Oregon Sea Grant Fellows
Oregon Legislative Fellowship
2009
Anna Pakenham
Anna Pakenham is originally from New Paltz, New York. As a result of her first volunteer experience as a marine educator on the Hudson River, she became impassioned to work on issues surrounding marine resources. This experience lead her to Connecticut College where she received her undergraduate degree in Biology and Environmental Science. Anna is currently a graduate student in Marine Resource Management at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on sediment accumulation in the Siletz Estuary as a result of land-use and global climate change. Prior to moving to Oregon, Anna spent four years in the Pacific islands; the first two years were serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Pohnpei, where she worked with local and non-governmental agencies to protect and monitor coral reef systems. The following two years Anna worked for the National Park Service as a biologist evaluating the impact of sediment on coral communities.
Anna has enthusiastically accepted the Legislative Fellowship and looks forward to working with the Coastal Caucus members on the management of Oregon’s marine resources.
The Robert E. Malouf Marine Studies Scholarship
2009
Maria Stefanovich
La Rance, France - the oldest, the biggest and still-functioning tidal power plant.
Maria came to Oregon two years ago to work toward a PhD in Environmental Science at OSU. Originally from Bulgaria, she has a multi-disciplinary background: Masters in Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations from the Affiliated Institution of the University of Sheffield in Greece, and a Bachelors in Business Administration and Southeast European Studies from the American University in Bulgaria.
Maria’s dissertation centers on a huge environmental challenge that we all face today – energy. With the threat of global warming, increasing global population and economic development, the demand for clean energy is growing fast. Wave energy has been proposed as a renewable energy alternative that could supply enough electricity to satisfy growing demands. Policy and financial support from the Oregon Governor and from the U.S. Department of Energy shows that wave energy is a viable option.
Little, however, has been said about the effect wave energy will have on local communities. Some specific questions addressed by Maria’s research are: how much does the public know about renewable energy issues and how familiar is it with specific renewable energy technologies? How is wave energy generation off of the Oregon coast being perceived? Do people know enough to make an informed decision? Does it matter how close one lives to the ocean? Cumulatively, how does the human dimension of the wave energy equation impact public perceptions, public policy and the successful adoption of wave energy technology along Oregon’s coast?
Maria is hopeful that the answers to these questions will allow policy makers to better understand public perceptions and help formulate appropriate policies: policies that will allow us to advance economically and provide the needed energy, all the while preserving the environment.
In the future, Maria would like to have a leadership position in an international organization that defines best practices and makes policies for more efficient energy use and marine energy acquisition worldwide.
Oregon Sea Grant Natural Resource Policy Fellowship
2009
Juna Hickner
Juna became hooked on marine resources when, as a high school student in Seattle, she took her first marine biology class. Not willing to venture far from the water, Juna attended Western Washington University and majored in Environmental Policy. After college she decided to explore the other coast and volunteered with AmeriCorps Cape Cod in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. While on the Cape, Juna worked with the Cape Cod National Seashore and spent time on the tideflats with just about every shellfish department on the lower cape. While she immensely enjoyed the mix of field work, office time, and community outreach, she hung up her hip waders and enrolled at the University of Oregon School of Law in 2005.
In law school Juna focused on water resources as well as ocean and coastal law. She earned certificates in Ocean & Coastal and Environmental & Natural Resources law, and served as a fellow for the Environmental and Natural Resources Law program.
Juna will spend her year as a Natural Resources Fellow working with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marine Resources Program, concentrating primarily on marine reserves and wave energy issues.
Oregon Water Resources Department and Oregon Sea Grant Extension Well Water Resources Fellowship
2008
Abby Brown
Abby grew up in East Tennessee among the farmland and rolling hills of the Appalachian Mountains. During her childhood summers, she was usually found outside exploring the woods and creeks of the land. These experiences helped to instill in her a reverence for the natural world at a young age. Over six years ago, Abby discovered her passion for the field of watershed studies. Since that time, she has been engaged in watershed management in numerous capacities: activist, citizen, governmental employee, non-profit employee, student, and volunteer.
Abby earned her undergraduate degree from The Evergreen State College with a focus on watershed studies and sustainable agriculture. While in college, she lived and traveled in Central America for six months to study sustainable food systems and long-term tropical reforestation. After returning from Central America, she worked with the Chehalis River Council and the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust to develop watershed education and outreach programs in rural Washington. Following college, Abby worked on water rights and permitting issues with the Water Resources Program at the Washington Department of Ecology. Over the past two years, she has become increasingly interested in global water issues. Abby’s interest in global watershed management and community development led her to enroll in the Water Resources Policy and Management Master’s program at OSU. She currently maintains a water blog called Water for the Ages at http://waterfortheages.wordpress.com.
Abby will spend her year as a Water Resources Fellow at the Oregon Water Resources Department developing a community ground water level monitoring program for the Eola Hills area, northwest of Salem.
John D. Knauss Marine Policy Fellows
2008
Christopher Holmes
Christopher has had an abiding love of the ocean from the time he was a small child, when he would venture out with lobstermen in Down East Maine and harvest periwinkles to supplement his allowance. Since that time he earned a degree in Marine Biology at UC-Santa Cruz studying elephant seal behavior and predatory patterns of great white sharks. After college, Christopher worked on various research projects as varied as elasmobranch toxicology in Monterey and San Francisco Bays, astrobiology on the Space Station Biological Research Project, and biological oceanography of the Antarctic Peninsula. Throughout these efforts, Christopher spent a lot of time on the water through recreational and scientific diving, even teaching students how to dive and kayak.
Christopher moved to Oregon to work with the PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans) program, leading the technical work of offshore oceanography and subtidal marine ecology. By working on the Oregon coast and seeing the usefulness of the latest research efforts, Christopher saw the need for better integration of science into policy and management. This led him to the Marine Resource Management program at Oregon State University. While there, he has concetrated on marine policy and worked with the Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC) on Governor Kulongoski's proposed National Marine Sanctuary.
Christopher will spend his year as a Knauss Fellow in the NOAA Fisheries Office of Policy. While in Washington D.C he hopes to gain a practical understanding of how marine policy is incorporated and implemented in the federal arena.
Nick Klingensmith
Nick grew up in rural western Oregon. Cold-water and anadromous fish are his primary interests, both personally and professionally. While in college in Colorado, Nick spent as much time as he could playing outside, where his love for the outdoors led to a growing awareness of environmental and natural resources issues.During and immediately after college, Nick spent four summers in Bristol Bay, Alaska, working as a sport-fishing guide for a remote lodge.When not working or in school, he devoted all of his free time to fishing, hunting, hiking, climbing, skiing and running whitewater.However, despite the charmed lifestyle he was leading, Nick began to suspect that it ultimately would not scratch the itch that was his interest in natural resources law, management and policy. Consequently, Nick enrolled at the University of Oregon School of Law in 2004 and immersed himself in the field of environmental and natural resources law.
In law school, Nick focused primarily on the issues of fisheries management, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and state water laws.He was a Fellow for the law school’s Oceans, Coasts and Watersheds project, and spent a summer clerking for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.Nick passed the Oregon State Bar exam in September, 2007.
As a 2008 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow, Nick will be working in the Office of Marine Conservation in the US State Department. He is excited to get the opportunity to work in the field of marine resources policy, where he hopes to provide his hard work and enthusiasm in exchange for a rewarding educational experience.
Allison Reed
Allison’s passion and love of the ocean began when she was a small girl, while visiting the South Carolina coast on family trips. There she went on wildlife kayaking trips, and bike tours through the marshes. This interest led Allison to the University of Maine for college, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Management and Policy. During her undergraduate years, she spent a summer in Baja California working on sea turtle conversation, and worked part time as a Research Assistant in the Department of Natural Resource Economics and Policy. After graduation, Allison spent a year continuing her work in the Department, where she completed projects funded by the US Department of Agriculture, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Maine Bureau of Health. Her collegiate and work focus on environmental management and policy issues led Allison to realize that the only aspect missing was the legal side of the issues. She enrolled in Lewis and Clark Law School in 2004.
While in law school, Allison focused primarily on environmental and natural resources law, earning a certificate in those areas. She was a member of the Moot Court Negotiations regional team, as well as a participant in the intraschool Merhige Environmental Negotiations Competition, and also served as the student liaison to the Natural Resources Faculty. Allison graduated from law school in May 2007, and is currently a member of the Maine and Massachusetts bars.
As a 2008 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow, Allison will be working in the NOAA Office of International Affairs.
Brownwen Rice
Though originally from Maine, Bronwen's work has taken her from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific and nearly everywhere in between: Florida, Central and South America, New York City, and the Pacific Northwest. Her experience working domestically and abroad, particularly her time as a Peace Corps volunteer working for a marine protected area in Western Samoa, led to a growing interest in social science and the human dimensions of marine resource issues. This interest was well served by the multidisciplinary nature of the Marine Resource Management program at the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences (COAS) at Oregon State University (OSU).
In addition to her coursework, as a Master's student Bronwen helped produce materials in the COAS Publications and Outreach office and participated in an extension project on climate change with the OSU Institute for Natural Resources. Her work with the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) program led to her master's project looking at after-school program teachers' perspectives on ocean literacy and the tools of oceanography.
As a John D. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in Washington, D.C., Bronwen hopes to learn about potential career paths while making a meaningful contribution in the United States marine policy arena. Bronwen will spend her fellowship year in the NOAA Office of Education.
NOAA Coastal Services Center Fellow
Andy Lanier
As a long time Oregonian, Andy has always been interested in life on the Oregon Coast.Growing up in Portland Oregon, Andy fondly remembers family trips to the coast where tide-pooling and beachcombing were common activities.It was not until the summer of his undergraduate junior year, however, did Andy formally study marine life and become interested in a career in marine science. While working to complete his Bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Oregon, Andy furthered his life experience in the marine realm while becoming a certified SCUBA Divemaster, spending many of his weekends and evenings physically submersed underwater in the pursuit of observing marine life.While his interest in marine life grew, Andy also completed undergraduate courses in computer science, cartography, and geographic information systems (GIS) science.
Those interests were further pursued as Andy spent the past several years in study at Oregon State University in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, where he completed a Master’s Degree in the Marine Resource Management Program.Under the tutelage of Dr. Chris Goldfinger, Andy gained experience in the science of remote sensing, and in particular, seafloor mapping while working on his thesis, "A comparison of Seafloor Classification Methods Through the Use of Multibeam Sonar, Error Matrices and 3-Dimensional Visualization: Case study of Nehalem bank, Oregon" During his tenure at OSU Andy also served as a technician on three different oceanographic surveying cruises, where he had the opportunity to be an observer in the Delta Oceanographics submersible and travel down to over a 1000ft of depth in a submarine channel of the southern California Channel Islands.
Andy is very excited to be working with the State of Oregon for his fellowship, where he will have the opportunity to build an ocean GIS for use by the state in it’s marine policy decision making arena.The hot topics of marine reserves and wave energy development are driving Andy’s current efforts of data collection. For the long term, Andy is focusing his project on the development of an ocean specific module of the Oregon Coastal Atlas, which will provide virtual views of Oregon’s ocean environment.
Oregon Sea Grant Undergraduate Research Fellows
Sarah Fisher
Sarah loves the outdoors. Her interest in the ocean and marine life led her to explore ecological research.Sarah plans to begin graduate school in the fall in the field of neuroscience, particularly endocrinology and ingestive behavior.She managed to combine her interests in metabolic activity and marine life in her marine science project: studying the feeding rates, prey preference, and interaction between juvenile Dungeness and adult European Green Crabs.She is very excited to learn more!Sarah's other interests include horseback riding, running, camping, peeling mussels off of rocks, and measuring carapace width of European Green Crabs.
Robert Lamb
Robert became interested in nature and biology as a young boy when his mother would take him on early morning trips to go birdwatching or tidepooling on the Oregon coast.Originally from Portland, OR, Robert sought out every possible opportunity to learn about wildlife and expand his world view.His travels in high school took him to the Caribbean for an introduction to scuba diving and marine science sailing aboard a catamaran, and a full year spent living on the coast of Ecuador as a Rotary international exchange student.
Since arriving at OSU, Robert has continued to look outside the classroom for real-life experiences in marine biology.He spent his sophomore year as a marine biology intern working with Equilibrio Azul in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador, monitoring illegal shark catches and sea turtle nesting habits.For the past three years he has worked as a research assistant to Dr. Mark Hixon in the Zoology department.In the summer of 2007, Robert received a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant, as well as a grant from OSU’s undergraduate research and innovation scholarship program to travel with Dr. Hixon’s lab to the Bahamas and conduct his own research on marine reserves and their effects on reef fish communities.
Turning his focus to temperate waters, Robert’s Sea Grant Fellowship will explore the differences in "community structure between low light, rock wall overhangs and sun-exposed surfaces in the intertidal zone," and what causes these differences.He hopes to be able to infer from this experiment some possible changes in cold water rocky intertidal communities that may arise from warming ocean waters.His mentor for this project is Dr. Bruce Menge.
Robert has just been offered a Fulbright to study sustainable fisheries in Ecuador next year, you can read more about his work and adventures here http://oregonstate.edu/home/stories/index.php?story=RobbieDives - Congratulations, Robbie!
Christina Murphy
Christina loves fish.While she always knew she wanted to be a "scientist," her passion was awakened during a high school internship with ODFW where her project focused on juvenile bull trout and utilized night snorkeling observations.At OSU Christina studies Biology, Fisheries & Wildlife, and International Studies.She has worked for NOAA, ODFW, and the US Army Corps of Engineers in the past, but you can now find her in Nash working with aquatic invertebrates at OSU’s Stream Team Lab.She hopes to continue on to work in fish/aquatic ecology far into the future.Her plans include graduate school and an eventual professorship where she can study and share the wonders of the aquatic world.
Looking at fish for so long has made her wonder, what do fish see?Christina’s Sea Grant fellowship focuses on the "The visual ecology of Pacific Northwest tidepool fishes: spectral characteristics, visual pigments and behavior."She began studying visual systems last spring at Friday Harbor and is looking forward to uncovering more of the secrets being held by those cute, cryptic intertidal sculpins. Her project mentor is Dr. Douglas Markle.
Megan Poole
Megan decided that she wanted to be a marine biologist
vacation with her family eight years ago. She was in Alaska on a whale
watching trip and was lucky enough to see so many humpback whales that
she lost count, and decided right then and there that she had to work on,
in, or by the ocean when she "grew up". Since then, Megan has
volunteered with several organizations in her home state of California,
which has allowed her to get some experience with what working on, in,
or by the ocean was actually like. Megan moved up to Oregon
two years ago to attend OSU and has loved every minute of it. Now, eight years after her pre-teen proclamation, Megan is a senior Biology major trying to juggle classes, work, and everything else learning how to be an adult requires, and like many college students, has also developed a somewhat serious caffeine addiction.
Megan has been fortunate to work for the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) at OSU. There she helps collect and deploy equipment on the Oregon coast during the summer and then helps to count the critters the equipment has collected during the year. For her Sea Grant Fellowship, Megan will study the "Effects of increased levels of dissolved CO2 on Oregon intertidal mussels" under the supervision of Dr. Bruce Menge. She hopes that this study will increase understanding of the effects of rising carbon dioxidein the oceans on shell-building animals, such as mussels.
In her spare time, Megan tries to enjoy and experience everything Oregon has to offer with friends and family. In the future Megan plans to go to graduate school and focus on marine conservation and policymaking so that she can help work to protect things like the whales that inspired her when she was little.
Oregon Sea Grant Supported Graduate Students
Heather Reiff
Heather grew up at the Jersey shore and always had a kinship with water, especially the ocean. Her passion for marine life led her to Boston University for a BA in Biology with a marine specialization. From studying abroad in a Marine Resource Studies program through the School for Field Studies in the Turks and Caicos Islands, to leading a pilot Caribbean Marine Reserves program through a youth academic travel-abroad program, Heather cultivated her interests in marine conservation and marine protected area management.
Heather entered the Marine Resource Management Master’s program at Oregon State University in the fall of 2007 with the intention to continue working with marine reserve issues. She has been involved with the Oregon marine reserve process since then. Heather assisted Dr. Selina Heppell, a professor and marine fisheries ecologist in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at OSU, with the Oregon Sea Grant outreach meetings. Heather now helps manage the Oregon Marine Reserves informational webpage www.oregonmarinereserves.net.
Heather's thesis is entitled: “A comparison of tropical and temperate marine reserves: implications for Oregon’s marine reserve science.” The ongoing process of establishing marine reserves in Oregon has many people questioning if and why marine reserves are necessary in Oregon and what their anticipated benefits might be. Specifically, coastal residents and stakeholders want to know what the scientific evidence is to support assertions that marine reserves in Oregon will increase biodiversity and biomass while protecting habitat, and what other expected benefits will result. The overall findings from her analysis aims to provide local scientists and managers with information to present to stakeholders and others with vested interest in the science behind marine reserves.
Jayde Ferguson
Jayde Ferguson is a second year microbiology graduate student in Dr.
Michael Kent's laboratory. He graduated from Weber State University
(Ogden, UT) with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Microbiology and has
worked in the private sector as a diagnostic microbiologist at a pharmaceutical/ nutraceutical company. During his first
year at Oregon State University, he completed a research rotation in Dr.
Kent's lab assessing the dose of chlorine required to inactivate spores of Pseduoloma neurophilia, a
microsporidium that infects zebrafish.This work has been published
in the Disease of Aquatic Organisms journal and presented at the 2007
annual American Fisheries Society (AFS) Fish Health Section meeting.
Jayde is currently working on his thesis "Impacts of parasites on wild coho salmon
in Oregon", funded in part by Oregon Sea Grant.During the initial phase of this project he discovered a novel myxosporean parasite.It
is very similar to Myxobolus insidiosus, which infects somatic
muscle cells, yet it exclusively infects peripheral nerves of somatic
musculature. He is presently writing a manuscript on this work and is planning to submit it for publication soon.This
work has been an important introductory component to his thesis, as
assessing impacts of parasites requires their proper identification.
Gwenn Kubeck
Gwenn's interest in community engagement about natural resource issues began during her time as the Education Director of a small not-for-profit in Maine. After experiencing the innovative solutions and sense of connection that can arise when diverse interests work together, Gwenn decided to pursue a master’s degree in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University. Currently Gwenn is involved in facilitation training and hopes to create a career of working with diverse stakeholders to both empower individuals and encourage creative problem solving to help ensure sustainable resource use and sustainable and cohesive communities.
With support from Oregon Sea Grant, Gwenn has convened a series of focus groups to assess stakeholder’s awareness and attitudes about invasive species. The resulting data will be used by the Oregon Invasive Species Council and other partners such as Oregon Public Broadcasting, to help inform a statewide invasive species education and action initiative. With Sea Grant support and mentoring, Gwenn also authored a Sea Grant publication entitled: Public Outreach and Behavior Change: An Annotated Reference Guide.
Sarah Kirkpatrick
Sarah was born in Beverly, Massachusetts and grew up in Aloha, Oregon. While in high school, Sarah began her research career studying Asian Elephant Behavior at the Oregon Zoo with Dr. David Shepherdson through Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering. Sarah graduated from Oregon State University with an Honors BS with a major in Biology and minor in Chemistry. Her undergraduate thesis was on behavioral patterns of Steller sea lions at the Oregon Zoo.
Sarah, wanting to continue her education, decided to enroll as a Master’s student in Biology at Portland State University. Learning that certain fish species found in the Columbia River such as lamprey and small smolts are difficult to find using traditional otolith scat analysis, Sarah decided that a new technique would be useful for accurately determining the entire diet of sea lions in the Columbia River. With the help of the Oregon Zoo and Oregon Coast Aquarium and funding through Oregon Sea Grant, Sarah is performing feeding trials on captive California and Steller sea lions. The trials are allowing Sarah to have scat with known fish in it, so she can determine if there is a unique "signature" to each fish. She is using DNA and fatty acid analysis to recognize the fish.
Erika Wolters
Erika is a candidate in Oregon State University’s doctoral program in Environmental Science, with a particular focus in social science.Erika has a master’s degree in Environmental Studies, Politics and Policy from California State University Sacramento.Her background includes environmental non-profit work, primarily in the fields of species recovery and population and consumption, and work as an adjunct professor at a community college in California.
Currently, Erika is working with Oregon Sea Grant in conjunction with the Oregon Invasive Species Council, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and The Nature Conservancy of Oregon on research regarding invasive species in Oregon.The two-part effort is to gain knowledge through surveying stakeholder groups in Oregon to determine how much they know about invasive species, then to focus an educational outreach campaign to these key groups in an effort to stop the spread of harmful invasive species.