{"id":175296,"date":"2022-01-12T10:36:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T15:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/?p=175296"},"modified":"2022-06-30T10:56:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T14:56:35","slug":"oceans-ambassador-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/publications\/aboard-gso\/oceans-ambassador-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean’s Ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Photo by John Suhar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blue MBA Graduate Anupa Asokan brings a unique perspective and pragmatic approach to marine conservation.<\/h2>\n

By Janine Weisman<\/h4>\n

There was little time to put names to faces before the 24 teenagers chaperoned by Anupa Asokan boarded their flight in Los Angeles. Not that she could see the faces of her young charges anyway. After all, this was a pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all had masks on,\u201d Asokan said, laughing as she recalled the educational trip she led last July. \u201cI was just hoping that all the right kids were on the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ever an optimist, Asokan and all her student travelers made it safely to their destination in Baja, Mexico. There they met up with Asokan\u2019s two co-leaders for 11 days of exploring the warm waters of the Gulf of California and working with scientists and marine conservationists to collect data on undersea species that could help preserve at-risk marine habitats.<\/p>\n

Her positive outlook partly explains why this Southern California-based environmental consultant and itinerant educator joined the call to support the 30×30 Campaign. That\u2019s the name for a growing global push to get world leaders to commit to protecting at least 30% of the planet by 2030 to restore biodiversity, curb climate change and increase access to natural spaces. A key component of the 30×30 Campaign is increasing the number of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), places like Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park where Asokan introduced her two dozen students to the only living coral reef in the Gulf of California.<\/p>\n

Cabo Pulmo became a park in 1995 after overfishing left the area largely depleted of marine life. But reef fish have made a dramatic recovery in the decades since then, making Cabo Pulmo a popular diving tourism destination. While fishing is off limits in the park, some believe it has improved fishing in surrounding waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an inspiring example of what we can accomplish with 30×30 at local scales,\u201d Asokan said of Cabo Pulmo. \u201cFor students, it\u2019s an amazing example of what effective conservation should look like\u2014the key being community involvement and guidance, further informed by science.\u201d<\/p>\n

With one United Nations report suggesting human activity will drive one million species to extinction within a few decades, the 30×30 campaign can\u2019t be just an aspirational goal. Saving the planet is going to take pragmatism, and Asokan has it in spades. She has embraced the 30×30 Campaign with a unique blend of skills as a 2012 graduate of the University of Rhode Island\u2019s Blue MBA Program. <\/p>\n

A focus on the ocean and the business world<\/h3>\n

Graduates of this dual-degree program offered jointly by the Graduate School of Oceanography and College of Business earn both an MBA and a Master of Oceanography in what is the first program of its kind in the U.S. Asokan was drawn to the versatility of URI\u2019s Blue MBA while contemplating a career move. She spent three years teaching marine science at the Catalina Island Marine Institute, her first job after earning her undergraduate earth sciences degree from UCLA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I wanted to stick to the ocean,\u201d she recalled. \u201cIn my mind at the time, having the MBA was a fallback. Since then, I\u2019ve realized how much that business degree helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue MBA graduates often go on to careers in energy, ocean technology and engineering, fisheries, marine navigation and tourism, and corporate environmental sustainability, but Asokan keeps charting her own path. She is a member of the national Board of Directors for the Surfrider Foundation, the grassroots organization of coastal recreation users. In October 2020, she completed a 27-mile standup paddleboard trek across Santa Monica Bay to raise over $10,000 for Surfrider. Asokan turned the fundraiser into a teachable moment as her social media followers observed her encounters with marine life. She was planning another standup paddleboarding fundraiser along the Los Angeles County coastline for October 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of Anupa as somebody who inspires confidence,\u201d said Zoe Ruge, a close friend who earned a Master of Science degree in oceanography from URI in 2013. \u201cShe\u2019s a great ambassador for the ocean, and she always has been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asokan sharpened her scientific communication skills while living with four other housemates strictly focused on science. Ruge, now a physical scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s D.C. headquarters, recalled Asokan had a knack for getting her fellow grad students to talk about their work in a way that could be understood by non-scientists.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor scientists, we do get caught up in jargon and data a lot of the time, so to talk with her was a really great exercise for us,\u201d Ruge said. \u201cShe\u2019s always been really great at being able to communicate things in a way that distills it down to what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of several grad students in her Blue MBA cohort, Asokan made a lasting impression on GSO Professor and Associate Dean David C. Smith. \u201cAnupa was kind of like the glue that held the group together as far as I could tell,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\n