Katherine Crosman

Prior to joining the Evans School, Kate received an Master of Science in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan. Her research centers on the emergence, spread, and outcomes of cooperative marine resource management. Kate is supported by the University of Washington’s IGERT Program on Ocean Change.
Kate’s interest in marine resource management that balances human activities with ecological concerns stems from a decade spent above and below the waters surrounding a small Thai island. Those ten years provided a compelling demonstration of the consequences of a lack of proactive marine resource management: sedimentation of nearby reefs, and visible loss of biodiversity from local dive sites, went hand-in-hand with the increasing wealth of the local population. Subsequent work in Belize and Micronesia have provided Kate with further perspective on the effects of development, habitat degradation, and overfishing on coastal populations and ecosystems.
Balanced marine resource management requires understanding the links between human and natural systems, and actively working across disciplinary divides. Time, money, and political will for management are limited. Understanding what constitutes sustainable, successful marine management, and what management decisions can get us there, are key to the future of our communities and our oceans. Doctoral work with the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, complemented by the even broader multi-disciplinary opportunities offered by the IGERT Program in Ocean Change, provide Kate with an ideal venue in which to follow her passion to help answer these questions.