25+ Years of Marine Policy Fellows
You don’t have to travel far in Maine before running into former Knauss Marine Policy Fellows working at all levels of state government, in nonprofit organizations, industry associations, and other organizations serving Maine’s coastal ecosystems and communities.
Since 1979, more than 1,000 young professionals have spent a year immersed in marine policy as Dean John A. Knauss Fellows with the National Sea Grant College Program. Each year, Maine Sea Grant recruits graduate students from institutions throughout the state to apply for the program, and we enjoy supporting them during their fellowship year, and keeping up with their impressive and inspiring accomplishments during and after the program.
Here are some of Maine’s recent Knauss fellows and their current employment.
Amanda Leland ’03, Senior Vice President, Environmental Defense Fund Oceans Program
Sheril Kirshenbaum, ’06, Director of The Energy Poll, The University of Texas at Austin; author, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future and The Science of Kissing
Emily Knight, ’06, Program Manager, California Ocean Science Trust
Danielle Chesky, ’09, Environmental Affairs Officer, Embassy of Canada
Rebecca McMahon, ’09, Deputy General Counsel at Yurok Tribe Office of Tribal Attorney
Jocelyn Brown-Saracino, ’10, Wind and Water Power Technologies Office, US Department of Energy
Other Knauss fellows selected by other states have found employment in Maine.
Sea Grant Associate Director Beth Bisson, ’05, served as a Knauss Fellow in the NOAA Estuarine Reserves Division, and has been with Maine Sea Grant since she finished her Knauss Fellowship.
Meredith Mendelson, ’06, Deputy Commissioner, Maine Department of Marine Resources
Nick Battista, an ’09 fellow from Rhode Island, was placed in the Office of Representative Chellie Pingree, and now directs marine programs for the Island Institute.