Around mid-September long-term visiting faculty member Jamie Alley taught his last course in the Coastal and Marine Management master’s program. Alley has been a visiting faculty in the University Centre of the Westfjords’ Coastal and Marine Management program since 2011. During this time, he has taught eleven courses and supervised several master’s theses. His main field of teaching has been one of the programs core courses, “Coastal and Marine Management: Theory and Tools.”

During Jamie’s last class, staff members of UW and a group of former students surprised him with some small tokens of appreciation for his long-term dedication and service to the University Centre. On this occasion Peter Weiss, the director of UW, went over a few things that Jamie has contributed to UW during his time here. Among these are small things that have had great impact such as his idea to create a student brochure to give instructors a better idea about the group they are working with as well as taking group photos. Peter also talked about the important role that Jamie has had as an “ambassador” for UW on the West Coast of Canada. Through the years Jamie has pointed out the program to many students that have come to Ísafjörður to study and graduate. Peter also emphasized the important role that Jamie has had in the teacher’s group as a practitioner of coastal and marine management. Jamie has an extensive consulting carrier, both in the public and private sector, in oceans and coastal resource management, freshwater and marine fisheries, and natural resource governance mechanisms. He has therefore been able to communicate his first-hand experience to students and use real-world management examples in the classroom.

The University Centre wishes Jamie all the best in the future and we know that he will continue to be an ambassador for UW on the west cost of Canada in years to come. It will most certainly be a big change not having Jamie in the teachers group next year but we are happy to know that we can still call upon him for advice in the future.