Above left to right: Emma Hultin, Melanie Hutchinson, Renu Ojha, Kianne Benjamin, Oluwaseyi Dasho (Photo by Bayleigh Albert | Virginia Sea Grant).
2026 Commonwealth fellows Announced
Five Virginia students have been selected as fellows for the 2026 Commonwealth Coastal & Marine Policy Fellowship. This one-year program provides an educational and professional development opportunity for post-graduate students by pairing them with a state or local government host office mentor. At their host office, they will:
- Work on a project to improve the stewardship of the Commonwealth’s coastal and marine resources
- Learn about policy decisions that affect coastal and marine resources
- Receive on-the-job training
We look forward to seeing how these five Commonwealth Fellows will advance marine policy in coastal Virginia.
Kianne Benjamin graduated from William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science & Batten School with a Master of Arts in Marine Science. She was a graduate research assistant with the Center for Coastal Resource Management, where she created one-pagers and fliers about land-use challenges in Virginia, such as sea-level rise, shoreline erosion, and increasing flood risk. Benjamin will be working with her host office, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, in the Habitat Management Division.Â
Oluwaseyi Dasho graduated from Virginia Tech with a Ph.D. in Geosciences, where he studied coastal land subsidence, sea level rise, and flooding hazards. He was a graduate research assistant with the Earth Observation & Innovation Lab, where he used Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to quantify vertical land motion and combined this data with tide gauge records and sea level projections to generate flood risk assessments for coastal cities. Dasho will work with his host office, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, for the duration of his fellowship.Â
Emma Hultin graduated from Virginia Tech‘s College of Natural Resources and the Environment with a Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation. She studied the sustainable management of the arapaima, one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, located in the Brazilian Amazon. For her fellowship, Hultin will be working with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Healthy Waters Program.Â
Melanie Hutchinson graduated from William & Mary with a Master’s in Public Policy. She was a graduate research assistant at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science & Batten School, where she gathered research and generated interview questions about the global and domestic seaweed market and barriers for local fishermen. Hutchinson will be working with the Office of Floodplain Management at the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.Â
Renu Ojha graduated from Virginia Tech with a Ph.D. in Economics. She was a graduate research assistant with the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, where she developed technology adoption models for oyster farms based on production scales and conducted a cost-benefit analysis to help small growers decide which adoption model is best for their farm types. Ojha will be working with the Office of Resilience Planning at the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
