NCCOS is honored to host Alessandra (Ali) Burgos for her 2019 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. During her fellowship year, Ali will be working with NCCOS headquarters and the NCCOS Competitive Research Program to help expand NCCOS’s growing Coastal Change portfolio through strategic engagement and partnerships. Much of her work will focus on formulating and executing a congressional outreach and engagement strategy, and informing and guiding relevant science priorities and projects through identification and application of key stakeholder needs. Ali will also assist with the planning and peer-review of the 2019 Ecological Effects of Sea Level Rise (EESLR) Program federal funding opportunity.

Alessandra (Ali) Burgos, 2019 Sea Grant Knauss Fellow. Credit: NOAA Sea Grant Program.

Ali is sponsored through Virginia Sea Grant and recently graduated from Old Dominion University with an M.S. in physical oceanography from the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Her thesis work focused on quantifying and improving regional, sea-level rise estimates and understanding how flooding will cause long-term inundation impacts to coastal communities. Ali earned a B.S. in meteorology from Rutgers University.

Since 1979, the National Sea Grant College Program has administered the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program, one of the nation’s most prestigious marine policy fellowships. The Knauss Fellowship provides a unique educational and professional experience to graduate students who have an interest in ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources, and policy decisions affecting those resources. The program matches fellows with offices in legislative and executive branches of government for a paid, year-long, immersive policy experience in the Washington, D.C. area.