Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?

It mostly began while I was studying zoology at University of Wisconsin-Madison, including studying abroad in Ecuador for a tropical and marine conservation and ecology semester. While on the coast, we visited a fishing village and I realized there are a lot of people and communities that rely on this type of work as a means for a living. It was one thing to want to study the marine conservation and the creatures under the sea, but when I started seeing people eking out a living and relying on these same animals for their own survival, it hit me on a different level. At what point are people prioritized over conserving species, and should they be? It’s a challenging balance to conserve marine organisms and habitats, while also ensuring people don’t completely lose their livelihoods. These are the types of issues I wanted to study more, and I thought SMEA was the perfect place to do so.

Why did you decide to come to UW’s SMEA for graduate school?

I hadn’t heard of SMEA when I was at University of Wisconsin, but a friend that I studied with in Ecuador was talking about going to graduate school and found a great spot at University of Washington. I had previously lived in Washington when I was in the Navy (2007-2011) and was excited that he was going to such a great university and area to live. A year later, I received a fellowship to do research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD (right outside Washington D.C.) and remembered my friend talking about marine-related work at University of Washington. I started perusing around and found SMEA. I was reading faculty bios and got really excited about the type of research everyone was doing and dug into it more. By chance I came across my friend’s bio, the SMEA famous Jimmy Kralj. I reached out to him and asked him about SMEA and got glowing reviews of the program and courses. I took it from there and applied, and now here I am gearing up to graduate soon and couldn’t be happier with my decision to come to SMEA and earn a Master’s in Marine Affairs.

Are you doing a thesis or capstone project? If thesis, what are you writing your thesis about and why? If capstone, what is the project about?

I am doing a capstone project with Mariko Kobayashi and John Downing, and we are investigating the factors that help and/or hinder implementation of Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMPs) in Washington’s coastal counties and communities. We have been conducting semi-structured interviews with emergency planners, directors of emergency management, floodplain managers, city planners, etc. who are involved in implementing HMPs for their city or county. Dr. Clare Ryan is our advisor, and the project is funded by Washington SeaGrant. We plan on writing case studies for each place we interviewed people, with the goal of sharing results with communities that are involved in the study or are interested in knowing what other communities are doing to implement their HMPs. I thoroughly enjoy the project – my team members and advisor are great, and we really help each other out and are invested in the project’s success. It’s also be an awesome experience going out into communities and speaking face-to-face with interviewees when we get the chance – you really learn a lot by meeting people and seeing places in-person.

What has been your favorite class at UW so far? Why?

A class that unfortunately is not going to be taught anymore, International Law of the Sea taught by Professor Craig Allen. It was an incredible amount of material to learn about UNCLOS and the international law of the sea, and possibly the longest final (4 hours) I ever took, but the wealth of knowledge I gained (and retained) from that class is incredible. It was one of the more difficult courses I’ve taken in my academic career, but well worth the time and effort I put into it to be successful. I have to give serious consideration for Pacific Tourism taught by Professor Marc Miller, because that class really began to teach me how to be a successful graduate student on top of the thought-provoking material we would read and discuss in class. I highly recommend that course to all incoming first-year students, and second years who didn’t take it their first year.

What do you like most about SMEA?

I like that even though there is a general theme with the human dimensions of marine affairs in SMEA, there’s a large diversity of topics one can choose to focus on and pursue. The different types of theses and capstone projects really reflect that too. Whether someone wants to learn more about fisheries management, fisheries economics, environmental DNA, tourism, ecology, etc., there’s a lot to explore.

What’s it like to live in Seattle? What do you do in your spare time?

Seattle is gorgeous, even if the weather isn’t always so during the late fall-early spring months (although it seems to be better this year than last). Seeing Mt. Rainer, or the Olympic mountains on a clear day will almost always make my day. There are so many options for things to do, you’ll never run out of them. The food and beer are fantastic, and the outdoor hiking options are almost limitless. I don’t typically give myself a lot of spare time, but I always try to find time to run to clear my mind and get into a “zen-like” state, especially if I’ve been working or studying all day. Lately since I’ve moved to the Green Lake neighborhood, I like to run around the lake or get coffee at Revolutions. I like going to sporting events and went a lot a Mariners baseball games over the summer, my favorite summer past time. Of course, there also never seems to be a shortage of SMEA student-planned events that are a good time.

If you could design your ultimate job after graduating, what would it be and why?

My ultimate job would probably be to be the Director of NOAA or the EPA, or Secretary of the Interior. But for now, I would say that it would be to take a thorough understanding of marine ecosystems and work with stakeholders and state-level government to craft the most beneficial policies possible resulting in sustainable use of marine resources and marine conservation. Everything balances out, with no over-exploitation or irreversible environmental damage…maybe begin a marine policy nonprofit that analyzes how to make this happen.

What is your favorite form of marine life, and why?

The octopus, because they’re incredibly smart, sleek, and their arm movements in the water are a thing of beauty. If you just observe them, it’s incredible to see how they move around in their environment, or camouflage into the surrounding rocks. I found one in a rocky shore area on the coast of Ecuador once, and it took me ten minutes of staring at the rock it was attached to before I finally saw it, even though I was only five feet away. Just incredible.