Sarah Davidson
University of Washington, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, MMA.
In August 2023, Sarah joined the Global Ocean Forum as the inaugural Dr. Biliana Cicin-Sain Fellow. In this role, Sarah has spearheaded the development of the UNFCCC COP28 Virtual Ocean Pavilion (available November 22 – December 12, 2023), working to democratize international ocean and climate policy discussions by developing this online platform. Sarah also supports the Global Ocean Forum in its strategic planning efforts and contributes to their ongoing work focused on protecting biodiversity in marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). On November 16, 2023, the Global Ocean Forum published the Report on Assessing Progress on Ocean and Climate Action: 2022-2023, a comprehensive report with contributions from 67 co-authors from 46 organizations, in which Sarah was a lead author.
Sarah recently graduated from the University of Washington School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA) with a Master of Marine Affairs. While at SMEA, her research focused on the emerging role of marine fisheries “other effective area-based conservation measures,” or OECMs, in global conservation efforts and policy. She was partnered with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations for this work and has since continued to foster a passion for international marine biodiversity conservation and fishery policy. Before that, she graduated from Whitman College in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology- Environmental Studies, with a focus on ecology and biodiversity.
Sarah’s experience includes working as a consultant for the Fisheries Management and Assessment team of the Fisheries Division of FAO. In this position, she focused on capacity building and stakeholder engagement on the topic of marine fisheries OECMs and aided in developing a framework for assessing the biodiversity outcomes that can be expected to come from sustainable fishery management. Prior to this, she also worked as an intern in the Fisheries Division at FAO and as a Research Coordinator for the University of Washington, Department of Family Medicine. Academics, work and school aside, Sarah is an outdoor and travel enthusiast and spends as much time outdoors as her schedule allows. She grew up in the greater Seattle area and can certainly credit the beauty of the Salish Sea and San Juan Islands as major contributors to her passion for the sustainable management and conservation of marine spaces.