Biography of Jennifer McCann

Jennifer McCann
Director of Extension Programs for Rhode Island Sea Grant
Director of U.S. Coastal Programs, URI Coastal Resources Center
M.A., Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island, 1994; B.A., Spanish and International Relations, University of New Hampshire, 1986

Jennifer McCann is the Director of Extension Programs for Rhode Island Sea Grant and also serves as the Director of U.S. Coastal Programs at the University of Rhode Island (URI) Coastal Resources Center. Ms. McCann is a principal investigator and management team member of the Ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), a state regulatory effort to comprehensively zone state waters regarding existing and potential ocean uses, including offshore alternative energy resources. McCann is also the Program Manager for the national effort to develop monitoring protocols and modeling tools for improved management of offshore renewable energy. Jennifer guides coastal management efforts on Aquidneck Island, in Rhode Island’s urban city and port areas, and is working with team members to address coastal management issues in the context of global climate change on regional, national, and international scales. Jennifer has served at URI for over 13 years and has over 19 years of professional experience in community development, institutional capacity building, marine protected area planning and management, watershed management, and fundraising. She is a skilled writer and facilitator and specializes in providing technical capacity building to government and local civic organizations locally, nationally and internationally. She began her career in Washington, D.C., at the Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) (now The Ocean Conservancy), building a strong and diverse educated constituency for the creation and management of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. She also represented CMC in the Dominican Republic. Her primary focus was to build the capacity of local nonprofits as institutions and implementers of integrated coastal resources management (ICM).