Congrats to SMEA’s 2023 Knauss fellows!
Devon Lombard-Henley

Diana Perry

Leslie Nguyen

To read the SeaGrant announcement: https://seagrant.noaa.gov/2024-knauss-finalists-announcement/ 

Seattle Times: Native nations on front lines of climate change share knowledge and find support at intensive camps
Tribes suffer some of the most severe impacts of climate change in the U.S. but often have the fewest resources to respond. This inspiring story shows how tribes are working together to make a difference.  SMEA student Michael Buck is prominent in pictures and video.  

Former SMEA students Caroline Potter, Luke Hiserman, Gregory Papp, Harshitha Viswanathan, and Leah Huff co-authored a recent publication in Frontiers in Education: “Student-led documentation of COVID-era education: A study of graduate programs on the human dimensions of oceans.
 
First and foremost, we would like to sincerely thank those students who participated in the study and we appreciate your insight about your graduate school experiences during COVID-19. 

SMEA graduate James Lee (’21) and accompanying authors recently published an article in the Marine Molecular Biology and Ecology section of Frontiers in Marine Science. The article is titled, “Characterizing host-pathogen interactions between Zostera marina and Labyrinthula zosterae.”
Meadows of eelgrass (Zostera marina) are crucial to coastal ecosystems but have been declining rapidly due to global warming and other anthropogenic stressors. 

 
On June 28, 2023, Dean Tolstoy and Director Dolšak hosted Admiral Linda Fagan, Commandant of the U. S. Coast Guard and SMEA alumna (MMA ’00). For reference, Admiral Fagan is the 27th Commandant of the United States Coast Guard (USCG), overseeing operations of more than 50,000 members and a fleet of 259 cutters, 200 aircraft, and 1,600 boats. Admiral Fagan was in Seattle to preside over the change of command ceremony for Healy, an active icebreaker homeported in Seattle. 

An article titled, “Indigenous food sovereignty through resurgent self-governance: centering Nuu-Chah-nulth principles in sea otter management in Canada” from SMEA alumni Lindsey Popken’s (’21) thesis work has been published in Ecology & Society.  The research was published as part of a special feature on Collaborative Management, Environmental Caretaking, and Sustainable Livelihoods. The full article is available here. 

SMEA alumni Robinson Lowe and Darby Swayne (’22) have published a paper co-authored with their former capstone partners. The paper entitled, “At the end of the day, you need to do something”: discourses on prioritization of stormwater solutions” uses Q-methodology research, a mixed-method approach, to investigate differences in prioritization of stormwater solutions currently considered in the region. The article published in Frontiers in Sustainable Cities also explores how emergent perspectives may affect decisions surrounding stormwater management. 

SMEA is saddened to share the passing of Terry Johnson. Please see Alaska Sea Grant’s Remembering Terry Johnson article here. 

SMEA graduate and former Canadian Studies FLAS fellow, Samantha Farquahar (’19), received the Fulbright-Hayes award to continue her fisheries research in Arctic Québec (Nunavik). Below is the article posted in the Department of Education’s IFLE newsletter. Congratulations, Samantha!

Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellow studies fisheries, food systems, and indigenous food security in Canada

Samantha Farquhar, a doctoral student in the Integrated Coastal Sciences program at East Carolina University (ECU), will travel to northern Quebec next year to study and document how fisheries relate to food systems in nearby coastal Canadian communities. 

This issue of the Alumni Focus shines on Jenny Waddell, the Research Coordinator for Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS). Jenny’s career is representative of the many SMEA graduates who have been selected for the prestigious Knauss Fellowship (a national award administered locally by Washington Sea Grant – and the application process just opened).
Jenny graduated from SMEA in 2001 with a thesis on sustainable tourism development for Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras.