DURHAM, N.C. – A Ph.D. student and recent Master of Environmental Management (MEM) graduate of the Nicholas School have been named finalists for the Sea Grant John A. Knauss Policy Fellowship program.

Robin Fail, a Marine Science and Conservation Ph.D. student, and Everett Craddock, MEM'24, were among 88 young environmental leaders selected for the national program this year.

Later this month, the finalists will participate in the placement process, where they will connect with each other and potential host offices. They will officially begin their fellowships in February 2025, joining a network of more than 1,660 professionals.

The Knauss Fellowship program is an initiative of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Sea Grant College Program. Now in its 46th year, it places recent university graduates in federal agencies and offices to work with policymakers and staffers on coastal policy issues of national consequence.

As Knauss Fellows, Fail and Craddock will spend the next year working alongside a federal agency or legislative office in Washington, D.C., applying their academic expertise to critical marine, coastal and Great Lakes policy issues.

Fail's research is guided by an interest in how social systems and marine ecosystems interact, the governance structures used to moderate those interactions, and the processes for integrating diverse values, knowledge systems, and priorities into policymaking. Her dissertation research focuses on the role of discourse in constituting politics and policies related to aquaculture development and the equity implications of policy tradeoffs in this sector.

Craddock earned his MEM with a focus in coastal environmental management. His Master's Project focused on the application of a novel climate adaptation tool for prioritization of historic structures in coastal national parks. He produced an analysis based on a novel tool created at Cape Hatteras National Seashore to provide a simple methodology for prioritizing historic structures for climate adaptation based on physical vulnerability and historic significance metrics. He used lessons learned from the analysis to produce recommendations for the National Park Service in development of climate change adaptation guidelines.

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