RESEARCH INTERESTS
EDUCATION
IUU Fishing
I currently support combatting IUU Fishing by delivering capacity building workshops to implement the Port State Measures Agreement globally.
2023
University of Southern Mississippi
Ph.D. Coastal Sciences
Small-scale Fisheries Management
My Ph.D. research is based in small-scale fisheries in the Philippines. I am generally interested in working toward increasing the sustainability of small-scale fisheries globally, that benefits both fishers and ecosystems.
2015
University of North Carolina Wilmington
M.S. Coastal and Ocean Policy
2013
University of North Carolina Wilmington
B.S. Marine Biology
Social-Ecological Systems
SES are particularly interesting to me because most natural resource problems require humans driven solutions. Understanding how the social and ecological environments interact is integral to creating innovative and effective policy solutions.
I am currently involved in a fellowship using SES principles to develop a suitability analysis for offshore aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Marine Policy
Through my masters in coastal and ocean policy, I wrote numerous policy analyses and management plans. I conducted a policy analysis for dam removal, shrimp trawling, inshore gill net use, and offshore wind. I appreciate that policy involves engaging multiple disciplines and stakeholders in order to solve environmental problems.
​​2011 University of Southampton; with two-week
field research component, Spring Semester
2013 Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Spring
field course
2015 Belize Foundation for Research and
Environmental Education, Spring field course
2020 Belize Coastal Ecology, Winter field course
2021 Philippines dissertation field research, Boren
Fellowship