Hawaii
From DC to Antarctica: Gina Selig
Check out this new video from 2023 fellow Gina Selig discussing her work with the Antarctic Treaties Commission and her upcoming trip to Antarctica.
November 30, 2023
Post Archives
Category: Knauss Blog
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Academia to Government
Reelin’ in the Years
In my Knauss fellowship so far, one of the most meaningful pieces of advice I’ve heard is to “think of your career as a journey, not a destination.” As the fall begins and my fellowship rounds the corner into the back nine, so to speak, I’ve shifted the way I think about my career journey. I’ve been in my feelings a lot lately about what my next steps will be after January, a familiar feeling for Knauss fellows, as we browse USAjobs.gov and subscribe to job digests from various job boards, patiently waiting for the precise second that our direct hiring authority privilege kicks in. In this time, I’ve been refining the language I use to describe myself and my accomplishments. I’m reflecting on the past and the stories beneath the single-line additions to my résumé meant to represent my capability. For instance, my master’s degree is one entry on my résumé, but how do I share what sparked my desire to pursue environmental policy as a career path?
October 16, 2023
Knauss Blog
NOAA Careers: Transition Manager
What do Knauss Fellows actually do? Well, it depends!
You may know NOAA for its science, but there are teams of people that help get the science in motion and to the communities that need it most.
2023 Knauss Fellow Briana Yancy works as a Transition Manager at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab this year. Check out her experience!
October 11, 2023
Home Page Carousel
Capacity Building in the Caribbean: Resilience Against Ocean Acidification
As the Capacity Building and Stakeholder Engagement Fellow in the NOAA Ocean Acidification Office, the overarching goal of my position is to help the program support our community members to effectively reach their goals. Part of my portfolio this year is capacity-building for ocean acidification research and monitoring in the Caribbean region.
September 11, 2023
Home Page Carousel
Cross-Country Fish Passage
When people talk about the Knauss Fellowship they always mention how Fellows have the opportunity to go to places they never imagined. But as a marine ecologist, I didn’t expect my destinations to include Utah, Missouri, and Indiana. These were just some of my stops on a cross-country road trip from the West to East Coast, visiting project sites and meeting with partners.
August 29, 2023
Home Page Carousel
Introducing the Ocean Decade Game!
Have you heard of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development? Wondering what that means and how you can get involved? Take some time to learn about it now through the Ocean Decade Game!
July 26, 2023
Home Page Carousel
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome at Sea
When you’re a birder at sea, there’s a host of charismatic, winged dinosaurs you expect to spot as you navigate away from the coast and into the open ocean. On departure from port, you listen for whistling pigeon guillemots and keep an eye out for rhinoceros auklets disguised as blurry blobs bobbing in the waves. A black-footed albatross soaring overhead is a good indicator that you’ve left the coast behind. Far into the Pacific Ocean, northern fulmars appear as regularly as robins and jays back on land.
July 13, 2023
Knauss Blog
Life is like a box of… oysters
By: Kaitlyn Theberge. To honor the wonderful time I spent working on an oyster farm prior to being a Knauss Fellow, I tell my story by presenting four “life lessons from oysters,” which I learned by interacting with these amazing animals day after day working on the oyster farm.
May 23, 2023
Academia to Government
Running Up That Hill: A View from the Capitol
By: Spring Gaines. Recently, I had the unique opportunity to take a winding tour of one of the most symbolic sites in Washington, D.C.—The Capitol Dome. While climbing the almost 300 steps leading up to an eye-level view of Brumidi and Cox’s work with the Rotunda frieze, the Apotheosis of George Washington and beyond, I was reminded of something I told my best friend when she asked what it is like as a Gulf Coast girl walking around this city, “It’s not the distance; it’s the incline.”
January 18, 2023
Day in the Life
Thoughts on Climate Optimism
By: Eleanor Pierel. Upon entering the Knauss Fellowship, I was not sure where I would fall on the optimism scale by the end. You see, as the Climate Policy Fellow, my days revolve around climate change policy and action from the local to international scale. Yet, many of the conversations, meetings and trips throughout my fellowship had a theme of optimism and motivation in the face of climate change…
December 28, 2022
Academia to Government
The Sky’s the Limit
By: Michelle Nguyen. I stand there in the Hawk’s Nest launch viewing area right outside of Vandenberg Space Force Base near Lompoc, CA, watching as NOAA’s JPSS-2 satellite, atop an Atlas V rocket, successfully joins its Joint Polar Satellite System comrades in orbit. While my eyes are trained on the ascending rocket, I can’t help but think “How did I, an invertebrate physiologist by training, end up at a satellite launch?!”
December 16, 2022
Day in the Life
Snapshots from the UN Ocean Conference
As part of the Knauss Fellowship, fellows have the opportunity to engage in professional development and travel related to their placements. This summer, a group of fellows traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, for the United Nations Ocean Conference. Continue reading to learn about their unique experiences.
August 31, 2022
Government
Locating Progress
By: Kate Shlepr. Change invites uncertainty and therefore risk. I feel the weight and exhilaration of this reality as I sit to reflect on events from the past six months, both in my personal life and in our world. For one, it strikes me that I am (now) an openly queer person writing from my desk in a Congressional office two generations after the Stonewall riots; if those aren’t evidence of change, what is?
June 30, 2022
Day in the Life
Overcoming barriers: Navigating fish passage at hydroelectric dams
By: Nicholas Anderson. I work at the NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation in support of one of the agency’s missions, to ensure our nation has sustainable fisheries and recover threatened and endangered species by promoting fish passage at hydropower dams. I visited two hydropower dams in May 2021 to see how at a local level our program provides guidance to the different parties involved in hydropower and fish passage planning.
January 27, 2022
Academia to Government
Building confidence in a new position
By: Michaela Margida. If you type the title of this article into a Google search, as I did nearly a year ago when I was first placed in U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s office as a Legislative Knauss Fellow, you’ll find that there are over 27 pages of results. I read the first 30 or so search results before realizing that confidence probably wasn’t something I’d get through an academic approach.
January 19, 2022
Day in the Life
Fight or Flight
By: Shellby Johnson. When I received an unexpected invitation during my Knauss Fellowship to join an ocean exploration transit across the North Atlantic, stress definitely entered the room, but I chose to fight, and it was one of the best professional and personal experiences of my life. Learn about my experience in this interactive feature.
January 14, 2022
Academia to Government
Achieving resilience through flexibility
By: María Mercedes Carruthers Ferrero. “FEMA flexible” is a phrase I have heard many times throughout my Knauss Fellowship. I have learned that the mindset alluded to by this phrase is not only key to achieving community resilience, but to personal and professional success.
December 16, 2021
Government
Bipartisanship is Alive in the House Science Committee
By: Megan McKeown. Turn on any of today’s news outlets and it’s easy to believe bipartisanship is dead. But after almost a year of witnessing how the “sausage gets made” on Capitol Hill, I can tell you that there are pockets of Congress where bipartisanship is still alive.
December 8, 2021
Academia to Government
Centering communities at the heart of fisheries policy
By: Marina Cucuzza. In my work on climate and fisheries issues at the national scale as a Knauss fellow, I am often reminded of the lessons learned from years working with fishers and fishing communities in Maine and in other coastal places. During my Knauss fellowship, I have been able to see firsthand how public input is critical in shaping policy and decision-making.
November 10, 2021
Fellowship Logistics
Wondering “weather†to apply: How meteorology fits into the Knauss Fellowship
By: Renee Richardson. The Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship specifically targets students who “… have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources.” Although it is not explicitly stated, meteorology does fall under this statement. The atmosphere and the ocean are linked and, in many cases, cannot be considered independent of one another. But what does this mean exactly?
October 6, 2021
Academia to Government
From Paralichthys to Policy
By: Kenneth Erickson. What makes a fisheries biologist qualified to communicate with Congress about satellites and space policy? The same skills that make a successful graduate student: good time management, effective communication and the ability to process and distill complex information.
August 20, 2021
Day in the Life
Life at sea as a Knauss Fellow
By: Lu Wang. To take full advantage of all this year has to offer, I adapted a mindset early on in the fellowship to try to say “yes” to every opportunity. And so when my host office asked me if I wanted to go to sea as part of my fellowship, my response could only be, “Absolutely, I do.”
August 13, 2021
Alumni Profiles
A decade of growth: How Knauss fellows shaped the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program
By: Halle Berger. Over the past decade, the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) has grown through the recruitment of Sea Grant Knauss fellows like myself. In celebration of OAP’s 10th anniversary, I interviewed the former Knauss fellows currently working in OAP to better understand how the program has evolved since its inception.
July 30, 2021
Day in the Life
A Day in the Life of a Legislative Fellow
By: Elle Wibisono. As an Indonesian fishery scientist, I had no previous knowledge of or experience with the inner workings of the U.S. Congress. Now, as a “leg” fellow, I’ve learned I need to be prepared to respond to virtually anything. Here is a glimpse of a calm day in the life of a legislative fellow.
July 23, 2021
Day in the Life
A Work in Progress
By: So-Jung Youn. There’s something to be said for the strength and comfort you find in being surrounded by a community that’s passionate and dedicated to the same issues you care about. Listening to the Capitol Hill Ocean Week 2021 speakers, I was inspired by their stories, dedication and perseverance.
July 7, 2021
Academia to Government
Floating in Interagency Space
By: Clea Harrelson. “Who is that?” was a constant refrain in my head for the first few months of my Knauss fellowship. The feeling of being overwhelmed that comes with the beginning of any new job is often described as a “crush”, but for me, it was more accurately a sensation of being untethered, floating in interagency space. Who are all these people, what do they do, and how do they relate to my work?
June 17, 2021
Communication
Lessons from the (corn) field
By: Maggie Beetstra. As a social scientist in the Midwest, I spent hours and hours having conversations with farmers, visiting their farms, meeting their families, and trying to understand how they make conservation decisions. Now, as a Knauss fellow, I’ve traded the corn and soybean fields for community resilience and marine education, but the same approaches still hold true. Here are some of the lessons I learned in science communication while out in the fields.
May 27, 2021
Academia to Government
From professional development plans to interpersonal skills, how the Knauss Fellowship offers unexpected and lifelong lessons
By: Kaitlyn Lowder. As a Knauss fellow who just finished up her fellowship year, I can confidently say I had the opportunity to gain the experience that I envisioned and more. Yet, reflecting on this past year, there is an aspect to this fellowship that I had not expected but now cannot imagine advancing my career without: a wealth of professional development experiences that are simply not prioritized in academia.
February 18, 2021
Academia to Government
Two sides of the same coin – fisheries science and management
By: Bryan Keller. There are plenty of fish in the sea and some of them taste really good. That is how the saying goes, right? Fisheries management is the reason why plenty of fish continue to be in the sea. But, without fisheries science, fisheries management would not be successful. Transitioning from the world of academia to the world of policy, I saw the important connection between these two fields first-hand.
February 4, 2021
Academia to Government
The female mentors who made me
By: Taylor Goelz. In honor of National Mentoring Month, I wanted to add my two cents to the #WomenInSTEM mentorship conversation and use my Knauss Blog to highlight the female mentors that have made a difference in my life and journey. These women, among many others that I’ve interacted with over the years, exemplify the type of mentor that I will strive to be going forward in my career.
January 21, 2021
Day in the Life
Five things every Knauss fellow needs during a virtual fellowship
By: Josie Lindsey-Robbins. This fellowship year has been unlike years past, with the majority of fellows in my cohort exclusively teleworking since March 2020. For all future fellows, here are five things I think you need in order to have a successful virtual fellowship.
January 7, 2021
Communication
Learning to tame monkeys
By: Caroline Wiernicki. Who has the monkey? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately. In the words of William Oncken Jr. and Donald L. Wass, the proverbial “monkey” is a concept key to working on a team: an individual’s responsibility or task that contributes towards the team’s broader goals.
December 21, 2020
Fellowship Logistics
A FORCE for Good!
By: Jessie Straub. By applying my coastal resilience skills and knowledge during my Knauss Fellowship, I knew I could become a “force” for good. As part of an informal working group for 2020 Knauss fellows, FORCE (Fellows for Organized Coastal Efforts), I have the chance to do just that.
November 30, 2020
Academia to Government
By giving back, I gained more than I could imagine
By: Lauren Bonatakis. When I decided to quit my full-time, benefitted job to move to a new state for a year of service with AmeriCorps on a whim, it was a surprise to those who know me best. It was also one of the best decisions I have made.
November 13, 2020
Communication
Lessons learned: The difference a mentor makes
By: Tiffany Atkinson. I can’t emphasize enough how incredibly valuable it can be when someone takes you under their wing as a mentor. The lessons we learn from these relationships can teach us so much about ourselves and the world.
October 29, 2020
Fellowship Logistics
International affairs… from the comfort/confines of home
By: Victoria Luu. A quick Google search reveals no shortage of articles and blog posts describing 2020 as what, at the end of 2019, many hoped and believed would be a “Super Year” for the ocean. However, with the travel bans and limits on in-person gatherings imposed in the wake of COVID-19, most of the international meetings have been postponed. Where does that leave someone working in NOAA’s Office of International Affairs?
October 8, 2020
Academia to Government
The Lost Geographer: Following the road signs to Knauss
By: Michelle Harris. There’s a common joke that geographers “know where it’s at” – but for this geographer, a sense of direction is not something I’m inherently adept at. No matter how much I plan, there is always an unexpected turn somewhere along the way to be laughed about later. When comparing this to my life roadmap, it is because of fateful turns that this “lost geographer” ended up becoming a Knauss fellow.
October 2, 2020
Academia to Government
“Knauss†is everywhere you go
By: Grace Roskar. From a summer internship in North Carolina to policy work in D.C., graduate school in Florida, and a research cruise in the Southeast, the variety of experiences I had and the people I met over the years are what influenced my journey to the fellowship.
September 24, 2020
Academia to Government
Becoming the type of scientist my childhood self never pictured
By: Naomi Lewandowski. For nearly 10 years, I’ve made career choices based on one very sacred metric: would my eight-year-old self be proud of me? As I navigated college, temporary lab jobs, and graduate school, I held this metric dear. However, after becoming a Knauss fellow, and starting down an unexpected and, potentially, brand new career track, it’s been more difficult to figure out what my eight-year-old self would think.
September 17, 2020
Communication
“So, tell me…†How in-depth conversations propelled my work with communities in graduate school and the Knauss fellowship
By: Maggie Chory. When thinking about my experience so far as a Knauss Fellow, I am struck by the fact that many of the skills I learned and practiced as a graduate student play into my day-to-day work now. One skill that I was surprised to discover would have so much importance this year is the ability to conduct a productive and meaningful interview.
September 8, 2020
Communication
On the rocks? A bartender’s guide to scientific success
While I now live in Washington, D.C., and have committed to a career in science, it was only six months ago that I packed up my favorite corkscrew and bottle opener to begin my adventure as a Knauss fellow. Five of the lessons I learned through my bartending experiences stand out as those that I believe make me successful as a scientist.
August 20, 2020
Academia to Government
The Power of a Poster
By: Rachel Hager. I’m a Knauss marine policy fellow at NOAA because of a poster. Seven years ago, I saw one small poster pinned to a brown cork board in the hallway of a research center in Maryland. I decided to apply for the Knauss fellowship as an inland fellow from Utah because I kept thinking about that poster.
August 13, 2020
Fellowship Logistics
A Tale of Two Offices
By: Brittney Parker. I knew the Knauss Fellowship was the perfect way to take on a new challenge while pushing myself out of my comfort zone of scientific research. Little did I know prior to placement week that through my Knauss Fellowship I wouldn’t just be learning the ins-and-outs of a single executive branch office; I also would be working at a national non-profit.
August 6, 2020
Government
The Business Case for Knauss Fellows
By: Meredith Richardson. Knauss Fellows have the unique opportunity to follow their own interests during their fellowship year, rather than exact roles laid out in a job description. It’s this flexibility that allows fellows to serve as connectors between departments and agencies, identifying areas for improvement and increasing efficiency.
July 28, 2020
Day in the Life
One NOAA ‘Ohana
By: Alexandra Skrivanek. NOAA’s mission of science, service and stewardship is vast in scope, spanning the surface of the sun to the depths of the ocean. I can personally attest to this because, in the first 24 hours of traveling with RDML Gallaudet in HawaiÊ»i at the start of my fellowship year, we covered most of this breadth.
July 9, 2020
Academia to Government
You Can’t Plan for a Change of Plans
By: Cheyenne Stienbarger. Before we begin, there is something you must know about me. I like organization and need to have a plan, whether it’s a plan for the trip to the grocery store, for the year, or for the next five years. I live to plan. Spoiler alert: you just can’t plan for some things. I discovered the Knauss Fellowship at a critical point in my graduate career where I was uncertain as to what my next steps would be. My decision to pursue the fellowship was not a frivolous one, but it also wasn’t part of my original plan.
June 25, 2020
Alumni Profiles
The power of purpose, personal connections and paying attention
By: Alexandra Skrivanek. Stuart Levenbach began his career in marine policy exploring how anemones, macroalgae, sea urchins and fish interact on rocky reefs off southern California. Less than two decades later, he was appointed as the Chief of Staff of NOAA. Dr. Levenbach always knew he would play a role in advancing natural resource policy in Washington, D.C., having full confidence in the Knauss fellowship. However, there were a few plot twists along the way.
June 18, 2020
Academia to Government
How a love of seafood brought me to Capitol Hill
By: Kat Montgomery. Did you know that most of the salmon you see in grocery stores and restaurants comes from a fish farm? In fact, aquaculture, which is the farming of fish, shellfish and seaweed in fresh or saltwater, produces about half of the world’s seafood supply. I became interested in aquaculture sort of by accident, and that newfound interest led me to my current position as a Legislative Knauss Fellow.
June 12, 2020
Knauss Blog
Weathering the Storm: Improving Communications About Extreme Weather and Climate
By: Christine Bassett. Given my experience thinking about past climate and oceans, it might seem peculiar for me, a geoscientist, to spend my Knauss Fellowship year in the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Office of Observations. Read about how my work at the NWS gives me the opportunity to bring my focus on past human-climate interactions into the present and future.
June 4, 2020
Alumni Profiles
From South Korea to America: How I embraced my cultural identity in between
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. In this article, former Knauss fellow Lisa Kim explores her Korean identity and how it has influenced her early career journey with coastal science policy.
May 27, 2020
Alumni Profiles
A long and winding road: Knauss alum, Emily Larkin, shares her career journey within NOAA
By: Josie Lindsey-Robbins. Coming from a small town in rural Missouri, Emily never imagined she would end up living and working near Washington, D.C. Today, Emily serves as the Director of Formulation and Congressional Analysis (FCA) for NOAA Research. She began her journey in NOAA as a 2005 Knauss Fellow, placed within the National Ocean Service in the suite of the administrative assistant, who was Dr. Richard Spinrad at the time.
May 20, 2020
Knauss Blog
Far from HOMES*: The importance of place-based stewardship
By: Kirsten Rhude. Even though my work as a Knauss Fellow makes me feel connected to coastal communities, lately I’ve been missing my time spent in nature. While I may not have realized it initially, my sense of stewardship and love of the natural world, which made me so passionate about becoming a Knauss fellow, have deep connections to home and a sense of place. For me, home is the Great Lakes.
May 14, 2020
Academia to Government
Decreasing Marine Debris: From Coastal Communities to National Efforts
By: Amanda Dwyer. One of the Knauss Fellowship’s most exciting opportunities is to explore areas of marine science that are outside your academic field of expertise. With my placement at the NOAA Marine Debris Program, I am working to support NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) Zero Waste Initiative to promote zero waste efforts in the organization’s daily operations and events.
May 7, 2020
Knauss Blog
The Power of Connection: Knauss Fellow and Alumni Engagement During a Pandemic and Beyond
By: Emily Y. Horton. Social connection. It’s part of what makes us human and it’s fundamental to our wellbeing. So how does the 2020 cohort of Knauss Fellows network when required to “physically distance” at home? In this blog post, I share about virtual alumni-engagement initiatives our cohort is leading and discuss how in my fellowship as a Partnership Specialist for Sea Grant, I will help lay the groundwork for a fellows network.
April 30, 2020
Graduate School
Therapy bakes for the anxious
By: Jennifer Le. Most recipes on the internet begin with a quirky story related to the author, recipe or dish. In a similar vein, this “recipe” is a step-by-step story about how baking has helped me, personally, work through my anxiety both during graduate school and the current pandemic.
April 23, 2020
Graduate School
From Katrina to COVID-19: Influences on a Career in Environmental Policy
By: Connor Fagan. In August of 2005, the winds and waves of Hurricane Katrina smashed through the city of New Orleans. A middle-schooler at the time, my life, along with millions of others, as a New Orleanian would never be the same. Since then, I have directed my studies and career towards environmental policy as a result of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters in the Gulf of Mexico.
April 14, 2020
Fellowship Logistics
Conquering the Quarantine: How Knauss Fellows are Overcoming Challenges Brought on by COVID-19
By: Zuzanna Abdala. As of April 1st, 2020, the entire DC metro area is under stay-at-home orders. Although we may not be able to navigate this fellowship year in the same manner as our alumni counterparts, this situation has created opportunities for thoughtful and swift problem-solving, strong communication and creative thinking.
April 6, 2020
Knauss Blog
Photo story: 5 lessons learned during my Knauss Fellowship
Over a year ago, I packed my belongings and moved from Long Beach, California, to Washington, D.C. to get firsthand experience working in the federal government as a Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. Embarking upon my year, I knew one thing for sure: it was bound to be full of surprises. I’ve learned a number of important lessons this year about NOAA’s role in advancing the human dimensions of coastal, atmospheric, and marine sciences.
March 9, 2020
Graduate School
How climate change is changing the way we do science
August 29th, 2005 is a day that I will never forget. My mother and I had evacuated our New Orleans home several days earlier, and we sat glued to the television, transfixed by the images of Hurricane Katrina inundating our city. In the months that followed, we scoured Google Maps, simply to see if our house still stood. When we finally returned home ten months later, I saw how easily entire ecosystems can be disrupted and destroyed by natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina left a legacy of destruction in its wake, but watching my city recover from the devastation gave me an intimate perspective on the issues associated with living in a coastal environment and compelled me to pursue a career in coastal resiliency.
December 13, 2019
Day in the Life
Where in the World is Bianca Prohaska? Life as an International Activities Fellow
By Bianca Prohaska. Going into my fellowship position, I knew I would travel a lot, lead our collaborations with India, and provide support for our work with China. What I didn’t realize is how quickly I would get to start my work and get traveling! Read about my experiences in India, Ireland, Hawai’i, France, Malaysia, and more!
November 8, 2019
Day in the Life
Waves and Sea Ice and Hurricanes, OH MY!
By: Alison Agather. In 1912, over 1,500 people lost their lives when the RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. But what does the Titanic have to do with my fellowship role in the National Weather Service’s Ocean Prediction Center?
November 1, 2019
Day in the Life
Thinking Fast and Slow: Keeping pace with international fisheries policy
By Madi Harris
Speed-walking down 5th Avenue in my suit while fighting early Manhattan summer humidity was not the morning I had planned for myself. Expecting the early Amtrak train from D.C. to New York to be on schedule may have been my own naivety, but I now found myself tempting a late arrival for my very first meeting at the United Nations (UN).
October 3, 2019
Knauss Blog
Belonging: a look into my year in the Knauss fellowship as a first generation immigrant
By Lisa Kim
I never expected my Knauss Fellowship to land me in South Korea. Yet, there I was, full of anxious excitement on a bumpy car ride in the narrow streets of the country I was born in. I looked in the rear view mirror to make sure my hair was neat and my button down shirt was straight. I got out of the car, and saw an old woman, tears in her eyes. “My grandbaby!” she cried. My grandmother stumbled over with her cane to hold me in a warm and familiar embrace. The last time I saw her, 26 years ago, she had black tightly permed hair and a little more fat on her skin.
September 26, 2019
Knauss Blog
Using Dungeons and Dragons to Navigate the Knauss Fellowship
My position as the Knauss Policy Fellow working on the GEO Blue Planet Initiative has required organization, flexibility, creativity, teamwork, and comfort with (lots) of learning on the job. The thing above all that has helped me to navigate these challenges is my role as a Dungeon Master (abbreviated as DM) in Dungeons and Dragons. I thought it would be fun to share with current and future fellows five different ways in which being a DM has helped me in my role as a Knauss Fellow and as a member of GEO Blue Planet.
September 12, 2019
Knauss Blog
Learning to Swim with the Big “Fish” (Marine Mammals)
By Roxanne J Carini
In graduate school, I would quip that I studied everything about the ocean, except what lived there! So, imagine my surprise when I wound up at the Marine Mammal Commission for my year-long Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.
Falling in love with the world of marine mammals didn’t take long! But, not for the reasons you may think.
August 29, 2019
Academia to Government
From Math to Mapping: Characterizing the U.S. Caribbean
By Katharine Egan
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in the wet lab on the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster watching a video feed from the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that I helped to deploy. The pilot guided the ROV into shallower waters, and I was quick to identify the corals as these depths. I thought about what I was doing this time last year: sitting in front of my laptop using math to find coral reefs just like these for my Master’s thesis research. More specifically, I was using spatial predictive modeling to produce maps showing the potential location of star corals, which can help researchers identify where important reef habitat is located. This year, I didn’t have to predict where the star corals were located, instead I was identifying them as they came across the video feed from the ROV.
August 22, 2019
Knauss Blog
Conservation Success: How Regulations, Policy and Habitat Restoration benefit Wildlife and People.
By: Alicia Wilson
While spending my first field season of graduate school on the coastal barrier islands of Georgia, I thought I was lucky to witness a record number of loggerhead sea turtle nests for the state. Three years later, as I watch from my fellowship in D.C., I am even more amazed. Loggerhead sea turtle ladies are kicking butt in Georgia. They are poised to break all nesting records in the state, with an anticipated final nest count of over 4,000! Just 15 years ago, the count hovered around 400 nests total for the entire state.
August 15, 2019
Day in the Life
Spreading the Wing: Congressional Outreach for Monarch Butterfly
By Liz Berg
As a Congressional and Legislative Affairs Fellow with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), I act as a liaison between the FWS and Congress. One of the issue areas I work on is the conservation of pollinators, including the monarch butterfly. I have responded to inquiries from staff who work for Senators, House Representatives, and Congressional committees, including the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and House Natural Resources Committees. I have also prepared outreach materials, and helped coordinate a Congressional briefing – all concerning the monarch butterfly.
August 7, 2019
Academia to Government
From No to Ph.D: a journey from imposter to scientist
By Zac Cannizzo
“Not for you. You just don’t have the mind for science.” The words of my 8th grade science teacher when I asked to be placed in Biology for my freshman year. It hurt. I always liked science, and I loved biology. Some of my earliest memories are watching Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures. From a young age, I wanted to be a biologist. But, I guess it wasn’t for me. I guess I’m not smart enough. I guess maybe I need to do something else. I just don’t have the mind for science.
Two years. I believed her for two years.
July 23, 2019
Academia to Government
Look for the Helpers: Conservation-Focused Research amidst Environmental Crises
By: Andie Chan. I pressed my SCUBA mask to my face as I back rolled off a small catamaran into the warm tropical waters of the Florida Keys. It was my first time SCUBA diving for my Ph.D. research, and I was eager to prove myself. I was starting a project on increasing our understanding of the reproduction and population sizes of pillar corals using genetic techniques, so I needed to collect small pieces of tissue from multiple colonies to bring back to the lab at Penn State. Fortunately, pillar corals at this dive site in Key Largo were conspicuous and prevalent. I swam along a 60 meter stretch of upward-reaching colonies that looked almost furry with their tentacles moving in the current. With great care, I took a small amount of tissue from several colonies to minimize wounding these animals – many of which were likely hundreds of years old.
July 15, 2019
Academia to Government
Switching Up Your Communication Style
In the academic world, communication comes in the form of peer-reviewed papers, theses or dissertations, seminar talks, conference talks, and posters. All long format and so deep into the science that you’re no longer certain what language they’re speaking. So, what do you do when you’ve been trained in those styles of communication for the past five years and you begin a communications position in the federal government as part of the Knauss fellowship program for a climate modeling program?
July 6, 2019
Academia to Government
Transitioning from Academia to Federal Government as a Sea Grant Fellow
I hit Submit. I felt anxious. I felt nervous. But, I also felt excited.
I had just taken a leap from my comfort zone to a world of unknown.
Four months later, I found myself in tears as I read “Good News! You have been selected as a Finalist for a 2019 Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.” I was going to transition from academia to the world of policy in Washington, DC.
And I was terrified.
June 14, 2019
Academia to Government
Sun, Sand and Science: My Path to NOAA
Growing up as an army kid, home was just wherever the military decided to stick my family, never a place I lived. But, as I was walking home from my third day as a Hollings Scholar at NOAA’s Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) in Pearl Harbor, HI, it hit me that this strange new place actually “felt” like home, it was something deep in my bones. Now, I am not typically one for signs from the heavens or one to put much stock in ‘feelings’, but I can tell you that this moment was life altering and set me on a path to one day make it back there.
June 7, 2019
Academia to Government
From the dock to the bridge: a shift in perspective on maritime navigation
For the past five years, my typical field day was spent waist deep in marsh mud wielding the tools I needed for success: sunscreen, bug spray (lots of it), and a GPS. My work day as an environmental scientist and salt marsh ecologist is a very different world from the one I recently jumped into as a Knauss Fellow in NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, the nation’s nautical chart makers.
May 31, 2019
Day in the Life
Around the U.S. in Eight Hours
Annapolis. Honolulu. Oakland. Charleston. Minneapolis. St. Petersburg. Gloucester. My desk is in Silver Spring, but we also work in Saipan, Stennis, and Seattle. Working with NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management means working with regions across the nation’s states and territories and sometimes changing my surroundings, virtually, every hour.
May 24, 2019
Knauss Blog
A Lasting Humatak Watershed Adventure
“Look! This is where we live?! I can’t believe we’re still on Guam! It’s so beautiful!” That was the genuine reaction of a middle schooler as our bus climbed a hill, revealing to us a breathtaking view of Sella Bay in southern Guam. We were en route to our first stop on the Humatak Watershed Adventure, which I was co-leading as a part of my extension project for my University of Guam Sea Grant Fellowship.
May 16, 2019
Academia to Government
Never Underestimate the Power of a Free Meal
If someone told me a year back that I’d roll out of bed, wear formal clothing I’d never owned previously, and walk into work (with my own desk and everything), I would have laughed my loudest! Prior to 2019 I was the typical graduate student, living the lab life in my jeans and sneakers, and never having heard of the Knauss Fellowship. How did I end up here?
May 10, 2019
Day in the Life
My Knauss Story: A day in the life of a Congressional staffer
As the air horn blew, I couldn’t help but laugh. Even NBC News caught me laughing. During a committee hearing, Representative Cunningham (D-SC) wanted to illustrate that seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic ocean would be as loud and disruptive to the endangered North Atlantic right whale as his air horn blast was to the hearing.
May 2, 2019
Knauss Blog
Welcome to the Knauss Fellowship Blog!
The Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship is a one-year paid immersive policy experience that provides a unique educational and professional experience to graduate students, but what does that mean? Who are Knauss Fellows and what do they do?
May 2, 2019