Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Career Development Program

See more about this event below!


Margaret A. Davidson

Drawing on 45 years of coastal leadership, The Coastal Society proudly launched its “Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Career Development Program” in 2018. This Program continues TCS’s long-term emphasis on students, recent graduates, and coastal professionals and was inspired by the late Margaret A. Davidson, an icon who mentored and befriended many of today’s coastal leaders. As a primary part of the MAD program, TCS will honor Margaret’s legacy through a series of career development workshops to benefit early- and mid-career professionals and the next generation of coastal practitioners.

The first workshop in this series was December 13, 2018, in Long Beach, California, in association with the Restore America’s Estuaries – Coastal States Organization Habitat Summit. The Long Beach workshop featured a morning of keynote talks on career options, employment prospects, and important career opportunities in California and around the nation. The afternoon offered a series of smaller group discussions about various skills needed to succeed including resume development, interview tips, how to successfully engage with a mentor, and networking. Subsequent in-person workshops followed a similar agenda, condensed into half-day events on a virtual platform during the COVID pandemic, to provide the latest information on coastal careers.

In honor of Margaret’s life-long commitment to the coasts and those charged with protecting them, most of these workshops feature a strong mentoring component. Registrants will first hear inspiring stories about successful mentor-mentee accomplishments and then have the opportunity to engage with potential mentors during each workshop. After the workshop, participants are paired with a workshop speaker of their choice for a separate conversation.

In an effort to help TCS gauge interest, identify locations, and shape the workshop offerings, we are requesting interested attendees fill out this survey: https://survey.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_br5CU6IFEbhmNTv. Additionally, TCS is seeking coastal professionals interested in serving as a mentor/presenter at workshops. If interested, please contact the TCS Office at: admin@thecoastalsociety.org


Upcoming MAD Workshops: 

October 8th, 2024  –  Beaufort, NC  (12-5pm EDT)

Registration is now live for The Coastal Society (TCS)’s next Margaret A. Davidson (MAD) Coastal Careers Workshop in Beaufort, NC.

The workshop, intended for students and early career professionals currently in or interested in the coastal/marine science, policy, and management fields will be held in conjunction with Coastal Carolina Riverwatch’s Water Quality for Fisheries Symposium  and hosted by the Duke University Marine Lab (DUML) on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. Tickets are $25 and include a lunch voucher to the DUML cafeteria. Those who register to attend the larger Symposium will be provided a promo code for a $5 discount off TCS workshop tickets.

Check out the agenda Here

For immediate questions, please contact TCS Career Development Committee Chair Jeff Flood at jflood@udel.edu.


MAD Workshop Archive: 

Click on the bolded date below for information on past workshops.

December 8, 2018 – Long Beach, CA, in conjunction with Restore America’s Estuaries and the Coastal States Organization

January 10, 2019Washington, DC, in conjunction with the National Council for Science and the Environment conference

April 4, 2019 – Woodbridge, VA, in conjunction with the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society Spring Meeting

June 3, 2019Washington, DC, in conjunction with Capitol Hills Ocean Week (CHOW)

June 10, 2019 – Brockport, NY, in conjunction with the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) Annual Conference

November 18, 2019 – Wilmington, NC, in partnership with the University of North Carolina – Wilmington

February 7, 2020 – Charleston, SC

February 27, 2020 – Durham, NC, in partnership with the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment

March 26, 2020 – West Long Branch, NJ (cancelled)

June 10, 2020 – Virtual Workshop

September 24, 2020 – Virtual Workshop

November 4th, 2020 – Virtual Workshop

June 29 & 30, 2021 – Virtual Workshop

November 16, 2021East Lansing, MI in partnership with the Michigan State University Department of Fish and Wildlife (hybrid)

November 18, 2021Virtual Workshop in partnership with NCAR (1)

December 2, 2021Virtual Panel Discussion in partnership with NCAR (2)

December 3, 2021Virtual Workshop

January 20, 2022Virtual Panel Discussion in partnership with NCAR (3)

February 3, 2022Virtual Panel Discussion in partnership with NCAR (4)

June 27, 2022Virtual Workshop

December 4, 2022 – New Orleans, LA in partnership with the National Academy of Sciences’ Gulf Research Program, Louisiana Sea Grant, the Louisiana Science Teachers Association, and other partners

January 26, 2023 – Virtual, hosted by the Duke Student Chapter of TCS – open to Duke students only.

August 4, 2023 – Silver Spring, MD, hosted by the National Sea Grant Office – open to the 2023 class of Sea Grant/Knauss Fellows only.

March 21, 2024 – Gloucester, VA, in conjunction with the Spring 2024 meeting of the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society (AERS), hosted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)

Check out another amazing opportunity for graduate students through NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, the Margaret A. Davidson Fellowship Program.