Puleston Marine Fellowship

Environmental Defense, a national, non-profit environmental organization with its headquarters in New York City, is seeking a marine scientist and advocate at the MS or PhD level who is able to contribute to core Oceans Program objectives nationally, especially in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions with a primarily focus on Long Island. This position is named after the founding chair of Environmental Defense, Dennis Puleston, a world-renowned scientist and naturalist, who lived 60 of his 95 years in Brookhaven Hamlet, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York and made significant contributions to the understanding of wildlife on Long Island and who also led naturalist expeditions world-wide.

Duties:

Scope of responsibility includes 5 major areas:

• Working collaboratively with other environmental groups and local, state and federal agencies, create a scientific framework and strategies to restore coastal estuarine bays, with initial focus on Great South Bay, the barrier islands and coastal waters of the Long Island South Shore.
• Restore productive relationships with recreational and commercial fishermen who fish in Long Island and adjacent waters, including the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Southern New England, with a view of helping to develop and implement marine protected areas.
• Develop and initiate a campaign to establish one or more marine protected areas in and restoration programs to restore at least one, and ideally several, other coastal estuaries of Long Island, Southern New England and New Jersey.
• Re-establish productive relationships with key Long Island marine/coastal scientific institutions, such as the Marine Science Research Center at SUNY Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Lab.
• Working with other Oceans Program staff, contribute as available to marine protected area, fish management and habitat protection efforts of the Oceans Program regionally, nationally and internationally.

Qualifications:

Key attributes are scientific analytic ability, naturalist aptitude, creativity, an ability to work with others and motivation.

• Marine ecologist (or related field) with PhD. or MS. degree and significant experience.
• Proven track record of conservation advocacy with excellent strategic and tactical advocacy skills and policy campaign experience.
• Ability to work effectively in teams and independently with a wide range of people, including fishermen, landowners, conservation groups and government officials.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong leadership, strategic thinking and interpersonal skills required.
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Will maintain a principle office in NYC and have regular business travel to Long Island.

Application Instructions:

Please submit cover letter, resume and salary requirements to:

Human Resources Manager
Environmental Defense
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009

Environmental Defense is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women, minorities and the physically challenged are encouraged to apply.