This month, NIVA welcomes another new employee. Paulina Ramirez-Monsalve (PhD) has joined our team of researchers and will also be supporting with her expertises in marine governance. Paulina is originally from Colombia but has been living the last 20 years in Denmark. Her background is on production engineering but she developed an interdisciplinary career around environmental aspects, from both a technological and social science point of view.

Her main research interests include stakeholder involvement, policy development and policy implementation processes, primarily focusing on European Union’s nature and marine policies (i.e., Water Framework Directive, Natura2000, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Maritime Spatial Planning) and understanding how they are implemented especially from an institutional and governance perspective. Recent areas of research: operationalization of Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEA); governance of the carbon sequestration potential of fish; power dynamics, equity, and participation; governance and legal aspects of restoration of marine ecosystems; operationalization of ecosystem-based fisheries management. Paulina is currently a Chair at the ICES Working Group on Balancing Economic, Social, and Ecological objectives (WGBESEO).

In her spare time, she enjoys practising indoor spinning and yoga, or hanging out with her two girls (9 and 6 years old). In literature the great Colombian writer Gabriel García Marquez has been a source to countless hours of reading, but lately reading has been displaced by a reconnection with the Star Wars universe (Mandalorian and Boba Fett specially).

Welcome to Paulina Ramirez-Monsalve, we are all looking forward to working with you.