Virginia Sea Grant officially welcomes Madeleine Jepsen

Virginia Sea Grant is excited to officially welcome Madeleine Jepsen to the Sea Grant family. She relocated from Caledonia, Michigan in the summer of 2018 to work with VASG as a communications intern, and was hired for a full-time position in May. Jepsen is a graduate of Hillsdale College where she majored in biochemistry and minored in journalism.

During her summer internship, Jepsen proved herself to be someone who goes above and beyond regular job description tasks and was always willing to lend a helping hand, or pen. After completing her internship, Jepsen continued working as a part-time staff writer with Virginia Sea Grant and played a key role in the preparation of materials for VASG’s NOAA site review, proving herself a vital member of the team.

“As an intern, I never worried about her and she was always willing to take on extra tasks, even outside of her communications duties,” said Aileen Devlin, VASG digital storyteller. “She is such a hard worker—we couldn’t have done our NOAA site review without her.”

Jepsen assists Devlin while reporting, a task that requires teamwork, coordination, and situational awareness.

“Madeleine is a pleasure to go out in the field with,” Devlin said. “She is also incredibly stealthy when it comes to staying away from the camera. Not all writers have that ability.”

In addition to writing stories about Virginia Sea Grant and its partner institutions, Jepsen frequently works with graduate students, helping them edit their application materials and coaching them for the interview process. She also helps compile and edit annual reporting documents required by the National Sea Grant Program that highlight program accomplishments over the past year. Jepsen’s dedication and hard-working personality have impressed everyone on staff.

“When I first arrived, bringing Madeleine on full-time became one of my top priorities,” said Jay Clark, VASG communications center program manager. “I couldn’t imagine the department losing someone who had this kind of enthusiasm and knowledge of all the different Sea Grant programs.”

When she isn’t working, Jepsen gets excited learning about new science, meeting former, current and upcoming fellows, and learning about their research. She also enjoys kayaking.

Photos by Aileen Devlin | Virginia Sea Grant

Published June 14, 2019.