State Fellow alum Meeker supporting community resilience in Alaska

During her Alaska Sea Grant State Fellowship in 2018, Danielle Meeker worked in the Office of Alaska Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, where she helped draft the Alaska Climate Change Strategy and coordinated a multidisciplinary team to develop Alaska’s first comprehensive climate action plan. Since then, Danielle has worked in different positions in the state related to climate and environmental policy.

Danielle segued her fellowship into a position as a policy analyst in the Office of Governor Bill Walker. Upon the end of the administration, she worked as a research professional for the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP), a NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership program at UAF. While working at ACCAP from 2019 to 2024, Danielle focused on assessing climate adaptation efforts around the state to understand the extent and success of programs and research initiatives, and was the lead coordinator of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Community of Practice. Along with several University of Alaska colleagues, she served as a co-author of the Alaska chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5).

Danielle first learned about the Alaska Sea Grant State Fellowship while earning her master’s in climate science and policy from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, during which time she interned at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and conducted graduate research on climate adaptation planning in Alaska.

“My experience as a fellow gave me an incredibly rare and accelerated opportunity to learn how Alaskans are experiencing climate change, and to see firsthand how policy gets made,” Danielle said. “Working for the Walker/Mallott Administration was a formative experience that taught me about the history and nuance of Alaskan politics, and about the potential to advance climate resilience through bipartisan collaboration. The fact that most Alaskans don’t fit neatly into a political box is what has interested me and kept me in Alaska.”

In early 2024, Danielle re-entered the policy realm by transitioning to Alaska Municipal League, where she works as the resilience planning coordinator to receive and implement grants for environmental projects within 165 city and borough governments. “I’m excited to work on the other side of the science-policy interface again,” Danielle shared, “and am looking forward to building upon my fellowship and work experience to support local governments.”