Degree program: M.A.M.A.
Year accepted: 2024
Advisor: TBD
Research: Recreational fishing, Coastal resilience, and Swimming literacy
Background: Recreational fishing, Coastal resilience, and Swimming literacy B.S. Geodesign, University of Southern California
Amanda Gilmore is making a career of serving as a resource to coastal communities facing environmental challenges by earning her Master of Arts in Marine Affairs (M.A.M.A.) at the University of Rhode Island. Amanda’s connection to the ocean has inspired her throughout her life. Although she grew up on the East Coast in New York City, Amanda spent summers with family on the California coast. Experiencing different coastal cultures both cemented Amanda’s interest in marine spaces and established her drive to reconcile differing perspectives on shared problems.
This tie led Amanda to earn her Bachelor of Science in Geodesign at the University of Southern California as a Questbridge Scholar: an award reserved for high-achieving, low-income students. Never one to be satisfied by concentrating on a single field, Amanda chose her major—a combination of architecture, urban planning, and Geographic Information Science (GIS)—for its interdisciplinary workload. To complete this degree, Amanda authored a paper about modeling probable changes in invasive lionfish distribution throughout the Florida Keys. Despite the paper’s GIS focus, Amanda was fascinated by how fishermen created a consumer market for lionfish to quell an invasive species that ultimately grew into its own culture.
Her professional experiences post-undergraduate further drew Amanda towards marine affairs. Amanda began by supporting the Billion Oyster Project at SCAPE Landscape Architecture. Their project—Living Breakwaters—simultaneously improve the NY Harbor’s resiliency, oyster population, and water quality. Amanda deepened her skills on the GIS team at the NYC Parks Department, where she frequently engaged with coworkers in the field to understand how her work could better serve their needs. Amanda is especially proud of facilitating the installation of roadway green infrastructure when she worked in a collaborative position between the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation. This initiative will increase neighborhoods’ flood resilience during extreme weather events. In each workplace, Amanda has felt most engaged when exchanging knowledge to help others solve marine issues, and this realization prompted her to progress her career by pursuing her M.A.M.A. degree.
In her free time, Amanda enjoys being artistic and active. She likes drawing and learned how to quilt and sew during the pandemic. While in Rhode Island, Amanda is to learn how to surf and spearfish to broaden her experiences with the ocean and better appreciate all it provides to the community.