USM’s Graham Participating in White House Summit on Partnerships in Ocean Science and Technology
Thu, 11/14/2019 - 05:20pm | By: James Coll
Dr. Monty Graham, Associate Vice President for Research at The University of Southern
Mississippi, Coastal Operations, is a participating in today’s White House Summit
on Partnerships in Ocean Science and Technology in Washington D.C.Graham is joining
about 100 national leaders with ocean science expertise and interests in the nation’s
capital for the summit hosted by Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier, Director of the Office of
Science and Technology Policy, and Mary Neumayr, Chairman of the Council on Environmental
Quality, within the Executive Office of the President. The summit is intended to bring
together the private sector, academia, philanthropies, and the Federal government
to discuss opportunities for building and sustaining partnerships in ocean-related
research and promote technologies and investments.
“The nation clearly has more needs than we have resources to meet those needs,” Graham said. “Partnerships are the key. What we are doing in the Gulf, in particular the Mississippi coast, is serving as a model to the nation on how to use partnerships between academia, industry, government and philanthropy to meet large and critical science and technology needs."
In addition to identifying opportunities to building cross-sector partnerships, the purpose of the summit is to engage the national community in the conversation through academic conferences and regional ocean science and technology centers. The event aligns with a 2018 Trump Administration executive order recognizing and supporting federal participation in regional ocean partnerships to advance the economic, security, and environmental interests of the United States.
Graham has also been recently selected to chair the national Consortium for Ocean Leadership (COL) Board of Trustees based in Washington, D.C. through 2021. He also serves as chair of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant’s Ocean Task Force and co-chair of the Gulf – Caribbean Oceanographic Consortium, and he is a board member for Ocean Exploration Trust, Inc.