The URI Marine Affairs department was well represented this past week at the combined conference between Restoring America’s Estuaries (RAE) and The Coastal Society (TCS) held at National Harbor. During the nearly week long conference entitled “Inspiring Action, Creating Resilience,” former and current MAF students, MAF faculty, and close colleagues of the department were involved in almost every aspect of the conference proceedings. Attendees representing MAF participated in workshops, presented posters, and gave presentations on a wide array of topics. Poster topics presented included a poster by former MAF graduate student, Nick Battista representing the Island Institute, on “Engaging Fishermen in Ocean Planning: Lessons From the New England’s Commercial Fisheries Spatial Characterization and Potential Future Steps” and a poster by former student and present MAF faculty member, Kate Mulvaney on behalf of the EPA, on the “Development of a Systematic Stakeholder Identification System for 3VS Modeling in the Snohomish Basin, WA.” MAF also had a notable presence during many of the concurrent sessions. To mention a few, former MAF graduate student and current professor, Austin Becker, presented his research on “Building Leadership for Climate Adaptation: A Review of Approaches and Assessment of Applicability to the Maritime Infrastructure Sector”; professor and department chair, Robert Thompson, presented “An Inventory Map and Valuation of Social Uses of RI Estuaries: A Mixed Methods Approach,” and former MAF student Mary Kate Brown, now with The Nature Conservancy, presented her research on “Building Oyster Reefs and Living Shorelines in Coastal AL.” Additionally, Julia Wyman, Interim Director of the RWU Law Marine Affairs Institute which URI MAF partners with for the joint-degree, JDMMA program was one of the program co-leads of the collaborative conference. Other MAF attendees and presenters at the RAE/TCS conference included Kaitlyn Cox, Steve Kirk, Kristin Uiterwyk, Jennifer McCann, and Tiffany Smythe.