Laurel Bryant - Director of Outreach and Communications

On loan from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Laurel brings with her a wealth of experience as a communications strategist on issues involving living marine resources and the broad spectrum of stakeholders and politics involved with their management and conservation. Joining NMFS in 1994, Laurel has served in a number of communication capacities and helped liaison agency policy on a variety of contentious issues, including dolphin-safe tuna, endangered sea turtle protections, and international management of highly migratory fisheries in the Atlantic. In addition to speech writing and producing outreach materials, Laurel developed key communication tools that have successfully elevated public awareness of NMFS’ issues and stakeholder participation, including the weekly e-publication FishNews and the seafood information web-source, Fish Watch. As Executive Director of the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Commerce, the oldest advisory body within NOAA, Laurel conducted a reorganization and retooling of the Committee and its mission, re-establishing it as a valuable resource of external expertise and guidance to the agency and its stewardship mission.

Prior to working at NMFS, Laurel worked for Congressman Jim Saxton of New Jersey serving as his Committee Staff on the Oceanography and the Fish and Wildlife Subcommittees of the former Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. During her tenure on Committee, Laurel worked on key ocean initiatives, including the Ocean Pollution and Ocean Dumping Ban Acts, and reauthorizations of Marine Mammal Protection, Coastal Zone Management, and Magnuson (Stevens) Fisheries Conservation and Management Acts.

A native of Seattle, Washington, Laurel received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Economics with an emphasis in Natural Resources Management from the University of Washington.