Mona Behl, the Associate Director for Georgia Sea Grant and a co-lead in Sea Grant's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion community of practice is interviewed by 2021 Knauss Fellow, Amara Davis. Mona discusses her journey to Sea Grant, the important work Sea Grant is doing to make the sciences more equitable, and what we can all do to facilitate a more inclusive future.

Sea Grant-supported research is consistently published in high-quality journals and is highly cited in local, regional, and international publications, according to a recent study. This assessment of over 6,500 peer-reviewed publications from 2001-2015 also shows that while Sea Grant research projects typically address local issues, the work is often cited well beyond that, in fact, sometimes worldwide.

When Nicole Bartlett with NOAA’s Regional Collaboration network reached out to Grace Simpkins, an educator with Woods Hole Sea Grant, to ask about offering a webinar for students during the stay-at-home orders, Grace initially wanted to keep things simple. “Maybe [we can offer] one webinar,” she thought. “Okay, maybe three...” Twelve weeks and 35 webinars later, the NOAA Live! 4 Kids series had reached 4,900 live participants, providing opportunities for kids across the country and around the world to interact with scientists and learn about careers at NOAA.

In a changing climate, sea-level rise, storm surge and erosion all threaten our coasts’ sandy beaches. Teams of volunteer citizen scientists from New Hampshire, Maine and California Sea Grant programs are helping researchers keep a finger on the pulse of the shifting sands.

Marine debris is a pervasive global problem that touches every corner of our ocean and Great Lakes. Sea Grant, in collaboration with the NOAA Marine Debris Program, recently awarded $350,000 to eight Sea Grant programs for projects that will research, prevent and remove marine debris in US waters.