As a Coastal Environmental Management student, Daphne spent her first year in Durham and second year in Beaufort at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. “I couldn't have asked for a better experience,” she says of her time at the Marine Lab. “Beaufort was like home to me—a beautiful small town. The education is top notch, too. The professors really help you grow and allow you to make an education for yourself.”

Before she came to Duke to get an MEM in Coastal Environmental Management, Daphne Pee worked as a zoo docent, a camp counselor, and a substitute teacher, all experiences that strengthened her desire to educate the public about marine science and environmental concerns. She came to the Nicholas School in order to strengthen her understanding of policy and governance to bridge the gap between science and policy.

As a Coastal Environmental Management student, Daphne spent her first year in Durham and second year in Beaufort at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. “I couldn't have asked for a better experience,” she says of her time at the Marine Lab. “Beaufort was like home to me—a beautiful small town. The education is top notch, too. The professors really help you grow and allow you to make an education for yourself.”

At Beaufort, Daphne was a National Science Foundation K-12 Fellow, working at West Carteret High School with marine science teacher Theresa Everett, “a phenomenal teacher. If I had taken her class as a high school student, she would have changed my life.” She also relished presenting environmental education programs to her “very engaging, passionate, and charming” fourth- and fifth-graders at the Beaufort Boys and Girls Club.

At the same time, Daphne was completing her coursework and writing up her Master’s Project, based on her summer internship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Protected Area Center in Santa Cruz, California. Her project focused on deep-sea corals, fragile relatives to the beautiful organisms seen in shallow coastal waters all over the world. Researchers have only recently been able to study the biology, ecology, and population dynamics of deep-sea corals, and to assess the impact of trawling and fisheries on these vulnerable creatures. daphne's work involved identifying potential Marine Protected Areas in the deep seas where these corals reside.

Update 2003 -

After graduating in May 2003, Daphne returned to Santa Cruz to continue her work with deep-sea corals. She has recently moved to Silver Spring, Maryland to work at NOAA’s National Marine Protected Area Center as an Outreach Specialist. As NOAA continues developing a national system of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), she will interact with scientists, fisherman, coastal residents, and interested nonprofit organizations to let them know NOAA’s plans and solicit feedback. She will also continue to be her office’s point person on deep-sea corals.

The job represents a homecoming for Daphne, who grew up in Maryland and attended the University of Maryland, where she was president of the nationally ranked ski team. After spending time in the slower-paced towns of Beaufort and Santa Cruz, where it was easy to fit in hiking and biking expeditions, she is readjusting to life in the big city, but she is also enjoying “learning how policy is made, how politics play out, and how government works.”

The teaching was great and the education valuable at the Nicholas School, she says, and adds, “The best thing that came out of Duke was the friendships I've made. My roommate throughout graduate school became one of my best friends. Even though she lives in California, we remain in close contact. And since there are hordes of us Dukies in D.C., I have no problems keeping up with my other friends.”

Update 2005 -

Daphne remains part of the “Duke Mafia” at NOAA—a cadre of Nicholas School grads who populate the offices of the agency's headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. She continues her interactions with non-governmental agencies as NOAA moves ahead with a multi-year process to develop a national system of marine protected areas. Recently, she has found a new outlet for creativity: submitting ideas to the Smithsonian team that is creating the Ocean Hall, a semi-permanent exhibit that will be housed in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Her submissions generally involve educating the public about Marine Protected Areas: “You could be standing in one and not even realize it!”

Daphne recently traveled to Peru with former Duke roommate Karineh Samkian to visit fellow alum Jeff Mangel, who was finishing a Fulbright year studying seabirds there. Seated all around her on the flight to Lima were members of a tour group en route to the Amazon led by Nicholas School professor Stuart Pimm. Nicholas School folks really get around!

Although she enjoys her work at NOAA and is still on a learning curve, she continues to think about teaching in the future.

Hindsight -

Compared to the full-tilt approach to making things happen at the Nicholas School, government work involves a good number of steps as decisions are made, and learning to negotiate the bureaucracy takes a fair amount of time. She notes that some students have taken a semester off to extend their government internships. “It’s not a bad idea. You get the government experience while you are still a student and can test whether it works for you.”

 

To view the video, choose from the formats listed after each caption:

1. She says the freedom the Nicholas School offers allows you to make the experience what you want.
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2. She explains why the Duke environmental management program was the best for her.
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3. She talks about how she chose her summer internship.
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4. She says how much she loves Beaufort and working with the professors at the Duke Marine Lab.
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5. Daphne Pee describes her Masters Project experience.
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6. She tells why she wants to go into government work.
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