Three University of the Virgin Islands marine scientists will spend International Women’s Month developing executive leadership skills. Marilyn Brandt, Kristin Grimes and Allie Durdall are among 22 U.S. researchers being honored as Ocean Decade Champions.
The three researchers were recognized for their work with coastal ecosystems, with Durdall and Grimes focusing on mangroves and Brandt on coral reefs. They also work with students and local residents, informing and encouraging them as partners in preservation.
Among the prizes given to Ocean Champions honorees is paid tuition for the Yale Women’s Leadership Program. The six-week course began March 12, but one awardee said there is also an in-person component to the program.
“ … all three of us are going to be traveling to Yale to participate in a women’s leadership program, which is a really important opportunity for us to gain new skills, new ways of thinking that I think will really change our perspectives,” Grimes said, “But what I really hope to do with it is to bring some of those skills back, to share them not only with the young women that I mentor, but more broadly with the community here as well, and all of my other students.”
The Yale program is part of the school’s executive education program. The on-campus component is designed to “strengthen critical leadership competencies that fuel innovation, create more effective team dynamics, and sharpen decision-making.”
These skills may help UVI researchers increase community engagement with their work. For Brandt, the goal is to increase awareness among Virgin Islanders about coral reef preservation. Grimes and Durdall say they want to get community members more involved in preserving mangrove ecosystems.
“We’re working with communities in different locations together with community members to co-define what that engagement could look like. So we piloted that with a workshop. That happened in the Hull Bay community. But members of our team are working to organize additional programs in other communities. The next one is in the Bovoni community,” Durdall said.
As a team, Brandt said, engagement efforts are for St. Thomas, but they would later expand to the rest of the territory. “And at those workshops where we will be offering things like dinner and gift cards just to get people’s feedback on what we’re doing right now for coral and mangrove restoration.”
So far, Grimes said, their efforts have attracted a mix of interested participants. “There’s certainly students at UVI, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, who are involved directly in this project.”
Representatives from local agencies and nonprofits have also been active in the environmental space. High school students are getting involved through a program called In the Classroom, they said. Their outreach has also attracted a number of dive shop operators.
“Environments, environmental messages can be kind of depressing, and I think that these restoration projects are hopeful, and I think that is something that resonates with the community,” Grimes said.
Together, the honorees say they hope their efforts will produce community members to take part in coral and mangrove restoration and inspire them to become environmental stewards for those habitats.
The March workshops at Yale also offer executive-level training to build networking skills, which may help the researchers connect with other Ocean Decade honorees at international conferences that are included among their prizes. Brandt, Grimes, and Durdall say they’re looking forward to sharing their research at the 7th International Marine Conservation Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, and the Reef Futures Conference in Mexico.
The 2024 Ocean Decade Champions Program benefited from a grant from the National Center for Family Philanthropy, according to a statement — to expand women’s power and influence and gender equality in the U.S., with funds from Pivotal Ventures. Together, the benefactors contributed over half a million dollars to support the careers of the 2024 honorees.
