Dr. Troy Hartley is director of Virginia Sea Grant (VASG) and a research professor of Marine Science & Policy at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the William & Mary Public Policy Program. Troy lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, and has over 20 years of experience in coastal, marine, and natural resource policy and management. He is a public policy scholar and his research considers collaborative governance networks and processes, stakeholder attitudes, perceptions and opinions, and change management in communities, particularly in coastal, marine and fisheries contexts. His research has been funded by NSF, NOAA, Sea Grant, USEPA, Canadian Embassy, and the Water Environment Research Foundation.

He has a PhD in environmental and natural resource policy from the University of Michigan, a MAIS in environmental policy from George Mason University, and a BS in zoology from the University of Vermont. At VASG, Troy has overall responsibilities for the strategic priorities and direction, partnership-building and relations, new initiatives, and program oversight. He has been heavily involved in professional development with VASG’s fellows on the science-policy interface, transdisciplinary team science, and collaborative leadership. Beyond VASG and his research and teaching, Troy enjoys cycling, keeping pace with his teenagers and yellow lab, and wishing that he could be cross-country skiing or driving a Zamboni.

Sabine Rogers is the assistant to the director at Virginia Sea Grant. She lives in Newport News, Virginia, but says that her heart still lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. She earned her master's in environmental education from Colorado State University, and her bachelor’s in English with a concentration in environmental science from James Madison University. Outside of work, she is an avid reader of children's books to her six-year-old, and a cab driver and psychologist for her preteen. She also enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, and credits total body conditioning classes and music for her sanity.

As the fellowship and research program coordinator, Sam Lake manages Virginia Sea Grant’s portfolio of graduate research and professional post-graduate fellowships, graduate student professional development programs, and other VASG support research and extension projects. He has a PhD in Marine Science from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and BS in marine science and biology from Coastal Carolina University. When not chasing his two young children as they bike, rock climb, and explore their way across the world, he likes getting muddy mountain biking, skimming across the water on a kiteboard, or logging some bottom time exploring a new coral reef. His hometown is Fairfield, Ohio.

Abigail Hils works on a variety of projects as Virginia Sea Grant’s project coordinator. She earned her master’s in environmental sciences, focusing on coral reef ecological monitoring, from Miami University’s Institute for the Environment and Sustainability in Oxford, Ohio. She earned her bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies with a focus on informal education from Miami University. Her family has always been involved in zoos, and she’s been a zoo keeper at three different zoos. Outside of work, she enjoys SCUBA diving, Zumba classes, and playing the viola. She lives in Gloucester, Virginia. Her hometown is Columbus, Ohio.

Devlin received her bachelor’s degree in art with a concentration in photography at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. After graduating in 2009, she gained a spot at Greenville’s local newspaper, The Daily Reflector. Devlin’s desire to grow then took her to Virginia, where she worked as a photojournalist and videographer with the Daily Press newspaper of Hampton Roads, Virginia, reaching a readership of 85,000. At the Daily Press, she won various awards from Virginia News Photographers Association and Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, including VNPA’s Clip Photographer of the Year, and placed third in the Photographer of the Year contest throughout Virginia in 2017, behind a Washington Post staff photographer and another Daily Press photojournalist. Devlin hopes to pursue slow journalism with long-form coverage of the work and research of VASG extension and NGO partners, fellows and stakeholders. She is originally from North Carolina, currently lives in Newport News, and in her free time she travels and enjoys being crafty.

Madeleine Jepsen, a recent graduate of Hillsdale College, joins the Virginia Sea Grant team after studying biochemistry and journalism. Previously, Madeleine covered earth and space science as an intern at the American Geophysical Union and also founded the science and technology section for her college newspaper, The Hillsdale Collegian. She looks forward to writing about marine and coastal science. When she’s not writing, Madeleine enjoys reading, spending time outdoors, and watching baseball. She hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan.