Project Summary

A Leadership Roadmap: Stakeholder incentives for building a natural-disaster resilient seaport system

Kaitlyn’s research at URI focuses on stakeholder leadership in building climate resilient coastal infrastructure.  The research centers on understanding what leadership means in the stakeholder context, why stakeholder leadership is essential to building natural-disaster resilient seaports, and what incentives can drive stakeholders to take on leadership responsibility in the resiliency process.

Bio

Kaitlyn E. Cox earned her B.A. in Political Science from High Point University and her J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law.  Kaitlyn was admitted to the joint-degree program between RWU Law and the University of Rhode Island and is currently a candidate for a Master of Marine Affairs.

Kaitlyn found her passion for marine issues prior to law and graduate school while studying abroad in Queensland, Australia at Bond University where she was drawn to the ocean and coast and the vital role each played in everyday livelihood.  During law school, Kaitlyn devoted her time to a variety of maritime legal issues as a four-time Rhode Island Sea Grant Law Fellow under the direction of the Marine Affairs Institute at RWU Law.  Kaitlyn’s Sea Grant projects included issues surrounding property rights (transferred development rights and rolling easements) in the face of rising sea levels, fisheries and climate change, federal legislative issues concerning the National Estuary Program, and most recently a marine spatial planning project in New England.

Beyond marine affairs, Kaitlyn has devoted her time to legal issues in special education and continues to work on a special education project with the RWU Law Pro Bono Collaborative with the Feinstein Center for Pro Bono and Experiential Education.