This year two of our 2015 School of Marine and Environmental Affairs graduates were awarded the Marc Hershman Marine Policy Fellowship. This fellowship teams up recent graduates with mentors in state government or NGO host offices in Olympia, Tacoma, or Seattle. This year-long fellowship offers them the opportunity to work on ocean and coastal science and management issues, with many former fellows going on to jobs in state and local government, private industry, and NGOs. This year’s SMEA awardees Mikaela Freeman and Mike Chang have had wonderful experiences so far in their respective host offices.

Mikaela is working with the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission’s Recreational Boating Safety Program, where she is the paddlesports safety project coordinator and is tasked with collecting statewide data on paddlesports and convening an ad hoc stakeholder committee. By showing trends in paddlesports and discussing the needs of the paddlesport community with stakeholders, Mikaela and the Recreational Boating Safety Program hope to help grow paddlesports in Washington while growing a culture of safety. During her fellowship Mikaela will also evaluate potential policy improvements and provide recommendations for how the Recreational Boating Safety Program can best grow a culture of safety in paddlesports. Mikaela is originally from Alameda, California and completed her B.S. in Natural Science at the University of Puget Sound. Her master’s thesis focused on the current uses and potential conflicts of marine spatial planning in Washington.

Mike Chang is the Marc Hershman Marine Policy Fellow for the Makah Tribe/The Nature Conservancy. Mike is helping conduct a climate change and ocean acidification vulnerability assessment for the Makah Tribe. The results will be used to develop and inform Makah Ocean Policy and support the Makah Tribe’s engagement in state and regional marine planning and climate adaptation forums. Some of his past work and research experiences include working as a molecular ecologist on marine invasive species and as a research assistant on the impacts of community based management in Solomon Island fisheries. In graduate school, Mike worked as a teaching assistant for the UW Biology department, a research assistant on a science communication project, and as the social media manager for Washington Sea Grant. His master’s thesis was on science art and how art can be used to communicate science and research. He was born and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina and received a B.S. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Yale University.