My Year Building Adaptation and Resilience in the Climate Program Office

In NOAA’s Climate Program Office (CPO), the words adaptation and resilience are our bread and butter. Across a robust network of programs and partnerships, the office transitions cutting-edge research into real solutions that help communities understand, predict, and prepare for changing conditions.

Over the last year, I worked as a Knauss Fellow supporting the Climate and Fisheries Adaptation Program. This program invests in projects that focus on changing ocean conditions and the way they impact fishing communities today and into the future. From modeling work to track species migration and ocean conditions along the California Current to building community adaptation plans in rural Alaskan fishing communities, the program’s grantees support fishing communities nationwide.

Coming from an advocacy and nonprofit background, I was laser-focused on the social and political factors that threaten small- and medium-scale producers and harvesters. This year gave me the opportunity to take a step back. I learned how climate change and other environmental factors amplify social and political stressors on our working waterfronts and coastal communities.

The Climate Program Office builds adaptation and resilience in communities, and this year of federal service has built adaptation and resilience in me. Never have I learned so much about federal processes in such a short time, only to relearn them a week later as new priorities or guidelines emerged. Never have I had to pivot and think so creatively about how to push our work forward in the face of challenges like government shutdowns and staffing changes. Never have I operated under so much uncertainty, during a time of profound and rapid change in the federal government. Never have I been as adaptable or resilient as I have been this year.

It was a hard year, but I am so glad I was in this office and able to do a lot of important and interesting work. I planned and facilitated monthly meetings for the Climate and Fisheries Adaptation Program’s national community of practice. I hosted a webinar on our office’s investments into compounding and cascading risk reduction. I helped federal and state partners develop a new community of practice for the southeast fishing community. I supported the Shrimp Futures Initiative with research into the federal policy landscape that shrimpers operate in. I developed new workflow tools, including a way to track the progress and outcomes of projects we support. I made connections across programs and branches.

Throughout the year, I also had opportunities to travel and grow professionally. I visited Hawaiʻi and Maine to learn about community-scale and values-based aquaculture. I took courses on topics ranging from science communication to congressional operations. I wrote about our program to help bring NOAA leadership up to speed on the important work we support. I also contributed my thoughts and expertise in strategic conversations about the work that the Climate and Fisheries Adaptation program plans to pursue in the future.

I did all this and more, and I learned and benefitted immeasurably from it. The Knauss Fellowship offered me the opportunity to learn about federal service. But this year really became what I made of it. The opportunities to find creative solutions and collaborate in new ways helped me build the resilience and adaptability we all require, as we look toward building a future that we’re excited to live in. I am so grateful to Maryland Sea Grant, my mentor Jen Dopkowski, and the whole Climate Program Office team for welcoming and supporting me every step of the way.

Top left photo: Casey Willson holds a crab on a lobstering vessel while on a professional development trip to Portland, Maine.