Funded CBE Fellowships

Students enrolled in the Environmental Policy and Management masters program who are specializing in Ocean and Coastal Resource Management are eligible for funded Center for the Blue Economy positions throughout the year, with full-time positions during the summer and during their practicums. The CBE Summer Fellows process begins in early spring to identify opportunities with innovative and internationally recognized marine organizations. The center provides a list of possibilities, and students may suggest additional fellowship organizations. Each project must positively affect ocean and coastal sustainability, help the host organization fill a critical need, and better prepare our students for their future careers. Below is a list of our most recent summer fellows. Their stories, along with tales from our CBE Summer Fellows and past fellows can be found at our CBE Summer Fellows Blog. 

Center for the Blue Economy 2024 Summer Fellows

Student name: Jack Anderson

Washington Maritime Blue
Seattle, Washington, USA
June 10 to August 16, 2024

This summer Jack will be working on Washington Maritime Blue’s Joint Innovation Programs specifically relating to sustainable maritime fuels. Currently in the industry, producers only want to produce if they have users committed and users only want to commit to retrofits and new builds if they know there will already be fuel produced. This project will convene and facilitate vessel owners/operators, ports and transit agencies, fuel producers and bunkerers, utilities, research organizations, and environmental groups to seed, support, and lead strategic initiatives, collaboratives, and joint innovation projects to attempt to solve the chicken-and-egg dilemma in maritime decarbonization.

READ JACK’S BLOG

Student Name: Melissa Ashley

Environmental Defense Fund
San Francisco, California, USA
June 17 to August 21, 2024

At EDF, Melissa is working on part of a project aimed at developing a strategy to ensure that ocean carbon dioxide removal (oCDR) research is conducted safely and effectively. The project focuses on making informed decisions based on a thorough analysis of oCDR’s effectiveness, uncertainties, social and ecological risks, and associated costs. An essential aspect of this process is identifying key actors and influencers and understanding the actions they must take to achieve these outcomes. This information will be used to develop a strategy and inform a campaign to pass legislation that establishes a governance regime for oCDR research, development, and deployment.

Melissa’s role in this project involves conducting literature reviews and interviews to identify these key actors and influencers. Her responsibilities include researching and identifying key policymakers and stakeholders in the oCDR space, conducting informational interviews or mapping exercises to determine their positions, interests, and influencers, and working with experts to devise engagement strategies for securing support for federal legislation.

READ MELISSA’S BLOG

Student Name: Kevin Heller

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
June 24 to August 24, 2024

Kevin Heller is spearheading an impactful project this summer focused on analyzing the effects of sea level rise on contaminated sites and their subsequent impact on coastal resources in Alaska. Alaska has over 2,300 contaminated sites, and many are in coastal areas vulnerable to rising sea levels. This initiative aims to address the pressing issue of how a projected sea level rise of up to 1 to 4 feet by 2100, driven by climate change, will exacerbate the contamination and degradation of these coastal ecosystems. By identifying and quantifying the number of vulnerable sites, the project seeks to provide critical data that can inform mitigation and adaptation strategies.

READ KEVIN’S BLOG

Past and Current Summer Fellows Blogs

To see more of the work accomplished by CBE Summer Fellows, please visit our CBE Summer Fellows Blog where the students describe their experiences.  You’ll see a link there for Past Summer Fellows with posts back to our cohort of 2015.  Show here is Kimberly Aiken, CBE summer fellow in 2019 during her fellowship with the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) at the German Arctic office: “”Goodbye for now! Auf Wiedersehen. Next stop Norway!”  

Summer Fellows Host Organizations

The Center for the Blue Economy Summer Fellowships prepare students for careers that have an immediate positive impact on ocean and coastal sustainability. Below is our list of partner organizations that host CBE Summer Fellows.  The year indicates when students were first and most recently engaged with that organization.  Research and deliverables produced by the students during these fellowships is sometimes published by the organizations or the CBE.