Sondra Eger

Postdoctoral Fellow, Memorial University

seger@mun.ca

Sondra is an interdisciplinary social and natural scientist interested in the social dimensions of coastal and marine complex social-ecological problems. She enjoys working in a variety of ecosystems and with coastal communities, researchers and practitioners in Canada and Internationally. For example in 2019, Sondra was a Flaherty Research Scholar with the Ireland Canada University Foundation at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland sharing lessons on collaborative governance of coastal and marine social-ecological systems in an integrated and equitable way, specifically as it relates to marine spatial planning. Using a governance lens, Sondra’s doctorate highlights the importance of coastal community perspectives, in addition to natural science perspectives, to strengthen the development of ICM initiatives and was completed in late 2020.

Sondra is currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Kelly Vodden to 1) lead the Second Volume of Coastal Routes Radio Podcasts and 2) collaborate with municipalities and Indigenous governments from Newfoundland and Labrador on an existing Potable Water Dispensing Unit Project. Additionally, she is working on a project with Oceans North to create a timeline of research and management activities in Minas Basin. Her on-the-go passion project is working with local fishers to develop a coloring/ activity book for the Bay of Fundy and through partnerships with local resource users and organizations to share science with diverse audiences in an accessible way (please get in touch if you are interested in supporting the project financially, collaborating or providing content, or pre-ordering copies!).

Other Affiliations: 

• Environmental Change and Governance Group (ECGG)
• Ocean Canada Partnership – Atlantic working group
• Canadian Rivers Institute Alumni
• Courtenay Lab
• Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership

Theses:

• Learning from Experience to Operationalize Integrated Coastal and Marine Management (PhD dissertation)
• Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives on Coastal and Marine (Connectivity) Management in Dominican Republic (Master’s thesis)

Publications

• Eger, S.L., and S.C. Courtenay. (2021). “Integrated Coastal and Marine Management: Insights from Lived Experiences in the Bay of Fundy, Atlantic Canada.” Ocean & Coastal Management, January, 105457.
• Eger, S.L., R.L. Stephenson, D. Armitage, W. Flannery, and S.C. Courtenay. 2021. “Revisiting Integrated Coastal and Marine Management in Canada: Opportunities in the Bay of Fundy.” Frontiers in Marine Science: 8:652778.
• Andrews, E.J.*, Harper, S.*, Cashion, T., Palacios-Abrantes, J., Blythe, J., Daly, J., Eger, S., Hoover, C., Talloni-Alvarez, N., Teh, L., Bennett, N., Epstein, G., Knott, C., Newell, S.L, and Whitney, C.K. (2020). Supporting interdisciplinary early career researchers: Insights from the marine sciences. ICES Journal of Marine Science 77(2):476-485.
• Eger, S. & B. Dobertstein. (2018). Shared governance arrangements and social connectivity: advancing large-scale coastal and marine conservation initiatives in the Dominican Republic. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 26(3): 210-225.
• Ho, E., Eger, S., Courtenay, S. (2018). Assessing current monitoring indicators and reporting for cumulative effects integration: A case study in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. Ecological Indicators, 95: 862-876.
• Bennett, N.J., Kaplan-Hallam, M., Augustine, G., Ban, N., Belhabib, D., Brueckner-Irwin, I., Charles, A., Couture, J., Eger, S., Fanning, L., Foley, P., Goodfellow, A.M., Greba, L., Gregr, E., Hall, D., Harper, S., Maloney, B., McIsaac, J., Ou, W., Pinkerton, E., Porter, D., Sparrow, R., Stephenson, R., Stocks, A., Sumaila, U.R., Sutcliffe, T., Bailey, M. (2018). Coastal and Indigenous community access to marine resources and the ocean: A policy imperative for Canada. Marine Policy, 87:186–193.
• Eger, S., Stephenson, R. et al. (Accepted, Publication Pending). Chapter 13: Bright spots in integrated management of Canada’s oceans and coasts. IN: Sumaila, R., Armitage, D., Bailey, M. and W.W. Cheung (Eds). (2021). Canada’s Oceans: Pathways to Sustainability in a Sea of Change. UBC Press: Vancouver.
• Eger, S. 2020. [Review of the book Marine Spatial Planning: Past, Present and Future, by Kira Gee and Jacek Zaucha]. Ocean Yearbook: Brill | Nijhoff, 34(1):614-618.

Conference Presentations (past 2 years)

Research Engagement

• OceansCanada Researcher (August, 2019). 
• Reimagining the Blue Economy: Five Women’s Perspectives on the Bay of Fundy. (2019).  Girls Gone Water.
• Sondra’s East Coast Adventures. (January 7, 2019). Courtenay Lab Website.