Bethany Williams recently completed her 2018 Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship with NCCOS's Biogeography Branch, which develops marine spatial maps, models, and assessments needed by decision-makers to manage coastal ocean space and its associated resources. Find out more about the variety of marine spatial ecology projects that Bethany worked on during her fellowship, and her experience with NCCOS, in this exit interview video developed by her sponsor, the Virginia Sea Grant Program.

Since 1979, the National Sea Grant College Program has administered the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program, one of the nation’s most prestigious marine policy fellowships. The Knauss Fellowship provides a unique educational and professional experience to graduate students who have an interest in ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources, and policy decisions affecting those resources. The program matches fellows with offices in legislative and executive branches of government for a paid, year-long, immersive policy experience in the Washington, D.C. area.

During her 2018 Knauss Fellowship with NCCOS, Bethany Williams worked on marine spatial ecology projects in Georgia; New York; the Gulf of Mexico; and St. Croix, USVI. Here, Bethany is collecting commercially important fish in St. Croix to compare how the fish use habitat within and outside of marine protected areas. Credit: NOAA.