Community-Engaged Fellowship spotlight: Alex Devon

For Alex Devon, food sovereignty in rural Alaska is more than a passing interest; it’s a focus of her career path and research. Through this summer’s Alaska Sea Grant Community-Engaged Fellowship program, she saw firsthand the connections between resource management and daily life in rural Alaska. She says the experience gave her an appreciation of the value of co-management and the importance of rural voices in fisheries governance.

Under the mentorship of Davin Holen, Alaska Sea Grant’s coastal community resilience specialist, Devon worked on two projects funded by the National Science Foundation, Pursuing Opportunities for Long-Term Arctic Resilience for Infrastructure and Society, and Alaska EPSCoR’s Interface of Change. Together Holen and Devon traveled to Haines and Klukwan to meet with community members and local scientists. They discussed community goals and needs, including the desire for greater community control over natural resources, including two important fish species, salmon and hooligan.

Devon’s work helped her develop a research plan as she prepares to start a master’s degree program at the University of Alaska Anchorage. In her summer fellowship, she analyzed community-level trends in subsistence and commercial salmon harvests, focusing on how legal, regulatory, and management policy changes over time. She intends to continue using these methods to study salmon access across rural Alaskan communities, compiling data that shows the extent to which Alaskans struggle to harvest enough salmon.

“Understanding the history, economy, ecology and current state of salmon access is a critical foundation for effective reform,” Devon said.

Holen credited Devon’s training as an anthropologist, as well as her background as a professional chef incorporating locally produced foods, for her understanding of the deep connections between people and the resources they depend on for food security and cultural continuity. “It was fun to work with someone so passionate about studying and understanding the complexity of the subsistence way of life in Alaska,” he said.

Devon appreciated that the Community-Engaged Fellowship program provided the opportunity to conduct research that directly benefits Alaska’s communities. “This program showed me new career possibilities and gave me a community of peers and mentors to help along the way,” she said. “It has inspired me to use my research as a tool for community empowerment, resilience and advocacy.”

More information about the Alaska Sea Grant Community-Engaged Fellowship is available on the Alaska Sea Grant website.