UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Chelsea Russ, who graduated from Penn State in the spring of 2024 with a master’s degree in landscape architecture, has been interested in the effects of climate change on the environment since her early days of service in the U.S. Navy.

She was on her first deployment in Bahrain in the Middle East in 2012, she said, working as an electronic technician when she had to find something to do with her downtime — or, as she put it, “when things weren’t breaking.” So, she decided to pick up a Nature Conservancy magazine.

“When I read that magazine, I knew that was the type of work I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” she said. “Anything that you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air or drink the water.”

It was her service in the military that allowed her to pursue her academic interests using her GI Bill benefits and in 2022, she graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in the environment and sustainability science.

It was around that time that Russ became aware of the research that Peter Stempel, associate professor of landscape architecture in Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School, was doing on sea level rise and environment-related topics that further piqued her academic interests.

“He was publishing these papers [about the effects of climate change on the environment], and I knew that it was what I wanted to study,” she said. It is why, she said, she came to Penn State for her graduate research degree in landscape architecture.

Russ studied under Stempel, whose work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) helped support her thesis titled "Barriers and Opportunities in Implementing Natural and Nature-Based Features for Adaptive Coastal Resilience.” The paper delves into how to make coastal environments more resilient using nature-based features and solutions.

“It talks about using naturally occurring elements, like marsh grasses and oyster reefs, to make coastal environments more resilient rather than using an engineered infrastructure, such as sea walls,” said Russ.

She described her time at Penn State studying with Stempel, who is also affiliated with the Penn State Institute of Energy and the Environment, Water Faculty Initiative and the Ecology plus Design (E+D) Research Center, as a great experience.

“The [landscape architecture] department was fantastic,” she said. “I learned about landscape architecture and how underrepresented it is as a discipline even though it feeds into so many scientific issues.”

It is this continued intrigue into the environment, along with support from Stempel, that led Russ to apply for the Knauss Fellowship, a sea grant fellowship program run by the NOAA that includes a rigorous selection process. According to the NOAA National Sea Grant College program website, the Knauss program matches highly qualified graduate students to “hosts” in the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government for a one-year paid fellowship.

Russ has since been named to the Class of 2025 Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Finalists, which Stempel said is a tremendous opportunity for her to grow as a researcher.  Knauss Fellows often go on to have highly significant careers, said Stempel, and students in ocean science and policy programs know that it's the best pathway to participate in highly impactful decisions regarding coastal and ocean issues.

"Chelsea works very hard and can accomplish whatever she sets out to do. She has the highest integrity, and this comes through in everything she does,” said Stempel on why he encouraged Russ to apply for the Knauss program. "Her achievement speaks to the increasingly diverse role that landscape architects are filling, especially at the intersection of science and public policy. "

As for Knauss, she said the fellowship will allow her to bridge her academic environmental background with her experience in the Navy and apply it in a tangible way.

“I’m not the average landscape architecture student; I am much more science-focused than many, but landscape architecture touches so many broad topics and is interconnected with other science-based disciplines,” she said. “I think the future is bright and there will be a large need for expertise in matters surrounding sustainability and resiliency.

“I think I can best use my position with the fellowship to help me figure out if that high-level view of issues is the place for me,” she continued. “I could best use my knowledge and skills for a federal or state government, as opposed to academia.”

Currently a chief with U.S. Navy Reserve, she will soon commission as a meteorology and oceanography officer to continue her U.S. Navy Reserve career. Russ will officially begin her Knauss Fellowship in February when she will be working as an international and interagency ocean policy liaison in the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy.

“This [position] allows me to marry everything together — my military experience and academic knowledge — and helps me make the most of it by getting a high-level view of how ocean policy is developed and passed by working with Congress,” she said.

Following the fellowship, Russ said she hopes to work in the federal government, and would like to stay within the Navy to deal with international waters and affairs. She said she loves traveling and being outdoors so for her this is beyond just her career — it is about her life’s passion, which started by reading a Nature Conservancy magazine while on deployment so many years ago, intertwining her personal interests with complex issues she saw looming in the years ahead.

More information on the Knauss Fellowship Program can be found on the NOAA website.