Heather Brandon is a SMEA alum who earned her MMA in 2004. She currently works for the World Wildlife Fund, Arctic Field Program, Alaska, as a Senior Fisheries Officer.
Can you give us a brief description of what you do for the World Wildlife Fund?
I work on topics that involve fish or fishing, such as illegal fishing/poaching, bycatch, marine mammal interactions, ecosystem-based management, advocacy for conservation in management, marine protected areas, sustainable seafood certification, etc. 

Congratulations to SMEA students Maggie Allen and Hannah Russell! Maggie Allen won best graduate student presentation for her talk, “Stronger Together: The Cross-Cultural Coalition to Stop Fossil Fuel Exports in the Salish Sea”, which she presented at the 2016 Salish Sea Ecosystem conference in Vancouver, BC. Student judging was conducted by 140 judges of 85 student presentations. Hannah Russell was awarded the Graduate School Boeing International Fellowship for international study or research for the 2016–2017 academic year. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
Growing up on the beaches of Los Angeles, I wanted to understand the multifaceted systems that govern developing coastlines. I was seeking to supplement my scientific background with marine-focused policy studies.
Why did you decide to come to UW’s SMEA for graduate school?
I chose to come to SMEA because of my plan –to remain and work in this field on the West Coast — and the size, flexibility, and interdisciplinary nature of this program. 

The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs put a call out to all graduate students to nominate a postdoc who has made a difference in their lives. Among the many nominees SMEA Postdoc Stacia Dreyer was awarded the 2016 Postdoc Mentoring Award. Congratulations Stacia! Thank you for your remarkable work and for making a difference for SMEA students. 

SMEA Director and Professor Terrie Klinger and her colleagues on the West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH) Science Panel released a comprehensive report April 4 that states ocean acidification and the related problem of hypoxia, or low oxygen levels under water, “will have severe environmental, ecological and economic consequences for the West Coast”. As reported on KUOW, the panel called for reducing pollutants that drain into water bodies like Puget Sound from surrounding cities and farms.  

Thanks to Nathan Bennett, Tommy Swearingen and Dan Tonnes and who recently gave informative and well-received presentations!
Nathan Bennett, “Considering Equity in Marine Conservation and Fisheries Management”
When: Thursday, May 12, 12:00 -1:00 PM
Where: Fisheries Teaching & Research Bldg (FTR) Room 034
Nathan Bennett is an environmental social scientist who conducts research on marine conservation and environmental management in Southeast Asia, Latin and North America. 

SMEA Professor Nives Dolsak along with a team of researchers from British, American and Australian institutions co-authored a paper titled “Engage key social concepts for sustainability” that was recently published in Science. The paper concludes that social science can contribute significantly to advancing and assessing conservation efforts. As stated in the UW Today article “the authors propose a set of social indicators that can be used to gauge how ecosystem management affects four essential factors in human lives: well-being, values, agency (the ability to act purposefully) and inequality. 

SMEA second year students Maggie Allen and Danielle Holstein attended and presented at the International Congress for Conservation Biology in Montpellier, France this past August. 

Congratulations to Professor Eddie Allison, Post-Doc Nathan Bennett, Professor Nives Dolsak, Assistant Professor Ryan Kelly, SMEA Alumna Natalie Lowell, Post-Doc Jimmy O’Donnell and SMEA Alumni Jesse Port on their publications that have come out winter quarter covering a variety of topics in marine and environmental affairs.
EDDIE ALLISON
Christophe Bene, Robert Arthur, Hannah Norbury, Edward H. Allison, Malcolm Beveridge, Simon Bush, Liam Campling, Will Leschen, David Little, Dale Squires, Shakuntala H. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I had the opportunity to go on an exchange to the University of Calgary during my undergraduate where I took a class which touched on Arctic security and Arctic politics. These are not standard subjects in political science or international relations courses but are a rising subject in those fields.