The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium is pleased to announce that Sabine Bailey, of Auburn University, and Nadine Doiron, of The University of Southern Mississippi, have been selected as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Digital Coast Fellows.
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant nominated the two scientists to the fellowship program, which matches postgraduate students with two-year projects that Digital Coast partner organizations propose and NOAA selects.
“These successful fellowship candidates will be the first two selected through our program since the fellowship began in 2012, which speaks highly of their qualifications,” LaDon Swan, director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, said. “Managing and sustaining our nation’s coastal resources starts with highly qualified employees, and the NOAA Digital Coast Fellowship provides students entering the workforce with an incredible opportunity to gain firsthand experience right after graduating.”
Sabine Bailey
Bailey will serve with The Nature Conservancy in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to reform marsh protection activities and promote marsh migration and community resilience in Maryland. She will be based in Annapolis and work with communities on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
“I am excited to work in this unique position to help coordinate across the private and public sector to implement a new easement program on the Eastern Shore,” She said. “I also look forward to meaningfully engage with vulnerable communities to work together toward improving coastal community resilience. Through this fellowship, I will gain invaluable mentors, skills and experience as I continue to pursue a career in coastal management, conservation and policy.”
Bailey earned the Prestigious Merit Conservation Governance Fellowship for her master’s research to work in the Conservation Governance Lab with Professor Kelly Dunning at Auburn University. Her thesis focused on how local communities come together during environmental disputes on port infrastructure projects adjacent to coral reefs in Florida and the Cayman Islands. She received her master’s degree in natural resource management and holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Bailey completed a 16-month internship with Coral Restoration Foundation in Key Largo, Florida, where she maintained offshore coral nurseries and made more than 160 dives to outplant corals and monitor their survival. She also managed the organization’s social media presence, created infographics for the science department and designed posters and other products for the gift shop.
She grew up in Vietnam, studied in Canada, Australia and the United States and has worked in Florida, as well as in Laos, where she worked on an environmental and social impact assessment for a hydroelectric dam with Hatfield Consultants. She also volunteered for a shark conservation and community outreach project in Fiji.
Nadine Doiron
Doiron graduated last year with a master’s degree in geological oceanography from USM’s School of Ocean Sciences and Engineering. She will serve as a fellow with the National States Geographic Information Council at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys in Anchorage, Alaska, where she will work to bolster communication networks with Alaskan stakeholders to map 66,000 miles of rugged coastline. She will facilitate inclusion and equity efforts among growing local, tribal, state, federal and private partnerships that enhance data sharing and access.
“This experience will allow me to use my background in data analysis while transitioning into the coastal management field,” Doiron said. “I am also excited to work a variety of groups, such as federal and state agencies and local stakeholders. This will prepare me for the many different avenues that a career in coastal management can take.”
Doiron has a strong data collection and analysis background. Her thesis research, funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, considered marine snow settling patterns. She studied how daily heating and cooling cycles influence marine snow settling in the top few meters of the water column. This research aids in the overall understanding of marine snow’s role in the global carbon cycle, particularly for topics such as the influence of anthropogenic greenhouse gasses and ocean acidification.
She also has served as an AmeriCorps volunteer in San José, California, where she engaged with community residents to share information about environmentally conscious lawn and plant care.
The NOAA Digital Coast Fellowship provides on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy for postgraduate students while providing technical assistance to help advance the goals of the Digital Coast and its partner organizations.