{"id":19592,"date":"2024-08-28T10:52:17","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T14:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=19592"},"modified":"2024-08-28T10:52:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T14:52:17","slug":"coastal-access-equity-mallory-lentzs-path-to-noaas-coastal-management-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/profiles\/coastal-access-equity-mallory-lentzs-path-to-noaas-coastal-management-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Coastal Access Equity: Mallory Lentz\u2019s Path to NOAA\u2019s Coastal Management Fellowship<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay, recent CELS graduate Mallory Lentz \u201824 always knew she wanted to study environmental science. \u201cI\u2019ve always been in tune with coastal issues,\u201d says Lentz. \u201cI was able to see the lasting effects that humans had on the environment.\u201d Admiring the beautiful tidal estuarine landscape of the Severn River in Maryland came hand-in-hand with experiencing how human activity and climate change had also degraded this important ecosystem. At 12 years old, Lentz vividly recalls kayaking along the Severn River picking up trash floating by as she went. By the end of her journey, Lentz pulled her kayak ashore filled to the brim with discarded cans and litter. Lentz says experiences like this one, \u201cmade me want to preserve the places that brought me peace of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trading in the Chesapeake for the Narragansett, Lentz first came to URI to pursue her undergraduate degree in wildlife and conservation biology. After graduation, she stuck around and joined the Master\u2019s of Environmental Science and Management (MESM) program in Fall 2022. With ample opportunity to \u201cfind herself,\u201d she took advantage of the MESM program\u2019s interdisciplinary nature to build upon her science and lab-based experiences. She concurrently pursued a concentration in science communication along with two graduate certificates: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and science writing. Outside of schoolwork, Lentz spent two summers engaging directly with the public about the importance of marine and coastal ecosystems interning with state government agencies- once in Rhode Island and once back home in Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lentz will spend the next two years working with the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection as a Coastal Access Fellow<\/a>. Out of 16 final-round applicants nationwide, Lentz was selected for one of the seven available Coastal Management Fellowships. Administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it\u2019s a competitive, paid, two-year fellowship for postgraduate students offering on-the-job training in coastal resource management and policy. For her specific project, Lentz will be focusing on addressing coastal public access needs in Connecticut through an equity and environmental justice lens. Based in Hartford, Lentz will spend her time traveling across the state hearing from community groups while developing a coastal public access plan for the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With over 600 miles of coastline, Lentz will have a lot of ground to cover. \u201cInherently, everyone has the right to access the coastline,\u201d she says. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be a privilege for people to access shoreline areas, it should be a right.\u201d During her prior work as a Park Naturalist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resource, a majority of her time was spent engaging with people at public access sites with those from underrepresented communities. Her personal experience with coastal access issues will inform her work as she intends to use her science communication skills to increase coastal public access knowledge for people who are not private landowners. \u201cWithout public access, [many] people don\u2019t have anywhere to go,\u201d says Lentz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coastal Management Fellowship won\u2019t be her first experience in a coastal\/marine science role. Lentz spent the end of her undergraduate studies at URI as a CELS Coastal and Environmental Fellow. In this role, undergraduate fellows are matched with a faculty mentor and research lab. For Lentz\u2019s project, she worked with Dr. Colleen Suckling\u2019s \u201cEchinonerd Lab,\u201d working on a project aiming to understand how heat priming Green Sea Urchins can act as a defense against marine heat waves in the wake of climate change. Lentz recently began her two year term with the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. Regarding her orientation and plans ahead, Lentz says, \u201cIt\u2019s been such a rewarding and informative experience so far. I\u2019m excited to grow into my role and find creative avenues to ensure public access sites throughout the state [of Connecticut] for everyone to enjoy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Edward Cascella, CELS Communication Fellow<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay, recent CELS graduate Mallory Lentz \u201824 always knew she wanted to study environmental science. \u201cI\u2019ve always been in tune with coastal issues,\u201d says Lentz. \u201cI was able to see the lasting effects that humans had on the environment.\u201d Admiring the beautiful tidal estuarine landscape of the Severn River in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5021,"featured_media":19593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19594,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19592\/revisions\/19594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}