August 15, 2012 — In August, Nicole Carlozo and Laura Flessner will begin appointments with the Coastal Management Fellowship Program sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Services Center, or CSC. The two-year fellowship provides valuable on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy.
Carlozo will work for the Maryland Chesapeake and Coastal Program in Annapolis, Md. Her project goal is to integrate water quality and coastal resources into a marine spatial plan for Maryland's Chesapeake and Atlantic coastal bays to target restoration and conservation activities.
"This project will contribute to the revitalization of the Chesapeake Bay's fisheries and wildlife habitats," she says. "I'm also looking forward to integrating water quality goals with aquaculture development. Using shellfish to filter and meet water quality goals is a very novel and out-of-the-box idea that I'm thrilled to be working on, especially since it involves the participation of watermen and other stakeholders."
Carlozo has a master of environmental management and a certificate of geospatial analysis from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. She studied coastal climate adaptation and natural shoreline stabilization. Her work with managers at The Nature Conservancy's Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve led to the development of habitat suitability indices to guide oyster reef and submerged aquatic vegetation bed restoration within North Carolina's Albemarle and Pamlico sounds.
She holds bachelor's degrees in biology and English from St. Mary's College of Maryland in St. Mary's City.
Flessner is one of three post-graduates to embark on a new fellowship that is hosted by the Digital Coast Partnership. The Digital Coast is a collection of data, tools, training and information for those working to preserve our coastal communities and natural resources.
Her position, jointly funded by the Association of State Flood Plain Managers and The Nature Conservancy, will entail integrating watershed and coastal strategies that support disaster risk reduction and adaptation solutions to enhance community resilience. She will be based at The Nature Conservancy in Seattle.
Read the full story on hte NC Sea Grants website