Message from the Executive Director

2021

More than a decade after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, 2021 showed that the mission of the Gulf Research Program (GRP) remains vital as the Gulf of Mexico region continues to respond to ever-evolving threats and challenges. A series of winter storms in February showed that damage from extreme weather does not arrive only in the form of hurricanes, with snow and ice creating a major energy infrastructure failure in Texas and millions losing power for an extended period. Despite improvements in safety since Deepwater Horizon, developing offshore energy resources remains risky, as demonstrated by the April hurricane-force winds that capsized the Seacor Power lift boat and killed 13 people. Finally, Hurricane Ida, fueled by the warm waters of the Gulf, barreled into Port Fourchon, Louisiana, and ultimately claimed 75 lives along its 5-day path to Philadelphia and New York City, where it resulted in deadly flooding.

As I look back on the year, I am proud that the GRP remained active and productive in 2021. We bolstered our staff and programming, forged productive new partnerships in the Gulf, and convened innovative gatherings of stakeholders from the government, business, academic, and nonprofit sectors. We successfully navigated the daily reality of virtual meetings and remote work along with all of our partners and collaborators, and we all made it work—together. Here is just a sample of the highlights from 2021:

• We welcomed the first cohort of seven schools into the Gulf Scholars Program (GSP). The program supports undergraduates in addressing the pressing issues of the region related to health and community resilience, offshore energy, and environmental change and protection. Three of the seven institutions are Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Up to seven additional colleges and universities from the Gulf region will be added each year during the first phase of the GSP, reaching more than 25 institutions before the end of 2025.
• Our interactive, multi-day Offshore Situation Room (OSR) used serious gaming exercises to surface the myriad considerations and trade-offs that arise when multiple stakeholders with different perspectives must collaborate for success. The event, held in June, included national and regional experts from government, industry, academia, and civil society. It used “serious games” to have the participants collaborate on issues of planning and mitigation, response, and recovery and restoration efforts related to offshore events to prevent them from happening in the future—and to be better prepared if they occur.
• In November we held similar “serious games” focused on how best to target infrastructure investments so that they meet the long-term needs of Gulf communities. Like the OSR, this event helped forge connections across different regions, agencies, and sectors on shared infrastructure issues. The timing was auspicious; the kickoff occurred at the National Academies’ office on the same day President Biden signed the landmark Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

• In December we launched a multi-million-dollar effort in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to improve the capability of public health data systems to understand and address health disparities in at-risk communities in the Gulf region. We are currently accepting proposals from HBCUs located in one of the five U.S. Gulf of Mexico states—Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—with preference given to HBCUs that partner with at-risk communities located in coastal regions.
• We fielded a full roster of webinars with topics ranging from the future of the Mississippi Delta to climate-change fueled migration in the Gulf. Other highlights included a discussion of the potential for offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico that we hosted with the National Academy of Engineering and a discussion of the future of environmental justice in the region featuring members of the newly created White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

In addition to these activities, we expanded our grants and fellowship programming and staffed five separate units within the GRP, consistent with the vision presented in our 5-year strategic plan. Consistent with the reality that the Gulf is a uniquely vibrant and multifaceted region, we are embedding the principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion into all of our initiatives, with a focus on empowering communities to build their desired futures.

As the year drew to a close, we began to see the possibility of a return to being able to get together in person. While the progress made by all of our Gulf partners has been remarkable during this extraordinary period, there is simply no substitute for the kind of creativity and connections created through face-to-face interactions. Our November infrastructure workshop, for example, benefited greatly from having all of the participants in the same room, working side by side.

We have exciting things planned for 2022, and I am looking forward to what the next year brings. As always, we are thankful for our friends and partners as we work together to create a safe, resilient, and sustainable Gulf of Mexico region.

Lauren Alexander Augustine

Executive Director, Gulf Research Program