National Fellowships Awarded to University of Maine Graduates
Contact: Catherine Schmitt (207) 581-2434: Dave Munson (207) 581-3777
ORONO, Maine –The National Sea Grant College Program has just announced that three graduates of the University of Maine System have received prestigious Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships. More than 100 graduate students from throughout the country competed for the 10 positions available in the U.S. Congress and 32 in the Executive Branch in Washington, DC. The fellowships provide an opportunity for recent graduates to apply their scientific background to policy making at the national level.
Sheril Kirshenbaum will be working on the legislative staff of Florida Senator Bill Nelson. Kirshenbaum graduated with a dual master’s degree in marine science and policy from UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences, where she managed a collaborative research project with Dr. Yong Chen that assessed the status and management of the Maine sea cucumber fishery. Her ability to work with commercial fishermen, scientists, and government agency staff on a relatively new fishery in Maine makes her well-prepared to enter the legislative arena.
“Sheril has an uncanny way of bringing out the constructive aspects of people,” said her advisor and UMaine professor Dr. Jim McCleave.
Kirshenbaum has a broad but solid background in science and the arts; she has degrees in both biology and classical studies from Tufts University. She has also worked in commercial radio.
“My experience in radio broadcasting has taught me a great deal about the power of communication in achieving a tangible, measurable and constructive outcome,” said Kirshenbaum.
She hopes to apply these communication skills to advance protection for marine ecosystems.
Also chosen for a coveted legislative branch position, Emily Knight has a master’s degree in oceanography from the University of Maine. Knight has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Salve Regina University in Newport, RI. She has worked as a marine science educator aboard the Pioneer, the schooner of the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan. As a research assistant under Dr. Les Watling at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, Maine, Knight worked closely with Maine’s fishing industry to research the impacts of bottom trawling on marine habitat in the Gulf of Maine.
“Emily is unafraid to confront any situation and take initiative,” said Captain Cameron McClellan, a fifth-generation groundfisherman who worked with Knight on the research project.
“My academic career has shown me that flexibility and willingness to build alliances between scientists and other stakeholders is invaluable,” said Knight of her experience working at the intersection of science and natural resource management. She hopes to learn more about the legislative process and the government of marine resource use during her year working in the office of Maine Representative Tom Allen.
Meredith Mendelson, a native of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, will be working in the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management. Mendelson is a graduate of Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies Program, Bates College, and the University of Maine School of Law. Mendelson recently completed an evaluation of emerging ecosystem-based fishery management strategies for the herring industry.
Previously, Mendelson worked with planners from the Maine State Planning Office and the Fishing Heritage Trust to develop a program to protect working waterfronts and traditional marine access for maritime industries.
“In Maine, working waterfront property is subject to tension involving fishermen, the ever-rising real estate market and land use management,” said Mendelson, who intends to apply her law degree to a career in marine policy by creating a nonprofit organization that would facilitate the protection of water access in Maine communities.
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.