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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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