Judith Kildow, PhD

About Judith Kildow

Judith T. Kildow, PhD, now retired, is founding Emeritus Director of the National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) (www.OceanEconomics.org), at the Center for the Blue Economy (CBE) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, and now serves as an Advisory Council Member there and editorial board member for their Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics. Dr. Kildow also serves as a Lead Expert for the World Resources Institute High Level Panel for a Sustainable Blue Economy.

Dr. Kildow has an AB in Political Science from Grinnell College and a PhD. in International Relations and Science Policy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. She began her career at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography as Associate Director of the Center for Marine Affairs. For the next 40+ year she dedicated her life, working mostly with scientists and engineers, teaching and doing research to provide evidence that oceans and coasts are valuable and need protection and conservation. She spent 25+ years on the faculty at MIT, in the Department of Ocean Engineering, was Senior Social Scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, James W. Rote Distinguished Professor, California State University Monterey Bay, Research Faculty/Senior Fellow at Harvard University, University of Southern California and University of Vermont. She was a member of The Presidential Commission, NACOA, has served on National Academy of Sciences boards and committees, on federal and state government, corporate and editorial boards, and has published and lectured widely in the fields of coastal and ocean policy and economics.

She has keynoted talks in China, Korea, Italy, Ireland, France and England, and throughout the US, about the value of oceans and coasts and the high risks from climate change impacts to our shores. She consults with national and international organizations on the importance of valuing Oceans and Coasts to ensure their preservation and conservation into the future stressing that a healthy economy relies on a healthy ocean and a sustainable economy requires a sustainable ocean resource.