Dear SMEA friends!

It is the season when we review what we have accomplished, thank those who helped us, and plan for the next year. Year 2022 has been very productive with 33 students graduating and a wonderful cohort of 35 first-year students joining us. Upon their arrival, the first-year students were offered an exciting set of applied team projects (capstones) that we developed with our partners, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association, Seattle Public Utilities, Washington Maritime Blue, and University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, University of Washington’s GO-MAP and Top Scholar Programs, and the Dean’s office, we were able to offer a year of funding to six incoming students and provide some project support to nearly twenty second year students.

I am delighted to share that SMEA received the “North Pacific Marine Resources Endowed Fellowship,” which provides financial assistance to SMEA graduate students studying North Pacific marine resources and focusing on the Alaska region. It is the hope that this fellowship will help SMEA maintain and foster connections to issues of marine resource management and conservation policy in the North Pacific, including the Alaska region. This fellowship provides student funding for three quarters per year (tuition and stipend) and is one of the largest endowments in the College of the Environment.

Our alumni also had a productive year. Professor David Fluharty, who coordinates our alumni relations, wrote a brief summary of the accomplishments we are aware of. We are excited to share this update with you. As always, if we missed any alumni news, please let us know so that we can share with our community. For this newsletter, Prof. Fluharty also wrote a brief Alumni Focus piece on the work of Jenny Waddell (SMEA ’01), the Research Coordinator for Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

Lastly, our faculty continue to make vital science and policy contributions to the scholarship in marine and environmental affairs. In 2022, we published two books and over 30 articles in prestigious environmental, marine, and interdisciplinary journals. Many of these were co-authored with our students and our postdoctoral scholars. Professor Sunny Jardine was awarded sabbatical leave to work on an app for assessing costs and benefits of alternative culvert restoration projects. Professor Jardine is also the inaugural recipient of the new Rae S. and Bell M. Shimada Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Memory of Warren S. Wooster. This new faculty fellowship is meant to support faculty in SAFS and SMEA with alternating terms.

A big thank you to our alumni, donors, and friends from the community who continue to support our work. Your contributions play a vital role in our efforts to recruit excellent and diverse students and support our research.

I wish you a wonderful holiday season and hope to see you at our events in 2023. And, of course, feel free to stop by for a chat and a cup of coffee or tea.

Nives Dolšak, Director

Your support is always appreciated – a gift to the McKernan Fund delivers impact to the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs throughout the year.