John Williams facilitates a unique collaboration in Cordova

August 2, 2024

John Williams, who has served as the ACEP-ARCTIC community liaison in Cordova since April 2023, has transitioned to his new position as a fisheries workforce specialist with Alaska Sea Grant. This will provide both entities with a unique opportunity to collaborate in areas with shared interests, such as community resiliency research and education.

Through this partnership, Williams will draw from his deep ties to the community. His work will benefit from his extensive training and experience with stakeholder engagement, citizen science and education.

Williams first arrived in Cordova in 1996 as a fish ecologist and scientific diver for the Prince William Sound Science Center. Williams' prior experience includes serving as a marine educator for the University of Texas Marine Science Institute and as a fisheries observer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Galveston Laboratory. His fisheries experience ranges from graduate research in the tropics of Venezuela’s Guri Reservoir to more recent stints as a commercial fisherman on the Copper River, in Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska.

The ARCTIC program, short for the Alaska Regional Collaboration for Technology Innovation and Commercialization program, is an Office of Naval Research initiative, designed to promote commerce and partnerships between Alaska and the Arctic and Pacific regions through advancements in energy through resiliency research, technology development and deployment and education.