SMEA student Courtney Skalley has been selected as a member of the 2023 Bonderman Fellow cohort. The Bonderman Travel Fellowship was created by UW alumnus David Bonderman in 1995 to fund global journeys as a way of inspiring individual transformation. The 2023 Fellows cover a wide variety of interests including:

Afro-futurism and presentism
Black diasporic history and culture
Counterculture formation as a tool for human connection
Linguistics and dialects
Musical events and concert culture
The relationship between a place’s natural resources and its cuisine, clothing, and culture
The role of the bicycle in community-building

Courtney is a second-year SMEA student with an interest in sustainable fisheries management. 

Recent SMEA graduates, Amelia Wells and Kellie Cutsinger (’23), completed their capstone “Community-Based Mitigation and Adaptive Strategies for River Flooding and Erosion in Alaska Native Communities”  with advisor Dr. Cleo Woelfle-Hazard and in collaboration with Iowa State University. As part of their work, a video was created highlighting the communities they collaborated alongside. A message from their Capstone community partner is shared below as well as a link to the completed video project. 

On Thursday, June 8th, 2023 the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs held its graduation ceremony.
A welcome was given by SMEA Associate Director, Ryan Kelly, followed by opening remarks from the College of the Environment Dean, Maya Tolstoy, and special keynote speaker Stephen Metruck, Port of Seattle Executive Director. Graduating students Andrea Richter-Sanchez and Kurt Ellison were nominated as class speakers. 

Incoming SMEA student Maxwell Perkins has been named one of the University’s “Husky 100”. Max has a B.S. in Environmental Science and Terrestrial Resource Management as well as a B.S. in Biology and History.

The “Husky 100” recognizes 100 students across all three campuses “who are making the most of their time” at UW. Students are evaluated based on their ability to demonstrate the following attributes:

Connect the Dots
Discovery Mindset
Commitment to Inclusive Community
Capacity for Leadership
Ready for What Is Next

Please join us in congratulating Max as well as welcoming him to the SMEA class of 2025! 

You are invited to join the SMEA thesis and capstone presentations on Friday, February 24th in the Marine Studies Building, room 268. If you’d like to attend via Zoom, please contact Michaela Miller at mcski@uw.edu for details. The schedule of events is as follows:
Thesis & Capstone Presentations

Student

Faculty Advisor

Thesis/Capstone & Title

Client

Scheduled Time

Virtual/In-Person

Rory Spurr & Alana Santana
Anne Beaudreau
Capstone, “Visualizing ESA-listed fish research in the west coast region”
Diana Dishman, NOAA
9-9:30am
Hybrid -Alana & Rory in person/Anne & Diana virtual

1 HOUR BREAK

Izzi Lavallee
P. 

SMEA faculty continue to contribute to the scholarship of 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. Below is a collection of these works. Faculty names are in bold; names of students and postdoctoral scholars trained by our faculty are underlined. 

Molly Daly, SMEA second-year student, Dr. Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao, a Smith Fellows Postdoctoral Scholar at SMEA, and Nives Dolšak, SMEA faculty, presented their research at the 2022 Annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association in Walla Walla. Molly presented preliminary findings of the project entitled “Evaluation of Multi-level Governance of Shorebird Management and Conservation in Puget Sound,” a capstone project with Elley Donnelly, SMEA second-year student, Drs. 

Why did you decide to pursue a master of marine affairs?
Growing up on Puget Sound, coastal environments have always been dear to me. They were my favorite playgrounds, inspired curiosity, and motivated my stewardship. While studying Conservation Biology at Middlebury College, I worked as an environmental educator in places like Alaska, the Bahamas, and California, further fostering my love for marine environments and communities. 

SMEA graduates Samantha Klein (’21), James Lee (’21), Sallie Lau (’20), and current SMEA student Bryce Lewis-Smith, along with SMEA Assistant Professor Cleo Wölfle-Hazard and accompanying authors recently published an article in The American Naturalist titled, “Transforming Restoration Science: Multiple Knowledges and Community Research Cogeneration in the Klamath and Duwamish Rivers [journals.uchicago.edu].”
Typical practices in restoration science can perpetuate exclusionary and oppressive paradigms in both ecosystem restoration and restoration policymaking. 

Recent SMEA graduates Clayton McKean and Caroline Potter, along with SMEA Associate Professor Emeritus David Fluharty, SMEA Affiliate faculty member Amber Himes-Cornell, and accompanying authors recently published an article in Frontiers in Marine Science titled “Reaching Global Marine Biodiversity Conservation Goals With Area-Based Fisheries Management: A Typology-Based Evaluation“.
Those who are tracking the issues surrounding Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as part of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on Biodiversity may be aware that Other Effective Conservation Measures (OECM) are essential to meeting the marine targets.