The National Sea Grant Extension Assembly (SGEA) has named Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Director LaDon Swann, Ph.D., as the 2025 recipient of the William Q. Wick Visionary Career Leadership through Programming Award. This award, which the SGEA gives every other year, recognizes individuals whose career-long achievements have had an extraordinary impact on the mission of Sea Grant Extension. Swann’s Sea Grant career spans national strategy, workforce development, aquaculture growth, resilience planning and decades of service.
“LaDon’s nomination highlighted a career full of high-impact Extension work in a variety of fields, particularly aquaculture but also in coastal resilience topics,” said SGEA Executive Committee Member Tory Gabriel of the Ohio Sea Grant College Program. “Letters of support indicated his transformative effect in Sea Grant. He was ahead of his time in developing web-based tools for Extension work, as well as creating a visioning plan for aquaculture, which was so impactful to Sea Grant that nine other topical plans followed. Some of his biggest successes, though, were from boots on the ground Extension work that Sea Grant is known for, and he did it in four different states.”
Growing the aquaculture industry
Early in Swann’s career, as an aquaculture Extension specialist with the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program, he developed one of the first web-based internet networks known as the Aquaculture Network Information Center (AquaNIC). This website was one of many firsts in his visionary leadership and helped aquaculture producers find and apply emerging scientific discoveries to their operations.
According to Brian Miller, retired director of the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program, “The Sea Grant award-winning AquaNIC website was the primary source for aquaculture information for years. It supported Extension professionals and industry members throughout the country and helped countless people find jobs and advance their careers.”
Swann’s leadership also catalyzed the growth of oyster aquaculture in the Gulf of America.
During his tenure as the director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, oyster farming in Alabama and Mississippi has grown from zero farms to dozens of farms that comprise a multimillion-dollar industry, according to the nomination for the award. He was instrumental in developing a COVID relief program for oyster farmers to sell their oysters for restoration and the oyster farming apprenticeship program.
Swann’s aquaculture work extended beyond industry development to national strategic planning.
He envisioned and supports the Sea Grant Aquaculture Academy and led the development of the 10-Year NOAA Sea Grant Aquaculture Vision (2016). As the aquaculture liaison for the National Sea Grant and the 10-Year Sea Grant Aquaculture Roadmap (2025-35) and engages directly with national, regional and local industry leaders. Most recently he led the development of the Oyster Farming Resilience Index.
In letters of support, members of the oyster farming industry emphasized Swann’s ongoing support and collaboration.
“He continuously engaged with me and other oyster growers to understand emerging concerns and helps us collectively address them,” said Doug Ankersen, president of Isle Dauphine Oyster Co. “He epitomizes excellent Sea Grant Extension.”
Chuck Wilson, managing partner of Navy Cove Oyster Company said, “LaDon saw the need for a program that would stimulate the introduction of new farms and farmers, so he worked with Mississippi and Alabama leaders to create an internship program. After having remarkable success with our first Intern partially funded by LaDon’s vision, we are now training our second intern.”
Building resilience
As a Sea Grant director, Swann co-authored the first Coastal Community Resilience Index and helped create the Extension-focused Gulf Resilience Community of Practice, which facilitates collaboration across communities and Extension professionals as they prepare for future hazards and disasters. He also has been a leader in Gulf collaboration through several disasters including Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
This award is given to an individual now retired, or soon to retire, from their career. After 36 years in various roles with Sea Grant, Swann is stepping down as director of Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant at the end of the year. He will continue to serve part time as the National Sea Grant Aquaculture Liaison.
“It is truly an honor to accept the Sea Grant Assembly’s Wick Award,” Swann said. “I’m deeply grateful — and honestly, very humbled — to be recognized by a community of peers who know just how meaningful and challenging this work can be. A former Purdue Extension director told me something I’ve carried ever since: 'Extension should work on issues that make you want to cry.' That statement re-centered me, time and again, around the kind of work that matters — not because it's easy, but because it's hard, and human, and necessary."
About the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium
The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium is one of 34 Sea Grant programs supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in coastal and Great Lakes states. Sea Grant programs encourage the wise stewardship of marine resources through research, education, engagement and technology transfer.
Meet the author
Melissa Schneider
Communications Coordinator
Melissa Schneider coordinates public information, educational media and communication services for Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant. Some of MASGC's communications projects include our website, social... Read more
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