network Outstanding Outreach Achievement Award in recognition for their efforts helping Rhode Island, the region, and the nation employ marine spatial planning methodologies and advance the public policy debate surrounding offshore renewable energy resources development. McCann and her team are assisting the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council in development of the policy document that will provide guidance for the siting of renewable energy infrastructure in Rhode Island’s offshore waters. The impetus for this plan has been the state’s goal of achieving 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources.
• Elena McCarthy successfully defended her dissertation and was awarded a Ph.D. in Marine Affairs in May 2003. Her dissertation focused on the international regulation of ocean noise, a subject that has received increasing attention particularly because of possible impacts on marine mammals. Her Ph.D. research developed an integrated approach to ocean noise pollution that incorporates knowledge of physics, international law, and sound ecosystem management. As noted above, she is the author of the book International Regulation of Underwater Sound: Establishing Rules and Standards to Address Ocean Noise Pollution (Boston: Kluwer Academic, 2004). The book was written while she served as the Robert and Patricia Switzer Postdoctoral Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanogaphic Institution. She is also the co-author of a GIS-based website that maps sources of ocean noise on New England's Stellwagen Bank---Mapping Anthropogenic Noise in the Sea: An Aid to Policy Development. Go to: www.whoi.edu/science/MPC/dept/research/ocean_noise/index.html. Her research has been presented to the ocean noise committee of the National Research Council and during 2004 she was invited to chair several panels at two international conferences, "Shipping Noise and Marine Mammals," held in Washington, D.C. and "Policy on Sound and Marine Mammals: An International Workshop" held in London and sponsored by the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission and the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Elena has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Ocean Engineering and has worked in the field of sonar and ocean acoustics for many years. Her past work includes research at international agencies (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the US Government (US Navy), non-profit organizations (Sea Education Association), as well as private industry (Rockwell International.) Her dissertation research was funded in part by the Switzer Foundation, which provided a fellowship in 2001, as well as by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Marine Policy Center, where she was a guest student.
• Cmdr. E.J. McClure is the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Energy and Climate Change Issue Team Lead, where she heads OSDs Energy and Climate Change assessment for the ongoing 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Earlier she served as the QDR Environmental/Arctic issue team lead and led the Navy's first comprehensive assessment of the impacts of climate change with the Center for a New American Security and the CNA Arctic Study.
• David MacDuffee graduated in 2001 with the MMA/JD joint degree program and currently works with Tom Bigford (see above) in the Office of Habitat Conservation/Habitat Protection Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Silver Spring, Maryland. As part of the Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) program, he works on policy issues associated with implementing the EFH mandate under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
• Sally McGee is the Northeast Marine Program Director for The Nature Conservancy in New Haven, CT. She is also a member of the New England Fishery Management Council.
• Laurie McGilvray has been the Estuarine Reserves Division Chief in the National Oceanographic and Oceanic Administration. The National Estuarine Research Reserve System is a network of protected areas established for long-term research, education and stewardship. This partnership program between NOAA and the coastal states protects more than one million acres of estuarine land and water, which provides essential habitat for wildlife; offers educational opportunities for students, teachers and the public; and serves as living laboratories for scientists. In July 2006 she was detailed to the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) Headquarters for four months to serve as the Acting Deputy Director.
• Alison Macrae (Demong) is working at the Massachusetts Bay National Estuary Program (MBP) as the South Shore field coordinator, out of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association (NSWRA) office. The MBP employs her to work with communities on a variety of projects and she operates as part of the NSWRA staff. This partnership is working out very well. Alison also reports that she and her husband, Ned, have moved from Cambridge to Norwell on the South Shore.
• LCDR Robert McFarland (U.S. Coast Guard) is serving as Associate Professor at the World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden. The WMU is sponsored by the International Maritime Organization and Bob is teaching students from all over the world about IMO Conventions, maritime safety and environmental protection, and policy implementation. Bob and his wife, Pam, live outside of Malmo and their four children attend an international school.
• Thomas Marnane, a member of the first graduating class (1970), is a board member of the San Francisco Bay Planning Coalition and adisor to the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. He notes that he is still using his marine affairs education to contribute to the preservation of the California coastline.
• Catalina Martinez who earned a master's degree in oceanography as well as in marine affairs is expedition coordinator for NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration. She is based at URI and serves as a liaison between NOAA, URI, and the Institute for Exploration and is responsible ensuring the success of several NOAA-funded oceanographic research expeditions each year.
• LCDR Dwight Mathers (U.S. Coast Guard), after receiving his MMA, served as the liaison between the Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of State on fisheries matters. In this capacity, he was involved in a variety of international negotiations relating to the management of the world's fishery resources. He is now stationed in Hawaii.
• Jesse Mechling who worked for NOAA's Coastal Services Center (CSC) as a Northeast Regional Coastal Management Specialist based in Boston and at the University of New Hampshire, is now Marine Education Director for the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. He also has a photography website which may be visited at www.travelandnaturephoto.com
• LT Don Montoro has assumed command of the Coast Guard Gulf Fisheries Center in New Orleans. He is the Coast Guard representative at the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council and the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission. Interesting issues that have arisen concern the use of vessel monitoring systems (VMS) and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). He works closely with NOAA's Office for Law Enforcement and its General Counsel Enforcement and Litigation Branch.
• LCDR Kathy Moore (U.S. Coast Guard) is serving as the head of the Coast Guard's Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) Program and Chief of the Environmental Standards Division. She is involved with developing domestic regulations for the prevention of the introduction and spread of ANS via shipping, negotiating an international convention on ballast water through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and directing research into assessing ballast water treatment technologies and enforcement techniques. After an intense and productive meeting of the IMO's Marine Environmental Protection Committee in July 2003 in London, the Draft Convention for the Control and Management of Ship's ballast Water and Sediments will go to a diplomatic conference in February 2004. She has also given several presentations at meetings and workshops on aquatic nuisances and helped prepare witnesses for Senate Subcommittee hearings on the reauthorization of legislation on that subject.
• Jackie Odell has taken on the position of Executive Director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition. This organization represents commercial fishermen and seeks to encourage regulators to make sensible rules for fisheries and educates the public about the fishing industry.
• Rebekah Padgett is a 401/Coastal Zone Management Specialist in the state of Washington Department of Ecology's Shorelands and Environmental Assistance Program. She writes that this new position is an exciting move from environmental education and public involvement to doing more technical work. In this new position she is reviewing project proposals and applications ensuring that they comply with the Clean Water Act and state water quality standards, as well as protecting aquatic resources and mitigating adverse impacts. She is also determining whether projects are consistent with the Washington Coastal Zone Management Program and will get to conduct site inspections.
• Rebekah Padgett presented a paper on tidal energy in Puget Sound at the 2008 The Coastal Society conference in Redondo Beach where she met Margaret Davidson, Director, NOAA Coastal Services Center in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as a few other URI folks.
• Daniel Parrot is the author of a book, Tall Ships Down (Camden, Maine: International Marine/McGraw Hill, 2003). The book traces the history of a number of tall ships from their construction through their operations at sea.
• Jennifer Pereira is the Executive Director of the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.
• Medhat Rabie has returned to work in Egypt after completing work for the Master Marine Affairs degree and is now in charge of coastal developments in the Gulf of Aqaba.
• Paul Philippe Razafinjatovo is the Marine Program Coordinator for Conservation International in Madagascar. In this position he is involved in conducting a marine rapid assessment in Madagascar and developing a strategy for the conservation of marine biodiversity in Madagascar. The potential for establishment of marine protected areas is also being considered.
• Kevin Riddle is the Coast Guard Liaison Officer to the United States Department of State. He is assigned to the Bureau of Ocean, and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of Marine Conservation (OES/OMC) to facilitate interagency coordination of international fisheries enforcement and compliance issues. In this capacity he coordinates Coast Guard participation in international fisheries negotiations and advises the U.S. Representative to various international organizations on fisheries enforcement and compliance issues. He also provides advice to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans (OES/O) and the Director of the Office of Marine Conservation (OES/OMC) on at sea fisheries enforcement and compliance issues and coordinates Coast Guard obligations under various international fisheries agreements and monitors international fisheries issues for possible Coast Guard involvement. He notes that the URI Marine Affairs Program prepared him very well for this position.
• Nathan Sage has been working in the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi since 2002 and iscurrently the head of the Environment, Science, Technology and Health section. He has led a wide array of policy initiatives including dioxin remediation, nuclear fuel swapout and avian influenza planning. He is a board member of Village Focus International, an NGO that promotes social entrepreneurs and youth leadership in Laos and Cambodia. In fall 2007, Nathan will launch a climate change start-up entitled IndoChina Carbon to develop renewable energy and carbon abatement projects. Email: flyingdugong@hotmail.comng@hotmail.com
• Joudy Sangari has been working for the government of Indonesia as a lecturer at Sam Ratulangi University in Manado, North Sulawesi. He is a Ph.D. candidate in natural resources management at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia and the recipient of an Australian Agency for International Development Scholarship. On completion of his studies he will return to Indonesia.
• Christine Santora currently works for the Pew Institute for Ocean Science out of its New York City office. She recently co-authored a consensus paper on Ecosystem Based Fishery Management that was published in the journal Science, and continues to work on ecosystem-based fisheries management and other fishery management issues for the Pew Institute. In addition, she will be contributing a chapter on offshore wind for an upcoming book on sustainable energy.
• Christine Santora, Nichole Hade, and Jackie Odell are the joint authors of an article entitled "Managing Offshore Wind Developments in the United States: Legal, Environmental and Social Considerations Using a Case Study in Nantucket Sound," 47 Ocean and Coastal Management 141-164 (2004). This article examines the needs that must be addressed before widescale development of offshore wind occurs in U.S. water.
• LT. Daniels Schaeffer (USCG) is the commanding officer of the North Pacific Regional Fisheries Training Center (NPRFTC) in Kodiak, Alaska. He informs us of hosting a delegation of officials from the Fisheries Law Enforcement Command of the People's Republic of China in April 2005. The program provided training on the U.S. fisheries management system and the actual application of interntional fisheries law in practice. The visit of this delegation will further build cooperation between fisheries enforcement efforts of the United States and China. Dan relates that for several years the NPRFTC has hosted shipriders from China on U.S. Coast Guard cutters and aircraft to combat illegal driftnet fishing on the high seas. He notes that in 2003 the shiprider program delivered it first success, with joint US/PRC cooperation in seizing five Chinese vessels caught using illegal driftnets.
• Heidi Schuttenberg was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Thailand to study coral reef conservation. Her work built on related research that she conducted in Indonesia for the URI Coastal Resources Center.
• Pasquale Scida serves as the Endangered Species Coordinator for the Northeast Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service. His duties include coordinating the implementation of the Endangered Species Act for species under NMFS jurisdiction in the Northeast. These include Atlantic salmon, shortnose sturgeon, sea turtles, and ESA-listed marine mammals.
• Tonia Selmeski is a coastal permitting analyst with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Long Island Sound Programs in Hartford.
• James Sha is the Deputy Director-General of the Fisheries Agency, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, in Taipei, Taiwan.
• Dah-Wen Shieh is Division Chief, Department of Fisheries, Bureau of Agriculture, in the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taipei, Taiwan.
• Brad Spear who was the Fishery Management Plan Coordinator for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in Washington D.C. Spear has just accepted a new position as Metrics Director for a young NGO called Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (http://www.sustainablefish.org/main/home). The group helps major seafood buyers and suppliers design and implement sustainable seafood policies. At the same time, it uses its leverage to drive improvements at the fishery level. His new work email is braddock.spear@sustainablefish.org
• Dr. Greg Stone is Co-chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Council on Ocean Governance and Conservation International's Senior Vice-President and Chief Scientist for Oceans. In 2000, he led the effort to create the world's larges marine protected area around the Phoenix Islands in Kiribati. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area was announced at the 2006 Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity. Greg was named one of the National Geographic Society's Heroes of 2007 for this accomplishment.
• Mary Kate Stubljar MA ’06, has accepted a position with the Alabama Chapter of The Nature Conservancy as their Coastal Conservation Specialist. She will be responsible for coordinating, managing and advancing conservation programs, plans and methods for small-scale and large-scale ecoregions. In addition, she will provide technical leadership and support to the project management programs and stewardship activities, especially related to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. She has already jumped in working on the 100-1000 Restore Coastal Alabama project (www.100-1000.org) that is striving to create 100 miles of oyster reefs and 1000 acres of marsh/seagrass beds in 5 years.
• Elke Sutt works in the Coastal Programs section of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Long Island Sound Programs as a municipal liaison to the coastal towns in the Thames River watershed. She is also coordinating the state's Clean Marina Program.
• Pete Tebeau is doing maritime consulting work with his own company, Marine Research Associates, LLC. His primary clients have been the Coast Guard, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, and the University of Connecticut. Topic areas include oil spill prevention and response, maritime information systems, search and rescue planning, marine water quality monitoring, and general marine program management. He is currently living in Stonington, CT and restoring a 29-foot Rhodes Ranger sloop.
• Brian Thompson is the Director of the Office of Long Island Sound Programs in Connecticut.
• Steven Tucker is a coastal and marine resources specialist with the Cape Cod Commission in Barnstable, Massachusetts.
• Christophe Tulou is Director of the District of Columbia Department of the Environment. Earlier he served as the Executive Director of the Pew Oceans Commission. Prior to this appointment, he worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., first as a Sea Grant Fellow and later on the staff of Congressman Tom Carper of Delaware, who was a member of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. He later worked as Secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, where he was actively engaged in fisheries, coastal zone management, and pollution issues. In his role with the Pew Oceans Commission, he helped develop ocean policy options and recommendations and oversaw publication of the Commission's reports.
• Vinton Valentine is a post-doc at the Ecosystem Center at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole where he has been consulting for about a year and a half on marina-related topics. He just recently began working part-time with the Waquoit Bay NERR to update their management plan.
• Wendy Waller, an MMA/JD graduate, is very pleased to be working as a policy specialist at the new Explore the Bay Center on Field's Point in Providence. She has been involved in legal work relating to matters such as the LNG developments in the region, a desalinization project in Massachusetts, and comments on various applications before the RI Coastal Resources Management Council and the Department of Environmental Management.
• Susan Ware Harris works in the NOAA Office of International Affairs and has been appointed the Executive Director of the NOAA International Affairs Council. She continues her work on international oceans, small islands, as well as other environment and sustainable development issues. She notes that she works for another URI MAF alum: Bill Brennan (see above). On the personal side, she married Rhode Islander and URI alumnus Bob Harris in 1999 and they have two sons, Jonathan, born in May 2001 and William, born in August 2005.
• William Whitmore defended his Ph.D. dissertation in the spring of 2010 and is currently employed as a Fisheries Policy Analyst in the Northeast Regional Office of NMFS in Gloucester, MA.
• Eric Wiberg is Vice-President of RSR Partners (formerly The Directorship Search Group) and recruits talent for the shipping industry. At headquarters in Greenwich, CT, he specializes in head-hunting senior executives and board members for maritime companies in New England and Houston.
• Long Zhou, who earned a master’s degree in marine affairs and is a candidate for a Ph.D. in physical oceanography has been awarded a National Sea Grant College Program Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships for 2010. A native of China, he entered China’s Ocean University at age 16 and from there came to the Graduate School of Oceanography to pursue his doctorate. He later enrolled in marine affairs because he wanted to “apply science to more practical work that can address important societal problems.” Zhou is currently using a complex model to analyze physical, economic, and ecological data to better understand coastal development in Xiamen, China, and Batangas Bay, Philippines, for the URI Coastal Resources Center. He has received several academic awards in the United States and China. He has also studied and written about European experiences in planning offshore wind farms for the R.I. Ocean Special Area Management Plan.
• Jon Zwarg is Senior Environmental Planner, Office of Water Resources, RI Department of Environmental Management.

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