Stories of Indigenous Engagement from the Caribbean to Alaska with Hannah-Marie, Alaska Sea Grant Fellow | Rising Sea Voices

April 26, 2022

Forging connection with Alaska's diverse communities.

In this episode, Felicia talks with Hannah-Marie, an Alaska Sea Grant Fellow working for the Northern Latitudes Partnerships. Hannah-Marie describes her love for the natural environment, her academic path, and experiences working with local and indigenous communities in the Caribbean, the mid-Atlantic region, and Alaska. She explains how trust is foundational to the development of long-term working relationships. Learn more about Hannah-Marie and how to contact her by checking out the American Shoreline Podcast Network/Rising Sea Voices webpage.

We hope you will enjoy this episode and join us monthly to discover new guests and their work! In the meantime, look below for Hannah-Marie’s bio and contact information.

A young woman with light brown wavy hair and brown eyes smiles and stands in front of a frozen waterfall. She wears a black jacket with a hood and a blue hat.

Photo description: A young woman with light brown wavy hair and brown eyes smiles and stands in front of a frozen waterfall. She wears a black jacket with a hood and a blue hat.

Hannah-Marie is an Alaska Sea Grant Fellow working for the Northern Latitudes Partnerships (LLP) at the Alaska Conservation Foundation since August 2021. She works on improving collaborative efforts among nonprofit, state and federal agencies, and tribal organizations to address climate change in Alaska. Among the many projects Hannah-Marie helps facilitate, she is currently helping advance the SkipperScience Partnerships program along with the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government, the Aleutian Bering Sea Initiative, and SalmonState’s Salmon Habitat Information Program (SHIP). She is grateful to be involved in such work and to be living on the beautiful Dena'ina Lands here in Anchorage, AK and will be planning to move here permanently.

Hannah-Marie holds a Master’s in Marine Policy from the University of Delaware where she worked on improving engagement with Native American Tribes in the development of offshore wind in the Mid-Atlantic region. She also has a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Sustainability and Anthropology from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.

You can contact Hannah-Marie using this email address or by visiting her LinkedIn page.

Additional resources:

Books: The Wake of the Whale by Russell Fielding, and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Videos that summarizes the work done at the Northern Latitudes Partnerships - Longer Video linked here (~8 minutes) and the shorter video linked here (~5 minutes).

The Tile for Rising Sea Voices was designed by Brian Gionfriddo.
This episode was recorded on April 8, 2022.

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Show Transcription
This transcription was generated by a computer. Please excuse any errors.
Felicia Olmeta-Schult

Felicia Olmeta-Schult is the 2021 Oregon Sea Grant Resilience Fellow and works to increase the resilience of Oregon communities to the impacts of climate change and coastal natural hazards. She is also ASPN University Project Lead. Felicia has a B.S. in Oceanography from Hawaii Pacific University, a M.A. in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences from Washington State University. Her dissertation investigated the North Coast of California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative by studying how stakeholders interacted and were involved during the marine protected area (MPA) planning process and how they perceived socio-economic and ecological effects of MPAs. She was a 2018-19 Washington Sea Grant Hershman Fellow at the Washington Department of Ecology Shorelands & Environmental Assistance Program where she participated in the Washington Coastal Resilience Project. She lives in the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys the outdoors hiking and playing in rivers and the ocean. She loves traveling, especially back home to Corsica, a French Mediterranean island, so she can spend time with her family and swim in the warm sea (and not in the frigid waters of the North Pacific Ocean). You can contact her at felicia@coastalnewstoday.com and follow her on Twitter @FolmetaSchult and on LinkedIn.