Where Are They Now?

Leah Akins, Former Sea Grant State Fellow Is Policy Analyst for California Resources Agency

Leah AkinsMarch, 2006 – Leah Akins (left), a California Sea Grant State Fellow in 2004, is currently an analyst of coastal and ocean policy at the California Resources Agency. She landed this permanent, full-time position in the agency's Ocean Resources Program just three months into her Sea Grant fellowship.

"In terms of having a fellowship directly result in a job, this is a case study of how a fellowship can do it," said Akins, who as a graduate student in marine ecology examined the linkages between the supply of crab larvae and adult crab abundances. "Even back then,” she said, "I had an interest in applying science to marine policy because I could see the issue I was studying had real application to the design of marine reserves. Everything going on around me with the state's Marine Life Protection Act (which calls for establishing a network of marine reserves) drew me in."

Though interested in resource management, she said she had difficulty securing a job in marine policy after graduating. "I had always worked in marine ecology research," said Akins, who earned her master's in marine ecology from the University of California, Davis in 2003. "I had little policy experience. Receiving the Sea Grant fellowship was the perfect opportunity to get my foot in the door."

Fortuitously, her foot landed in the door of the highest office of resource management in the state, the office of Mike Chrisman, Secretary of Resources. Her direct supervisor and mentor was, and is, Brian Baird, Assistant Secretary for Ocean and Coastal Policy, a position that means overseeing and coordinating all the state's marine and coastal resource management programs.

Besides being positioned in an office with such oversight of marine affairs, Akins was doubly fortuitous to enter at a time when so much was happening in ocean policy reform. In the fall of 2004, at the national level, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy had just completed its report, a review of the nation's ocean policies with suggestions for improving ocean management, the first such report in 30 years. The California Legislature, meanwhile, had just passed the California Ocean Protection Act, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in response to the commission's findings, had announced a bold "ocean action plan," considered by many to be a national model for the types of activities needed to improve and restore ocean health.

As a fellow, one of her first tasks was to review the commission's final report and help draft the state's formal response to its recommendations. Soon after, the momentum to invigorate ocean resource management led to the opening of an ocean policy analyst position at the California Resources Agency in Sacramento. She was at the right place at the right time, and in January 2005 began the position she holds today.

The projects now consuming her time are largely a continuation and outgrowth of what she did during the three short months of her fellowship. She is currently developing a strategic plan for implementing the conservation goals set forth by the California Ocean Protection Act. She also is organizing the California and the World Ocean 2006 Conference, to be held in September in Long Beach, Calif. She also serves as staff to the Secretary of Resources on ocean issues.

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