Katia Chikasuye is a 2019 E. Gordon Grau Fellow with the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program, hosted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ (DLNR) Office for Conservation and Coastal Lands (OCCL). She is one of two fellows selected to comprise the first cohort for this new post-graduate program. Her fellowship is focused on developing a technical guidance addendum for the 2017 Hawaiʻi Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report, to encourage greater use and understanding of the Hawaiʻi Sea Level Rise Viewer tool by coastal planners and managers around the state.

Katia graduated with her masterʻs of science in natural resources and environmental management with a certificate in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2019. Her capstone research examined the management implications of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) on the metabolism of calcifying organisms in Maunalua Bay.  During her final year as a graduate student, she also interned with the Coastal Zone Management program through the State of Hawaiʻi, Office of Planning to update the 2013 Ocean Resource Management Plan (ORMP) for a 2019 revision.