By Sydney MaHan, Student Correspondent
Next week, five Virginia graduate students will begin Knauss Fellowships. The Fellows will spend a year in Washington, DC, serving in executive or legislative offices.
Allison Colden will work on staff for California Congressman Mike Thompson, with a focus on various environmental issues as they relate to government and policy. Two of these issues are habitat restoration and water infrastructure—topics that she knows well from the Chesapeake Bay.
“I’m excited to apply what I have learned from working in the Chesapeake Bay to another of the nation’s important estuaries, the San Francisco Bay–San Joaquin Delta system,” she says.
Colden received a BS in biology from the University of Virginia in 2009 and will graduate from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science with a PhD in fisheries science in 2015.
The Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program places students with host offices in the legislative or executive branches of government in Washington, DC. Fellows learn about the national policy decisions that affect ocean, coastal, and the Great Lakes resources while getting the opportunity to contribute their knowledge to current issues facing the nation. The National Sea Grant College Program established the program in 1979.
