Dr. Tiffany Smythe is a coastal and ocean management scholar and practitioner. Dr. Smythe has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island. Her doctoral dissertation employed mental models and social network analytical methods to examine the capacity of coastal managers to develop coastal ecosystem-based management plans, and her master’s thesis explored coastal land use development trends affecting commercial and recreational working waterfronts. Dr. Smythe has also worked as a coastal management practitioner and was a member of the team that developed the Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP), one of the nation’s first marine spatial plans to guide the siting of offshore renewable energy and other future ocean uses. As part of the Ocean SAMP team, she worked extensively with commercial and recreational fishermen, recreational boaters, commercial mariners, and other stakeholders including the U.S. Coast Guard to develop this plan and associated policies and regulations. Prior to her career in coastal and ocean policy, Dr. Smythe worked as a professional mariner and educator. She has a 100-ton U.S. Coast Guard Master’s license and has sailed as mate and marine educator throughout the Caribbean and along the Eastern Seaboard aboard sail training vessels including the Lettie G. Howard and Spirit of Massachusetts. Before joining the Academy as a Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Smythe served as Guest Faculty at Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, MA, and as senior staff at the New York Harbor School, an innovative maritime high school located on Governors Island in New York Harbor. 

• Ph.D., Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island, 2011
• M.A., Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island, 2007
• M.A., Social Studies Education, Columbia University, 1999
• B.A., History, Columbia University, 1995

• U.S. Maritime History and Policy
• Maritime Studies: Select Topics

• Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program Eastern Regional Network, 2012
• Graduate Fellow, University of Rhode Island Coastal Institute, 2011
• Dissertation Grant‐in‐Aid Recipient, University of Rhode Island National Science Foundation Coastal Institute IGERT Project, 2010 and 2011
• SFellow, National Science Foundation Coastal Institute IGERT Project, University of Rhode Island, 2006‐2008
• Education Fund Scholarship, Propeller Club of Narragansett Bay, 2008
• Kenelm W. Coons Scholarship, University of Rhode Island, 2008
• Graduate Student Award, American Planning Association‐Rhode Island Chapter, 2007
• Fellow, Institute of Graduate Environmental Leaders, Roger Williams School of Law, 2005
• Ann M. Hershfang Graduate Scholarship, Women’s Transportation Seminar, 2005

• Smythe, T. 2010. “Can Coastal Management Programs Protect and Promote Water‐Dependent Uses?” Coastal Management Journal 38 (6): 665‐680.
• Smythe, T., D. Beutel and S. Smith. 2010. Fisheries Activity Maps: Methods and Data Sources. Technical appendix to the RI Ocean Special Area Management Plan. RI Coastal Resources Management Council, October 2010.
• Anthony, A., T. Smythe, and 19 other authors. 2009. “Coastal Lagoons and Climate Change: Ecological and Social Ramifications in Temperate Ecosystems.” Ecology and Society Journal 14 (1): 8.
• Smythe, T., R. Freudenberg and R. Pirani. 2008. Making Waterfronts Work: Data Needs and Policy Recommendations for Preserving Water‐dependent Maritime Land Uses in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Peer‐reviewed report for Regional Plan Association, New York, NY.
• Smythe, T. 2007. “Models for Working Waterfronts.” Op‐ed, Providence Journal, Nov. 27, 2007.
• Smythe, T. 2007. The Demand for and Feasibility of a Statewide GIS‐Based Parcel Data System. Peer‐reviewed white paper for the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, May 2007.
• Thompson, R., R. Burroughs, & T. Smythe. 2006. “Exploring the Connections Between Ferries and Urban Form: Some Considerations Before Jumping on Board.” Journal of Urban Technology 13:2, 25‐52.
• Burroughs, R. R. Thompson, & T. Smythe. 2006. Quonset Point Multi‐Modal, Mixed Use Ferry Terminal. Peer‐reviewed report for the Quonset Development Corporation and the URI Transportation Center.
• Smythe, T. 2006. “Strolling the Gold Coast: The Implications of Leydon vs. Greenwich for Beach Access in Connecticut.” Roger Williams University Marine Affairs Institute White Paper series.

• The Coastal Society