Colyer Woolston

Colyer Woolston is a recent graduate of the Master of Environmental Management (MEM) degree at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment with a concentration in Coastal Environmental Management (CEM).

At Duke, Colyer pursued his interests in international marine conservation, policy, and management through a wide range of research experiences. Colyer was a research assistant with Duke’s Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab (MGEL) where he assisted with a literature review on the migratory connectivity of tunas as well as other migratory species. Additionally, Colyer spent his summer as a Stanback Fellow with NRDC’s Oceans Team in San Francisco where he worked on projects focused on the compliance of RFMO member countries regarding shark conservation and management as well as the transparency of the operations of top U.S. seafood companies with specific foci on IUU fishing and human trafficking. For his master’s project, Colyer helped to develop an evidence map identifying research gaps and important linkages between conservation interventions and their social and ecological outcomes within mangrove ecosystems.

Colyer currently works as a Data Technician in the Basurto Lab for the Illuminating Hidden Harvests project. In this role, Colyer assists with providing feedback on fisheries data and metrics submitted by consultants from a wide range of countries in support of the collaboration between Duke, WorldFish, and the FAO that seeks to estimate global economic contributions provided by small-scale fisheries to sustainable development and governance.

Colyer is primarily interested in international marine conservation issues and the collaboration of nations, NGOs, and local communities in finding common-ground solutions to better manage ecologically important species and habitats.

Education

M.E.M., Coastal Environmental Management, Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, 2019

B.A., Environmental Studies, minors in Geosciences and Comparative Literature, Hamilton College, 2014