Dr. Stacy Aguilera-Peterson

Stacy is currently applying her scientific background and combining it with her love for public service in Washington D.C. where she leads the Ocean Policy Office at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). While D.C. may not have the croquettas y cortaditos that fueled her time in Miami, she attempts to follow in her abuela’s footsteps and keep her Cuban heritage alive through cooking massive amounts of Cuban food for her family. 

Stacy enjoys wearing many hats as NSF's Ocean Policy Specialist in the NSF Geosciences Directorate Division of Ocean Sciences (GEO/OCE). She serves as policy advisor to the Cabinet-level Ocean Policy Committee Ocean Science and Technology subcommittee; chief executive secretary to the White House National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology; U.S. National Focal Point to the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative; NSF United Nations Ocean Decade strategic lead; and NSF-NOAA Leadership Roundtable Lead. She works with agency leadership to develop strategic vision in engaging in interagency and international activities. The NSF Ocean Policy Office formulates NSF policy positions, provides ocean-related science and technology briefing materials, develops partnerships, represents NSF and the scientific enterprise in interagency and international forums, and contributes to ocean science and technology aspects of interagency ocean policy and governance planning and implementation.

Prior to joining NSF, Stacy served as a policy advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where she contributed to developing and implementing national ocean policy and ensuring safe and inclusive research environments, among other goals to promote science and technology across the Nation and around the globe. She was also a NOAA Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at OSTP, where she focused on developing national ocean policy and ocean and science technology partnerships.

Stacy completed her doctoral degree from the Abess Center in 2017. Stacy earned a B.S. in Biology with honors in Marine Biology in 2011 and an M.S. in Earth Systems with a focus in Marine Policy in 2012, both from Stanford University.

For her dissertation, Stacy studied small-scale fisheries in California, with a focus on Monterey Bay wetfish (Pacific sardine, northern anchovy, and market squid). Small-scale fisheries are significant to many economies, community identities, human health, and ecosystems, as well as, of course, to Stacy herself (because she's studying them). To better understand how these fisheries work, she used Elinor Ostrom's Social-Ecological System framework to structure her methods and analyses. Stacy is especially interested in how fisheries work during varying conditions and what drives different outcomes. Stacy's concentration on Monterey Bay small-scale fisheries was ignited during the Center for Ocean Solution's Small-Scale Fisheries Working Group Meeting in November 2012. The question was asked, what is happening with the small-scale fisheries in the Center's own backyard. To answer this question, Stacy worked with colleagues from the University of Santa Cruz, Moss Landing, Stanford University, James Cook University, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and the University of Victoria. Together, the team identified the most significant drivers of change in this fishery system since the Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976.

Stacy also worked on how fishery participants and affiliates find, communicate, and use climate information to make decisions. She focused on information related to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), mainly because she was hoping for rain, but also because ENSO events can play a dramatic role in these fisheries. Monterey is a historical landmark in California and to this day has an active fishing community which links heavily to the identity of the place and the economy. Through close inspection, she aimed to characterize means, conditions, and system components which have led Monterey to successful and resilient fisheries. 

Stacy is interested in building a diverse, inclusive, STEM-literature blue workforce. Stacy aims to ensure National Ocean Policy engages with stakeholders and communities to ensure Federal policies reflect our society’s most pressing needs and interests. She aims to contribute to the Nation and broader global community through a career in policy leadership where she can bring balanced, conservation-minded, and interdisciplinary systems-based approaches to the forefront in creating and implementing effective policies for a more sustainable and equitable world.

To contact Stacy about Ocean Policy, life in DC, or making healthy but adorable treats for toddlers, email her at: saguiler@nsf.gov