Knauss Fellows Find Virtual Experience Plenty Interactive
The Maryland Sea Grant Knauss fellows are not having the year they expected.
Typically, the fellows spend their year in Washington, DC, working for various federal agencies or congressional representatives focusing on ocean and Great Lakes issues. This year, they began working from home, hoping to eventually go in person. But they have found themselves teleworking as the COVID-19 pandemic continued and made isolating the safer option.
Because the fellowship relies on a lot of networking opportunities, the shift was challenging. Luckily, this class benefitted from some lessons learned in the previous year. And as it turns out, the Knauss fellows say they’re meeting more colleagues virtually than they probably would if they were in their offices.
The four Maryland Sea Grant Knauss fellows this year are Shadaesha Green, Cadijah Walcott, Suzi Webster, and Dani Weissman. Unable to get together in person, we set up Zoom sessions to chat about the fellowship, their goals, and what marine animal they would like to be. The following interviews were edited for space and clarity.
Shadaesha Green
Shadaesha Green is a doctoral student at the Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences (MEES) graduate program at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology. Green earned her undergraduate degree in marine and environmental science from Hampton University in Virginia. She is working as a Communication, Education and Engagement Division fellow in NOAA’s Climate Program Office. Her dissertation examines crustacean reproduction and hormonal regulators, focusing on the red deep-sea crab, Chaceon quinquedens.
When you were growing up, what did you want to be? How is this career like that or not like that?
I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to teach for a long time. Then I did an internship with a kindergarten class. I saw, oh, this is a lot! I like talking to adults, but I really like working with kids and the curiosity they have. When I am doing communications products, I try to think of it from the aspect of children’s eyes. How would they understand it?
What do you like to do when you’re not at work?
I spend a lot of time with my son, Jayden, who is 9. We like to play games, cook, watch TV. I like to do different home improvement and decorative projects, like wreaths. I am also working on my dissertation. It’s on red crabs. A lot of people know blue crabs, but not red ones. The two questions I get asked the most are, “What do they taste like?” and “Do they turn red when you cook them?” Though there is a fishery, I’ve never tried them, and unlike blue crabs, they don’t change color. They stay red.
What has your favorite experience been so far at your Knauss fellowship?
I wanted a position where I could learn a lot. And that’s been my favorite part, being able to learn so many things. There are four risk teams and I serve on all of them: the extreme heat team, water resources team, coastal inundation team, and marine ecosystem risk team. It helps me think about how would I explain this idea to different groups.
Cadijah Walcott
Cadijah Walcott is an engineer who graduated from the University of Maryland with a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering. She earned her undergraduate degree in environmental studies with a focus on GIS from the University of Pittsburgh. She is the coastal hazards and mitigation specialist for Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coastal States Organization. Her thesis focused on the development of a comprehensive hydrologic model of the Tiber Branch watershed in Ellicott City to study past flooding events.
When you were growing up, what did you want to be? How is this career like that or not like that?
In high school, I had an environmental class, and it was the first time I got to be outside of the classroom and apply what we were learning. We looked at what was in the stream. That stuck with me as I went to my undergraduate program. My uncle was an engineer. When I finished my undergrad degree, I still wanted to be an engineer. But I wanted to somehow stay in the environmental space. Hurricanes, and their increasing frequency, pushed me to look at disaster resilience.
What do you think is your dream job?
For me, it’s still up in the air. I loved doing the [spatial] modeling I’ve been able to do. I enjoy being in this policy space. I’m taking this opportunity to explore all of the different paths. Working at the federal level, I also see the value of being at the state and local level. So those may also be great possibilities.
If you could be any type of sea creature, what would you be and why?
I want to be an orca. They are so majestic. They are huge, they are in charge, they like to show off. They are just the best thing in this world.
Suzi Webster
Suzi Webster is working on her doctorate at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences (MEES) graduate program. Webster earned her bachelor's degree in biology and anthropology from the University of Notre Dame. She is a stakeholder engagement and outreach specialist in the NOAA Technology Partnerships Office. Her dissertation examines public engagement in Chesapeake Bay environmental research and management, with a focus on citizen science.
What did you study in graduate school? How does that relate to what you are doing now?
I study stakeholder engagement and communicating science in the Chesapeake Bay. I am particularly fascinated in working with different people who have diverse relationships with the environment. It’s cool to be able to get that ethnographic insight. I think if I combine that with science communication, it is a good way forward for my career. At NOAA, I am also focusing on how to strategically engage stakeholders and communicate science effectively.
When you were growing up, what did you want to be? How is this career like that or not like that?
Until partly through college I wanted to be a surgeon. But I was less than enthused with organic chemistry. I started thinking about the lifestyle I would have. I realized I didn’t want to be in the hospital all the time. Then, I had an anthropology class and it changed my direction. I didn’t know that field work and academic research was a thing.
What has your favorite experience been so far at your Knauss fellowship?
I’m the first fellow in my office and the first communications person. It’s been a great opportunity to take a leadership role. Not only am I doing the day-to-day work, I am also doing more long-term strategizing. I balance the short and long term. It’s nice to have the flexibility to make decisions. I also meet with stakeholders and discuss their needs. That can be different people within NOAA, people within the Small Business Administration, different labs.
Dani Weissman
Dani Weissman earned her doctorate in agroecology from the University of Maryland. She received her BA in environmental earth science with a focus in geology from Johns Hopkins University. She is working in the Deep-Sea Coral Research and Technology Program in the NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation. Weissman’s research at Maryland focused on wetlands and saltwater intrusion.
What did you study in graduate school? How does that relate to what you are doing now?
For my doctorate, I studied wetlands on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore and saltwater intrusion. Watching the salt marshes come back to life in these areas where they had been drained, watching the resilience in nature, that was really cool for me.
But for my work now, I am doing something really out of my comfort zone. I am working with NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology program. It was a big jump from semi-terrestrial systems to the deep ocean. But one thing that is really cool about the office where I work is the breadth of topics people work on within habitat protection. I also collaborate with people who work on coastal wetland issues. So, I am able to have a line on my former research but can learn about a completely new topic as well.
If you could be any type of sea creature, what would you be and why?
A leaf sheep sea slug—scientific name Costasiella kuroshimae. It takes the chloroplasts from algae and turns them into food. I also love black corals. They are the oldest living known organisms.
What do you like to do when you’re not at work?
I play violin in different bands. I love to hike and paddle board. I also love “iNaturalisting,” which is looking in the woods for plants and putting them into an app to identify them. I also do a lot of mushroom foraging; sometimes I look for other edible plants.
The Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program gives graduate students with an interest in marine science a unique opportunity to spend a year working for the federal government in Washington, DC. Fellows can request placements in the legislative or executive branches. Of the approximately 60 Knauss fellowships awarded annually, 12 fellows are placed in Congress. Visit www.mdsg.umd.edu for more information about the Knauss fellowship and why it might be right for you .
