About WSG

September 29, 2023

Washington Sea Grant (WSG) is thrilled to welcome Hannah Shelly as the communications specialist.

In this role, they collaborate with the WSG communications team and play an integral role in coordinating projects, supporting ongoing outreach efforts, social media and website management, as well as assisting with both internal and external communications.

Hannah holds a bachelor’s degree in photography and ...

June 20, 2023

We are thrilled to welcome Ashleigh Epps as a new aquaculture specialist at Washington Sea Grant.

Ashleigh works to address challenges and opportunities associated with aquaculture as part of the Aquaculture and Water Quality Team by collaborating with diverse individuals, companies and entities based in the West Coast region in Pacific and Gray’s Harbor counties. Her first foray into ...

June 15, 2023

Growing up in eastern Oregon, I always felt like a fish out of water. I had always believed my soul wasn’t made to live with unbearably hot summers and 10% humidity. I was eager to trade my small hometown for something bigger and greener—a tale as old as time. When it came time for ...

May 16, 2023

We are thrilled to welcome Brandii O’Reagan as a new fisheries specialist at Washington Sea Grant. In this role, Brandii will focus on developing and coordinating strategies that advance the safety, economic success and environmental sustainability of Washington’s fisheries and seafood sectors.

Brandii believes that one of the most important aspects of improving seafood harvest quality and sustainability is ...

April 3, 2023

We are thrilled to welcome Chandler Countryman as the new resilience and adaptation specialist at Washington Sea Grant.

In this role, Chandler works with communities in the South Puget Sound area and along Washington’s coast to advance efforts related to coastal hazards and climate resilience by gathering local knowledge and perspectives, identifying community priorities, and connecting local efforts to ...

April 3, 2023

Michele Blanchflower joined Washington Sea Grant in March 2023. In her new role as the fiscal specialist supervisor, she supports administrative and fiscal functions, assisting with coordination, planning, reconciliation, forecasting, procurement, and executing direct services for WSG.

She acts as an intradepartmental liaison for internal wide communication with external stakeholders.

Michele studied small business management at the University of Massachusetts ...

March 16, 2023 

My name is Emma Duckworth and I am grateful for the opportunity to be Washington Sea Grant’s undergraduate science communication fellow for the spring of 2023. I grew up in Livermore, California, a small town in the Bay Area about an hour from the coast. Spending much of my childhood outdoors and traveling to the ocean, I quickly developed a love for nature and an interest in environmentalism. ...

February 28, 2023

We are thrilled to welcome Sydney Fishman as a coastal management specialist at Washington Sea Grant.

In this role, Sydney helps shoreline and coastal decision-makers find solutions to their complex management issues. Her work spans the broad areas of shoreline management, shoreline stabilization and coastal resilience.

She fosters a shoreline management community of practice in western Washington with networking, outreach, ...

February 1, 2023

We are thrilled to welcome Lisa Watkins as the new community science specialist for the Crab Team at Washington Sea Grant.

Lisa coordinates WSG Crab Team’s volunteer monitoring network, which collects detection data on the invasive European green crab across Washington’s Coastal and Puget Sound regions. She aims to ...