Where Are They Now?
Former California Sea Grant Trainee Now A Knauss Fellow
Amber Mace piloted a one-person submersible for a NOAA/National Geographic Sustainable Seas Expedition. Credit: Colene Mace
Washington, D.C. – Amber Mace has a deep Sea Grant pedigree, and she is using it to fashion an exciting career in marine policy.
The pedigree: she was a California Sea Grant Trainee while a doctoral student at the University of California, then a California Sea Grant State Fellow at the state's resources agency after graduating. Most recently, she won a National Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.
“Sea Grant has been very good to me,” Mace said.
Since early 2006, she has been working with the Democratic staff of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The committee’s 22 members revise or craft virtually all of the senate’s ocean-related laws and provide oversight to federal ocean programs, and thus are arguably the single most important audience for information on marine science.
“As a Sea Grant Fellow, I am learning about the federal law-making process,” said Mace, who grew up in Marin County in Northern California and prior to the Knauss Fellowship had never lived outside California. “What I am finding is that when we are working on a piece of legislation, there can be a very direct translation of science into policy. This gets at what is really important to me” – and why she applied for a Knauss Fellowship.
Mace said she wants to help raise the level of the scientific content that goes into crafting ocean laws. “I have seen that economics and politics can have a disproportionate influence on resource management decisions,” she said. “But I have been pleasantly surprised by the work of the Commerce Committee to implement many of the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. I am here to learn to speak the languages of both science and policy so that in the future I can act as a liaison among stakeholders to increase the level of scientific input in the decision-making process. My placement with the Commerce Committee is providing great training for this.”
While translating science into marine policy is her goal globally, on a more mundane daily basis, Mace is just plain flat out busy keeping up with D.C.'s pace, a sentiment shared by many fellows. This year the Commerce Committee hopes to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, the nation's preeminent legislation on fisheries management that is many years overdue for reauthorization, the delay reflecting the degree of contentiousness over its directives. There are other hot issues on the table, too, including open-ocean aquaculture, marine debris and marine mammal protection.
“I spend most of my days in meetings listening to different stakeholders and getting input on potential legislation or federal programs and projects,” she said. “We also get a lot of requests from people who want to come in and talk about a great project or program that they want continued support for.”
There are people seeking support for their issue, and others who have a lot at stake on the specific wording of a particular piece of legislation, she explained. Her job is to listen and distill the facts. This involves doing research, a task that draws on her science training, and then writing memos and briefs for the Democratic members of the Commerce Committee, which include Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. “I try to squeeze in the writing between meetings,” she said. “But it is a busy schedule. I will always be behind.”
Despite the frenetic pace, Mace said she is enjoying the rare, hands-on opportunity for someone trained in marine science to participate in federal policy-making. It complements her experience as a California Sea Grant State Fellow, where she worked at the California Resources Agency, implementing a trio of landmark marine laws – the California Ocean Protection Act, Marine Life Management Act and Marine Life Protection Act. In this capacity, she served under Brian Baird, who as assistant secretary for ocean and coastal policy, oversees and coordinates all the state's marine and coastal resource management programs.
One of her proudest achievements as a state fellow was presenting California's vision for a regional approach to marine management at a symposium on regional ocean governance at the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum in Durham, N.C. She and Baird wrote a paper on the state's perspective for a Duke journal.
Mace earned a doctorate in marine ecology from UC Davis in 2005 for research examining the role of headlands and ocean currents on the distribution of marine larvae. Among her discoveries: crab larvae tend to accumulate on the leeward (protected) side of headlands on “upwelling” coasts such as California’s. This finding led her to suggest that marine reserves should include these areas to ensure that reserves have a robust larval supply. Her graduate studies were funded through a California Sea Grant Trainee award.
Prior to entering graduate school, Mace enjoyed an adventure-packed life at sea, participating in things like a NOAA-led search for the wreck of the San Agustin – a Spanish galleon that sunk off Point Reyes in 1595 – as an archeological research diver. She also was trained to pilot a one-person submersible through a NOAA/National Geographic Sustainable Seas Expedition to explore the depths of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
Another passion in her professional and recreational life has been public education. She was, for example, manager of the visitor center and interpretative program at NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in Northern California. There, she created educational exhibits, led docent tours, wrote grants and dabbled in fund raising to support the sanctuary's conservation, outreach and educational programs.
Eventually, Mace said she would like to return to California to work on strengthening regional management and conservation plans for the West Coast.
.gif){kind=logo}
