Elise Beauchemin was born and raised in New Hampshire and is an avid fan of snow and backcountry skiing. She studies marine environmental science at the US Coast Guard Academy, concentrating in marine biology and geospatial intelligence. Her capstone research analyzes maritime activity in the North Pacific Arctic, with prior undergraduate research involving microplastics. In the summers of 2021 and 2023, she studied sustainable fisheries management and marine invasive species at the Shoals Marine Lab in the Gulf of Maine. Following graduation and commissioning as an officer in the US Coast Guard in 2025, Elise hopes to be stationed as a Deck Watch Officer on the icebreaker USCGC Healy or a buoy tender out of Alaska. Long term, she plans to attend graduate school and pursue Arctic research. Passionate about the environmental impacts on the Arctic and conserving its unique ecosystem, Elise is honored to be one of two USCGA Center for Arctic Study and Policy interns at AERC-ADAC. 

Elise is participating in the 2024 Arctic Summer Internship Program.

Matthew Croddy was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is currently entering his fourth year at the United States Naval Academy where he plays volleyball and expects to graduate in May 2025. He is studying to obtain a bachelor’s degree in ocean and atmospheric sciences and plans on entering the METOC(Meteorological/Oceanographic) community of the United States Navy after graduation. Matthew completed a NOLS mountaineering course in Alaska the previous summer and can't wait to be back up there this summer.

Matthew is participating in the 2024 Arctic Summer Internship Program.

Sara Berg is an accelerated master’s student from Southborough, Massachusetts. She graduated with Honors from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in May 2024 and will continue pursuing a master’s in environmental engineering in June 2024, also at UNH. As an undergraduate, Sara was involved in oil spill response and restoration at the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) and greenhouse gas accounting at the UNH Sustainability Institute. As an SLA Fellow, she will continue precision and accuracy testing of a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) acoustic sensor (AQUAscat 1000R) in detecting oil slick thicknesses. Here analysis includes testing different oil types, detecting oil under ice, and measuring sound speed and density of oil at different temperatures. These findings will be reported to the US Coast Guard responders regarding the potential use of remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) mounted COTS acoustic sensors for determining slick thicknesses during oil spills. Sara is participating in the 2024 Arctic Summer Internship Program.

Angel Reyes was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States around six years old, mainly living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He joined the Air Force at eighteen and traveled to Alaska on orders from the military. He later transferred to the Alaska Air National Guard and became a loadmaster. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in project management at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). His fellowship uses virtual reality technology to imitate disaster scenarios specific to the Arctic region to prepare users for quicker action and mitigation of damage in the event that these scenarios occur. He hopes to integrate his fellowship work, civilian career, and military experience to provide expertise for larger organizations that make an impact in the community. He hopes the fellowship leads to larger, lasting changes that will be beneficial to his community. 

Angel participated in the 2023 Arctic Summer Internship Program.

Walt Weidman is an undergraduate student at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) with a focus in mechanical engineering. He joined the US Air Force after high school and served 12 years, honing skills in trauma medicine, education, and leadership. His long-term career goal is to obtain a master’s or doctorate in mechanical engineering and pursue a research career. His SLA project is part of Precipitating Change, a coastal erosion research project that seeks to bridge Indigenous knowledge and western science with a multi-perspective instructional approach. The goal is to teach middle school students about coastal science and erosion through the students’ unique understanding of their culture and Indigenous science without asking them to abandon or devalue their cultural perspective.

Irwing Vielma-Rodriguez is a graduate student, researcher and computer science professional. He graduated with a B.S. in computer science from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York and is currently pursuing an M.S. in information systems at Le Moyne, with a concentration in artificial intelligence. As an undergraduate, Irwing served as an Honors in Information Systems Principal Investigator and McDevitt Information Systems Research Fellow and led a multidisciplinary team of four students investigating virtual reality meditation in college stress reduction. In 2023, he was awarded a McNair Research Fellowship at Clarkson University and served as a robotics engineer researcher. He plans to begin doctoral work in Fall 2025.

Irwing is participating in the 2024 Arctic Summer Internship Program.

Victoria Gary is a third-year student at Tuskegee University, majoring in animal science.  Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she's maintained a spot on the Dean's List four consecutive semesters. She is a member of her university's pre-veterinary medical scholars program, participates in Students in Animal Care and Rescue, and plans to pursue a doctorate in veterinary medicine after graduation.

Victoria participated in the 2024 Arctic Summer Internship Program.

Madeline DuBosque is a student from Greenland, New Hampshire. She is currently studying environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and expects to graduate in 2026. Madeline began working as a lab assistant in the Coastal Response Research Center at UNH in September 2023. Her long-term career interests involve disaster response and recovery, including performing research in these areas. She hopes to support and protect people, wildlife, and habitats from the effects of natural disasters. Madeline’s fellowship project is the Climate Assessment and Proactive Resilience Initiative (CAPRI), where she performs literary research and data collection, attends stakeholder meetings, and assists her project PI overall.

Gwendolyn Morgan is pursuing a Ph.D. in cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a focus on human factors, cognitive science, HCI and AI. Morgan is a successful researcher, proposal writer, grant writer, photographer, artist, and lecturer with a passion for the Arctic, sustainability, resilience, information systems, human factors, and cognitive science. She holds multiple degrees, including an M.B.A. in Business Administration, M.F.A. in Film and Digital Media and a B.A. in English and History. Morgan is also a Federal Aviation Administration Part 107 Certified Commercial UAS Pilot. Currently, she is conducting research on the impacts of uncrewed aerial systems on operator and system performance, processes, and perceptions in Arctic safety-critical systems. Her project for the ADAC-ARCTIC fellowship will include developing a model and empirical results that can contribute to improved understanding of DHS human and system performance capabilities in Arctic missions such as oil spill response, oil tank inspection, or search and rescue.

Ian Unson is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in industrial engineering at the University at Buffalo. He is originally from Rochester, New York. Ian aims to remain in academia after completing his Ph.D. and hopes to teach as a professor and continue his research in homeland security, operations research, and game theory. Ian works under the guidance of Dr. Jun Zhuang as their team attempts to address the problems exacerbated by the Arctic's profound transformations due to climate change, manifesting in challenges encompassing environmental, social, and cultural realms. Within the research tasks of this group, Ian will aid in the development of game-theoretic models to study optimal partnership formation and resource allocation strategies among the U.S. Arctic security stakeholders. These models will offer actionable insights to assist decision-making as it relates to securing the Arctic homeland against strategic adversarial threats and non-strategic threats such as climate change and natural hazards.