Our Team

Tracey Dalton was appointed Rhode Island Sea Grant Director in 2021. She has been a professor of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island since 2002. From 2016-2021, she led the Marine Affairs program as department chair.

Dalton’s research covers a variety of topics, all involving human interactions with marine and coastal environments embedded within a dynamic system. She has conducted studies on how people think about and use coastal and ocean spaces; the social, cultural, and economic impacts of using ocean and coastal space in different ways; and participatory processes for planning and managing human interactions with these spaces. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Rhode Island Sea Grant, NOAA, and a range of other funding agencies, and her findings have been published in journals and periodicals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Marine Policy, Environmental Management, Conservation Biology, Marine Pollution Bulletin, and other peer-reviewed journals.

Alan Desbonnet has been the Assistant Director at Rhode Island Sea Grant since 2007 but has been with the program since 1989 working on a variety of coastal and water resource projects.

Desbonnet completed undergraduate work at Eastern Connecticut State University, and the master of oceanography program at the University of Connecticut.

Previously, Desbonnet worked at the Mystic Aquarium as an aquarist, researcher, and educator. He authored a monthly “science for the fisherman” column for “On the Water” magazine for over a decade and taught ecology as an adjunct at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Outside work Desbonnet is an avid skiier, fly tier and fly fisherman of both fresh and salt waters, an amateur photographer, avid birder, gardener, and gourmet cook.

Monica Allard Cox is the editor of the twice-yearly magazine 41°N that is produced by Rhode Island Sea Grant in partnership with the Coastal Institute at the University of Rhode Island. In addition to her work on the magazine, Allard Cox also supports program communications through layout and design, photography, social media, event planning, writing, and public relations.

She edited and designed the 2015 book, Rhode Island’s Shellfish Heritage: An Ecological History. Allard Cox previously taught composition at the Community College of Rhode Island.

She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Rhode Island and Brown University respectively.

Meredith Haas specializes in feature and science writing, as well as digital content development.

For over a decade, she has extensively covered science and environmental issues, interviewing fishermen, policymakers, resource managers, artists, explorers, historians, and scientists to connect the human element to these stories, both at local and national scales.

Haas served as the Sea Grant Communicators Network chair, representing 34 programs nationwide, between 2017-2020.

Prior to Sea Grant, she was the writer/editor for the National Outdoor Leadership School and a field biologist with Wyoming Game and Fish.

She has degrees in biology and journalism from the University of Rhode Island and a Masters of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.

Jennifer McCann is the director of U.S. Coastal Programs at the Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant. McCann leads research and provides technical support on blue economy-related topics to government decision makers,
the private sector, and the public both locally and abroad. At the request of diverse coastal stakeholders, in 2019/2020 McCann led a process to define Rhode Island’s blue, or ocean, economy and identify strategies and recommendations to ensure this sector continues to thrive.

McCann is winner of the Rhode Island Saltwater Angler’s Annual Environmental Award (2020) and a Peter Benchley Ocean Award (2017), and is a 2017 Graduate of Leadership Rhode Island.

McCann also served as URI’s lead for developing and facilitating the Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP), which led to the siting of the first offshore wind farm in the United States. McCann has also played a leadership role in the development and implementation of plans for the siting of land-based renewable energy and a comprehensive management and marketing approach for Rhode Island’s shellfish resources and blue economy.
McCann has led national efforts to develop indicators, monitoring protocols, and modeling tools for improved social and environmental management of offshore renewable energy.

Eliza joined the Coastal Resources Center & Rhode Island Sea Grant in 2024 to support coastal resilience efforts. She brings more than a decade of experience in collaborative coastal management, climate and hazard resilience, and conservation projects. She has transitioned through roles with NGOs, government, an environmental consulting firm, and an oyster farm.

Much of her work has focused on sea level rise and flood resilience in California and New England. She enjoys working with cross-sector groups and partnering with university and government researchers to formulate management recommendations.

Eliza holds a Master’s in Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Bachelor of Arts in History, with a minor in Environmental Studies, from Carleton College.

Azure Dee Cygler joined the Coastal Resources Center & Rhode Island Sea Gran in 2012 as their Fisheries & Aquaculture Extension Specialist. Azure has a master’s in marine affairs from the University of Rhode Island, where her graduate work focused on measuring the well-being of commercial fishermen in three New England ports and how management measures have impacted their decision-making and conservation ethics. Prior to her graduate work, she was with the School for Marine Science and Technology in Massachusetts, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass., and has fished commercially in the U.S. and abroad. She lives in Narragansett and is involved in the coastal community.

Rob Hudson holds a Master’s of Environmental Science and Management degree (2017), Graduate Certificates in GIS and Remote Sensing as well as Community Planning (2017) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology (2007), all from the University of Rhode Island (URI). Currently, Rob is a Ph. D, student at URI in the Biological and Environmental Sciences program. His research focuses on improving larval performance in shellfish hatcheries.

As a Fisheries and Aquaculture Extension Specialist, Rob works primarily on the team’s seafood portfolio including finfish, shellfish and kelp as it relates to the wild fisheries and aquaculture production.

Prior to joining CRC and RI Sea Grant as a Fisheries and Aquaculture Extension Specialist (2023), he was the Shellfish Hatchery Manager and was responsible for the operation of the CEED Shellfish Hatchery at Roger Williams University, while being an Adjunct Professor for various Biology and Aquaculture courses. Rob was the Restoration Ecologist for Save The Bay for 12 years. Some of his work includes restoration, monitoring and research with bay scallops, oysters, quahogs, ribbed mussels, eelgrass and salt marshes. Rob has also worked at URI’s Coastal Resource Center (CRC) and RI Sea Grant as a Fisheries and Aquaculture Graduate Research Assistant (2015-2017) and was providing technical support to Dale Leavitt’s online Applied Shellfish Farming course while at CRC. He is a Licensed US Coast Guard Captain, a Certified SCUBA and CPR/AED/First Aid Instructor.  Mr. Hudson has extensive experience in research, outreach and extension for aquaculture and in coastal and natural resource management in both the natural and social science fields.

Sue Kennedy has served Rhode Island Sea Grant as a Coastal Program Coordinator, providing public outreach and media relations for the coastal program.

Prior to Sea Grant, she worked for the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, and also served in both reporter and editor capacities at several community newspapers in Rhode Island.

Kennedy has an M.A. and a B.A. in English.

Cal Lewis, as an Offshore Wind and Inclusive Science Communication Specialist, provides support to both the U.S. Team at the University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center (CRC) and Rhode Island Sea Grant. Much of his work includes looking at offshore wind in an intersectional way with a political ecology lens and crafting innovative ways to communicate to varying audiences. He brings his skills to the domestic offshore wind team to shape an inclusive practice so that all constituencies have a place at the table.

Prior to taking on his role in September 2024, Cal acquired a Master of Environmental Science and Management degree with a focus on environmental communication from the University of Rhode Island, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology and religion from Wheaton College (MA). As a graduate student, Cal served as CRC’s Offshore Wind and Inclusive Science Communication Fellow.

During his free time, Cal enjoys sailing, surfing, baking bread, and spending time with friends and family, and enjoying all of the beautiful nature Rhode Island has to offer. 

Casey Tremper is a coastal resilience specialist with Rhode Island Sea Grant. She has a Master of Arts in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island and has experience working both in the federal government as well as the nonprofit sector. 

Nicole Richard is Rhode Island Sea Grant’s seafood safety specialist. Her work includes food safety-related research and outreach programming. She has been involved in numerous food-safety related needs assessment projects which resulted in the development of resources and programming for target audiences (e.g. home gardeners, educators, consumers, and seafood and produce industries).

Her lab-based research has primarily focused on the evaluation of biochemical and microbiological quality and safety parameters of seafood. She coordinates food safety outreach activities targeting retail foodservice, home food preservation, entrepreneurial food businesses, and FSMA Preventive Controls for Human Food.  She also coordinates planning of the Rhode Island Food Safety Task Force’s annual conferences.

Julia Wyman is the director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program and the director of the Marine Affairs Institute at Roger Williams University (RWU) School of Law.

She has extensive state and national ocean and coastal law and policy experience and most recently served as Ocean and Environmental Counsel for Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Prior to that, she served as the staff attorney at the Marine Affairs Institute, and the policy analyst for the Coastal States Organization in Washington, D.C., an organization that represents the interests of the governors of the thirty-five coastal states, commonwealths, and territories.

Much of Wyman’s work has focused on coastal adaptation to climate change. She serves as an adjunct faculty member at RWU School of Law, where she teaches courses related to ocean and coastal law and policy.

She is the former chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources Marine Resources Section.

Wyman received her J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law and her B.A. from Trinity College. She is also an alumna of the Williams-Mystic maritime studies program.

Brooke Mercaldi is a Staff Attorney with the Marine Affairs Institute and Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program. Prior to joining the Marine Affairs Institute, Brooke was an Environmental Law & Policy Consultant for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

While an undergraduate student at Southern Connecticut State University, Brooke was a research coordinator and research assistant for the Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies and wrote her honors thesis on the physical dynamics of the Connecticut shoreline. She subsequently completed the joint degree program at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University (Haub Law) and the Yale School of the Environment.

As a law and master’s student, Brooke interned at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Save the Sound, and Haub Law’s Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies. She also worked as a research assistant in Haub Law’s Land Use Law Center, the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, and Yale Law School’s Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Litigation Initiative.

Brooke received her J.D. from Haub Law and Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment in December 2023 and her B.S. in Environmental Systems & Sustainability Studies from Southern Connecticut State University in 2020.