MAD Coastal Career Development Workshop: December 13, 2018 in Long Beach, CA

Time: Thursday, December 13th, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Location: Room 203B at the Long Beach Convention Center

The Coastal Society launched its new “Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Career Development Program,” with a special workshop on December 13, 2018 at the RAE-CSO Coastal Summit in Long Beach, CA. The Coastal Society is proud to honor Margaret’s legacy with this workshop designed to benefit students and early- to mid-career coastal professionals, as well as the next generation of coastal practitioners.

The full-day event featured a morning of keynote talks on career options, employment prospects, successful pathways toward opportunities in southern California and around the nation, and inspirational testimonies from coastal professionals. The opening speaker was Jeff Payne, Director, NOAA/NOS Office for Coast Management; Jeff was Margaret’s former Deputy at the NOS Coastal Services Center. The afternoon offered a series of smaller group discussions about various skills needed to succeed, such as leadership, networking, mentors, publishing, resumes, and more.

This series is patterned after the successful “Coastal Career Days” organized by The Coastal Society in 2015-2016 in Rhode Island, Virginia, North Carolina, and the 2016 RAE-TCS Summit in suburban Washington, DC. Those earlier events each sold out. With a broader scope and full-day agenda, the new series promises even stronger interest from coastal students and professionals, private industry companies that might hire them, government agencies who often contract with companies to find talent, and nonprofit organizations.

The Coastal Society has added one key topic since those earlier workshops. To honor Margaret’s life-long commitment to help others, these workshops will feature several inspiring stories about successful mentor-mentee partnerships. Attendees will also have the opportunity to meet with prospective mentors, a benefit that will endure long beyond the event.
An additional, new topic is still being developed – insights on publishing in a professional journal. The Society is working with Taylor and Francis, the publishers of the official TCS journal, Coastal Management, to develop materials to help coastal professionals publish the results of their academic and professional work.

We thank our Sponsors and Partners:
Aquarium of the Pacific

California Sea Grant

Restore America’s Estuaries

Lynker Technologies, LLC

Kevin Doyle, Green Economy