CCME Objective 1. Education and Training (Specific Objectives 1a and 1d, Special Award Condition V)

• CCME has graduated 55 students (39 B.S. and 16 M.S.) with 76% of graduates from URM communities (Table 1a).
• CCME Graduate Scholar Mallory Brooks is currently working for the NOAA Southeast Regional Office as the Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) Coordinator at Caribbean Fishery Management Council as a result of her NERTO. This is a non-Federal contract position.
• Elizabeth Murphy (M.S. student at UTRGV) is working for the Department of Environmental Protection, DLR/Special Reclamation section with the state of West Virginia based out of Philippi, WV. (She will defend this fall and is not presently receiving CCME funding.)
• Cristina Madrid started in August 2019 as a Research Specialist at the Texas Economic Development-Governor’s Business and Community Development Division.
• 2 CCME Graduate Scholars, Anthony Lima and Nigel Lascelles, have continued in the pipeline to PhD programs within CCME.
• 5 CCME Undergraduate Scholars, Brianna Alanis, David Lecusay, Liyah Smith, Sandra Leal, and Summer Martinez, are continuing in the pipeline in Master’s programs within CCME.
• CCME currently has a total of 64 active graduate and undergraduate scholars (19 undergraduates, 29 Master’s students, and 16 PhD students; this includes four scholars who have moved on to the next degree level).
• 35 CCME Graduate Scholars either completed or started their NERTOs during this reporting period, bringing the total number of students completing NERTOs to 22.
• Place-Based Conservation CCME Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Erin Easton is currently working under the supervision of her NOAA mentor Peter Etnoyer, Ph.D. at the NOAA NCCOS Charleston, SC Lab. During the reporting period Coastal Intelligence CCME Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Emily Jones began her Postdoctoral NERTO at NOAA SEFSC Galveston, TX under the supervision of her NOAA mentor Jennifer Doerr.
• The third CCME Center-wide Core Competency (CWCC) Course took place from July 25-30 in St. Augustine, FL with 55 CCME scholars attending. The course centered around a problem-based learning activity with the theme Restoration of Hydrology as a Key Step in Restoring the Function of Coastal Wetlands. Students worked in teams to complete a site-specific case study project that integrates learning activities and concepts from all CCME focal areas: Coastal Resilience, Coastal Intelligence, Placed Based Conservation, and the cross-cutting areas of Social Science (Human Dimensions), GIS, and Education.
  • The goal of the CWCC Big Data Boot Camp is to develop competency and skills in the utilization of new and existing "Big Data" archives in decision support tools that promotes the vibrancy of coastal and marine ecosystems by:
    1. Introducing research utilizing “Big Data” sets related to coastal and marine ecosystems.
    2. Providing hands-on activities and tools such as communication and mitigation strategies associated with threats to coastal and marine ecosystems and coastal communities
       • Unit 1 Big Data Analysis
       • Unit 2 Basic Programming Skills
       • Unit 3 Introduction to Big Data
       • Unit 4 Introduction to Decision Tree (Machine Learning)
       • Unit 5 Big Data at NOAA
       • Unit 6 On-site project - Introduction to R using course collected data
  • All 42 who attended this year and the 23 who attended 2017 have completed all of the core competencies.

CCME Objective 2. Scientific Research (Specific Objectives 2a-2c)

• CCME Research focuses on the areas of Coastal Resilience, Coastal Intelligence and Place-Based Conservation. Examples of NERTOs completed this period in these three focal areas include:
  • Coastal Resilience – NERTO Completed: CCME Scholar Samuel Mwenda, Identification of cost-effective salt marsh restoration opportunities along the South Atlantic coast
    NERTO mentor: Leslie Craig, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office
  • Coastal Intelligence – NERTO Completed: CCME Scholar Andrea Pugh, Numerical Simulation of PFAS in the Great Lakes
    NERTO mentor: Dr. Mark Rowe, NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
  • Place-Based Conservation – NERTO Completed: CCME Scholar Julian Venable, Characterization of microplastics collected from marine environments
    NERTO mentor: Dr. Ashok Deshpande, NMFS/ Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Sandy Hook
• During this reporting period, CCME had five student publications in peer-reviewed journals, four faculty publications, and two student theses published.
• During this reporting period, CCME had eight student presentations and 21 faculty presentations at conferences, meetings, and workshops.

CCME Objective 3. CSC Administration

• CCME Science Advisory Council and Community Stakeholder Advisory Board members have enhanced participation in CCME activities through attendance on CCME monthly calls and participation in the CCME Annual Meeting at SWFSC, La Jolla, CA, on April 11-12, 2019.
• NOAA CCME conducted a site visit of CCME Partner Institution TAMU-CC on May 24, 2019.
• Lead CCME Institution FAMU hosted faculty from B-CU on April 30 to develop new collaborations and add new affiliated faculty and undergraduates to CCME.