Brittany Marsden

Brittany Marsden served as the inaugural Knauss Fellow in the Formulation and Congressional Analysis Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As a program analyst in budget formulation, she helped the administration to develop its research priorities, communicate the significance of NOAA research to Congress, and help scientists get the funding they need to carry out their work. 

Marsden was a doctoral student in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences Graduate Program at the University of Maryland. Her research addressed the genetic diversity and growth patterns of submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV). By better understanding these patterns, she has been able to draw conclusions about the capacity of regional SAV populations to acclimate or adapt to dramatic environmental changes. Those results could help scientists to grasp how climate change might affect the Bay's ecologically important SAV communities.  

Some of Marsden's first exposure to marine ecology came from studying sponges as an undergraduate student at the University of Richmond. Before beginning graduate school, she spent a year in Maryland working in environmental education. During that time she became intimately acquainted with the Chesapeake Bay and the environmental, ecological, and economic issues facing the region. Those experiences sparked her desire to pursue an interdisciplinary career in marine conservation.   

Following her fellowship, Marsden accepted a position as an analyst in NOAA OAR's Formulation and Congressional Analysis Division.

Fellowship Experiences Blog Posts

See Brittany's posts to Fellowship Experiences, Maryland Sea Grant's blog written by and about graduate fellows and their research.

"Embracing Your Inner Imposter"