NCSG/APNEP Joint Fellow Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Katie Mosher, 919-515-9069, katie_mosher@ncsu.edu
John Fear, 919-515-9104, jmfear@ncsu.edu

Posted Monday, July 20, 2015

North Carolina Sea Grant and the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP, have awarded the 2015 Graduate Fellowship in Estuarine Research to Liz Brown-Pickren.

“I look forward to seeing the inaugural project for our new partnership with APNEP get off the ground,” notes John Fear, Sea Grant deputy director.

The fellowship provides funding for graduate students based in North Carolina and Virginia with an opportunity to conduct applied research within the North Carolina portion of the APNEP management boundary.

Brown-Pickren is in the coastal resources management doctoral program at East Carolina University. Her advisors are Alex Manda and David Griffith.

She will study subsistence fishing in Tyrrell County, which is bordered by the Albemarle Sound on the north. It is the only coastal water body with a seafood consumption advisory for dioxins.

“I will be investigating the perception of risk of people who eat the fish from the sound, with the hope of encouraging safer seafood consumption through better understanding of the risks,” Brown-Pickren explains.

“Liz’s work is exploring the vital link between the health of our estuaries and the health of our communities, informing fishermen and natural resource managers alike,” says Jim Hawhee, policy and engagement manager for APNEP.

Originally from St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Brown-Pickren received her bachelor’s degree from Lewis and Clark College in Oregon, and her master’s degree in marine resource management from Oregon State University.

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