Dr. Maya Feezell
2026 WCOA Fellow Blog
Hello everyone! I am Dr. Maya Feezell and I am a fellow with the West Coast Ocean Alliance currently working at Oregon’s Coastal Management Program (OCMP) in Salem, OR. This program is housed in the state of Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), and is responsible for coordinating and managing multiple coastal and marine programs for the state. For my fellowship, I will be compiling a wide variety of datasets pertaining to Oregon’s oceans, helping OCMP staff to develop an ocean database for marine management. By the end of the year, this resource will include information on all datasets pertaining to the coast or ocean that Oregon state agencies have access to, allowing agencies to quickly find the most up-to-date data on any ocean topic for management purposes.
In the three months that I have worked at OCMP, I have already learned so much about a wide variety of topics, including what it’s like working at a state agency, how to use GIS datasets, and how marine management plans are developed. My background prior to this fellowship is in academic research, meaning that while I have a wealth of experience generating ocean datasets and research, I had little knowledge prior to this experience about how research and data impact coastal management. I’ve found the coastal management work I have participated in thus far to be incredibly rewarding, particularly because I have been able to gain hands-on experience with how marine research informs marine policy and vice versa.
The most impactful thing I’ve learned from my fellowship so far is how much marine policy and management plans are based on collaboration between a wide variety of people and organizations. Federal agencies, state agencies, tribal governments, non-profit organizations, communities, and commercial industries all have to maintain strong relationships with one another to effectively manage and conserve our ocean resources. While this seems like a daunting task, I have seen it be done successfully many times over in just three months at OCMP, and I find it incredibly inspiring to witness. This has also given me an even greater appreciation for the work WCOA is doing along the West Coast, as the relationships built through WCOA will help us to improve our management strategies across a larger geographic area than we could accomplish alone. I feel so grateful to have even played a small role in helping to manage and conserve Oregon’s oceans, and I’m excited to continue to do this work throughout my WCOA fellowship and beyond!
