Louisiana Sea Grant Places Two Knauss Fellows for 2014

Melissa Carle and Laura Gongaware have been named finalists for the 2014 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. They were nominated for the program by Louisiana Sea Grant.

Melissa Carle, finalist for the 2014 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.

Carle, a Garland, Texas-native, will earn her doctorate from LSU in December in oceanography and coastal sciences with a minor in geography. Her research focuses on coastal and wetland landscape ecology. Before attending LSU, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and environmental studies from Tulane and a master’s degree from Duke University in Durham, N.C., where she concentrated on resource ecology and wetlands ecology and management.”By the time I graduated high school, I knew that I wanted to major in environmental sciences, but was not sure what my area of focus would be,” Carle said. “As an undergraduate at Tulane I was introduced to the issues involved in Louisiana’s coastal wetland loss, and since then I have focused on wetland conservation, management and restoration.”Carle said she would like to continue conducting research into wetland management while using her findings to help policymakers address the issues facing a dynamic coast.

Gongaware said her interest in coastal issues took longer to develop and grew out of her passion for the ocean, marine life and old shipwrecks. Originally from Cheshire, Conn., Gongaware earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., with a triple major in archaeology, history and classical studies. After graduating in 2006, she began work on her master’s degree in underwater archaeology at Texas A&M and her law degree at Tulane University.

Laura Gongaware, finalist for the 2014 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.

“While at A&M, I spent a couple summers in Turkey diving and excavating historic shipwrecks – one was Roman, the other from the Late Bronze Age,” Gongaware said. “From there I went to Tulane and was able to participate in a case dealing with the expansion of landfill into the wetlands as a student-attorney with the Environmental Law Clinic.”

Gongaware hopes to eventually continue researching historic shipwrecks while developing laws to provide greater protection for them, as well as working as an attorney focused on protecting marine resources.

The Knauss Fellowship is sponsored by the National Sea Grant College Program. It allows graduate students interested in pursuing environmental careers the opportunity to gain experience working with policymakers in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government for a year. The finalists will attend an intensive week-long period of interviews in Washington, D.C., in November. Following the interviews, the finalists will be paired with an agency or congressional office for the duration of their internship, which begins in February 2014.

Carle hopes to work in the executive branch. “I would love to work with NOAA or the EPA on coastal wetland policy issues,” she said. Gongaware hopes for a legislative placement. “I am hoping to work for a congressman or senator on the Hill,” she said.