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The Monterey Institute of International Studies announced today that alumna Linda Childs Hothem (BAPS ‘85) has pledged a gift of $450,000 over three years to support the Institute’s Center for the Blue Economy (CBE). Hothem’s gift will support center staff, student research and expansion of the center’s summer fellows program.

Founded in 2011, the Center for the Blue Economy is a research center devoted to ocean and coastal sustainability, addressing the complex interplay of development with policies that impact coastal tourism, fisheries, coastal estuaries, wetlands and coral reefs. The CBE is also home to the National Ocean Economics Program, which provides a full range of the most current economic and socioeconomic information available on changes and trends along the U.S. coast and in coastal waters. The CBE is a natural extension of and complement to the Institute’s Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy degree program.

“I believe deeply in the mission of the Center for the Blue Economy,” said Hothem. “And I’m especially proud that my own alma mater, the Monterey Institute, is leading the way in conducting innovative research on our most pressing ocean and coastal resource management challenges.”

The CBE’s summer fellows program supports CBE-sponsored internship placements for Institute students with leading environmental organizations throughout the world. Summer 2013 placements include government agencies, private companies and nongovernmental organizations in China, Denmark, Dubai, Indonesia, Ireland, Malta, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines and the USA.

“Linda’s generous gift will help to ensure that the great momentum already established by the Center for the Blue Economy will continue over the next several years,” commented Institute President Sunder Ramaswamy. “We are extraordinarily pleased and grateful to have an alumna of the Institute give back in such a meaningful and forward-looking way.”

For More Information

Jason Warburg
jwarburg@middlebury.edu
831.647.3156

Eva Gudbergsdottir
eva@middlebury.edu
831.647.6606