Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program
increases outreach, hires research counsel

The Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program is poised to expand its ability to offer its legal research services to state and federal agencies, the environmental community, and the private sector thanks to the hiring of Megan Higgins as the program’s research counsel.

Higgins will manage the outreach arm of the Legal Program and oversee the work of Sea Grant Law Fellows.

The Legal Program, located at the Marine Affairs Institute at the Roger Williams University (RWU) Ralph R. Papitto School of Law, was founded in 2003 to provide analysis and research on marine law issues to foster innovative legal and policy approaches to coastal and fisheries management.

“Megan will play a major role in connecting program attorneys and law students with Sea Grant constituents. We’re thrilled she has joined the program,” says Kristen Fletcher, director of the RWU Marine Affairs Institute and the Legal Program.

Her new position offers something of a homecoming for Higgins, who completed the Marine Affairs Joint Degree Program, receiving her juris doctor from the RWU law school and her master of marine affairs from URI in 2001. Higgins served as a coastal policy analyst for the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), overseeing the state’s Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration Program and Trust Fund. She also conducted research for policy issues affecting CRMC’s mandate to protect and restore the state’s coastal resources and has worked in a pro bono capacity with The Nature Conservancy and Conservation Law Foundation.

“My experience at CRMC gave me perspective on how coastal programs around the country protect, restore, and manage their coastal resources. I am very excited to return to my alma mater and apply all of these lessons learned,” Higgins says.

—Monica Allard Cox