Maine Graduates to Explores Marine Policy in Washington, DC
Contact: Catherine Schmitt, 207-581-1434
Orono, ME—Maine Sea Grant has announced that the National Sea Grant College Program has awarded prestigious Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships to two people with graduate degrees from Maine colleges.
Jocelyn Brown-Saracino and Danielle Brzezinski join 46 fellow graduates from around the country who will be working on marine policy in Washington, D.C. The fellowships provide an opportunity for recent graduates to apply their scientific background to marine and coastal policy-making at the national level.
Brown-Saracino, a graduate of Smith College, earned a master’s degree in marine science from the University of New England in 2009. She spent much of her summer vacations on remote Muskeget Island in Nantucket Sound, where she observed the behavior of gray seals. She has experience studying and teaching coral reef ecology to students in Belize.
“Conducting this research made me aware of the importance of well-designed marine policy that takes into account the complexity of ecosystems, and also the needs of communities,” said Brown-Saracino, who will spend the next year in the Department of Energy Office of Wind and Hydropower Technologies.
Danielle Brzezinski, who received master’s degrees in marine biology and marine policy from the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences in 2009, has worked at the intersection of marine science, policy, and resource use for several years, most recently with managers and fishermen on the Maine Scallop Advisory Committee.
“My dual training in science and policy puts me in a good position to communicate among different parties involved in management, and I hope to continue working in this liaison role in the future,” she said. A native of Saginaw, Michigan, Brzezinski is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio.
“Danielle is one of the most intelligent, motivated, and hard-working graduate students that I have ever known,” said her advisr, Yong Chen, “She is a thinker, full of scientific curiosity.” Brzezinski has been assigned to work on Capitol Hill in the Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
The Knauss fellowship was established in 1979 for students who are interested in ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources and the national policy decisions that affect those resources. Qualified graduate students spend a year with “hosts” in the legislative and executive branch of government in Washington, DC. The program is named in honor of one of the founders of the National Sea Grant College Program, former NOAA Administrator John A. Knauss. http://www.seagrant.noaa.gov/knauss/