Betsy Riley grew up on a small cattle ranch in Oklahoma. Where, as she tells it, “[she] developed a keen interest in nature and people’s relationship with it—in particular ranchers and farmers who work with our natural resources to produce food.” Now she studies Public Policy and Natural Resources Communications at MSU, and, after working for the U.S. Geological Survey at the Great Lakes Science Center, has turned her attention to fisheries.

Earlier this year Betsy was named as one of the Hal and Jean Glassen Memorial Foundation-Theodore Roosevelt Conservation and Environmental Leadership Fellows for 2015-2016, an award designed to “provide an opportunity for graduate or professional students to achieve a level of professional and personal growth to prepare them for leadership roles in natural resources and conservation based organizations and agencies.” Specifically, the fellowship will pay for Betsy to attend the Great Lakes Leadership Academy, a program designed to provide emerging natural resource leaders in Michigan with more extensive training in Great Lakes conservation and management. Normally, the academy is reserved for conservation professionals, only rarely are graduate students invited to attend. In Betsy’s case, however, the work of the GLLA dovetails with Betsy’s research. “Fish farming in the Great Lakes region has been going on for several decades (much longer if you count government-sponsored stocking activities),” Betsy says, “but recently it's gaining a lot of attention as globally the aquaculture industry has been booming--resulting in about half of all fish on the market coming from farms--and more locally as Michigan works to redevelop its job market after the recession. We're at a unique moment in the industry's development in which Michiganders have to decide what we want this industry to look like within our borders--both on land and (it's been suggested) extending out into the Great Lakes themselves. My work is designed to bring local communities into the conversation, since these communities will be the most impacted economically and environmentally by these decisions.”

Currently, Betsy holds a Pathways position with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “When I finish up my dissertation” she says, “I am hoping to get a job with [Fish and Wildlife]. The Service is a blend of natural resources science and on-the-ground work with people and locations. Just what I’m looking for!”