Conservation Research Heads to Washington

Doctoral candidate Kate Shlepr in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, was recently awarded a 2022 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship from the National Sea Grant College program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The fellowship provides an educational and professional experience to graduate students who have an interest in national policy regarding ocean resources.

Shlepr joins the 43rd class of the prestigious fellowship program that has trained more than 1,500 graduate students to become leaders in science, policy and public administration since 1979.

As a fellow, she will spend a year in Washington D.C., working within the legislative branch for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

Here’s what Shlepr said about her research and the fellowship.

1. What is your research focus as a doctoral student?

My Ph.D. research is about the wood stork, which is a long-legged wading bird that is protected in the U.S. as a threatened species. Historically, the southwestern portion of the Everglades was where up to 90% of all storks in the U.S. nested annually. When the Everglades was drained to protect growing cities along the South Florida coasts, the wood stork lost important foraging habitat and the Everglades population declined. By the 1990s, the water management strategy in South Florida shifted from flood control to a conservation/restoration mindset. The wood stork population has not recovered in the Everglades, but the species has expanded north into Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and into urban areas like county parks and golf courses. My project looks at the impact of urban living and the northward expansion on the resiliency of the species.

2. How did you get interested in this work?

Throughout school I heard the Everglades mentioned as one of the premier habitat restoration projects in the world. The idea of working as part of the restoration team and learning the ins and outs of the politics there, is very appealing. Indeed, I have come to learn about the tremendous effort that has been put into conservation in South Florida — ample funding and willpower, coordination by state and federal agencies, multiple universities, consultant firms, non-profit advocacy groups, citizen stakeholders — for more than 20 years. There are plenty of success stories and plenty of ongoing challenges in making this habitat restoration successful, so I could not have asked for a better training ground for my interest in conservation work.

Aside from the Everglades being our backyard, I had an awesome advisor and advisory committee at FAU. Each one of them has given me precious time and attention over the course of my degree, and I recognize their support as a positive factor in my ability to finish my Ph.D.

3. Why did you want to apply to the Knauss Fellowship?

I have long been interested in environmental law and policy because it is clear that those jobs have the potential to make huge impacts on environmental conservation. I am hopeful that my background in the sciences will help me offer a unique perspective on policy issues, which is just what the Knauss Fellowship is known to do.

4. What's your job as a fellow?

In my fellowship year, my role is equivalent to that of a professional staffer on the House of Representatives Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation. Just as it sounds, our subcommittee's jurisdiction covers Coast Guard policies, as well as maritime transportation issues such as coastwise trade. My assignment is less obviously environmental than many of Knauss Fellows', but the advantage is that the work I do pragmatically incorporates environmental and conservation priorities into our nation's economic systems and into our nation's infrastructure (physically, literally). For example, our policies touch on oil spill prevention and relief, aquatic invasives, wastewater treatment, and decarbonization of the shipping industry (which currently emits more carbon than the entire country of Denmark).