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SCCF Names Mikkelson as 2024 Pfeifer Fellow
SCCF is pleased to announce that its second Pfeifer Conservation Fellow will be Maegan Mikkelson, a graduate student in Landscape Architecture at the University of Florida (UF).
A Southwest Florida native, she grew up spending weekends on Sanibel Island beaches. As a student at North Fort Myers High School, Mikkelson received a Disney Summer of Service Grant and founded the Adopt a Mangrove Foundation, leading the propagation and planting of 8,000 mangroves in Lee County wetlands. For her efforts, she received the 2019 Conservation Stewardship Award from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
“My passion for coastal resilience stems from being personally affected by the catastrophic Hurricane Ian that hit our hometown in 2022,” she said. “Using this fellowship, I plan to dedicate my graduate terminal project to the prevention of natural disaster impacts and integrating innovative design into my work.”
As the 2024 Pfeifer Fellow, Mikkelson will focus her graduate terminal project in Landscape Architecture on Sanibel under the supervision of Dr. Jules Bruck, director of UF’s School of Landscape Architecture and Planning, who specializes in coastal resilience.
She will also work with UF Professor Emeritus Tom Ankersen, last year’s Pfeifer Fellow, who will continue to work with SCCF to support the city’s Sanibel Plan update concerning coastal resiliency and related matters.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the City of Sanibel, Mikkelson will also work with SCCF, the UF Department of Landscape Architecture, and the firm of WRT, to create a museum-style exhibit and forum celebrating the historic plan, scheduled for Fall 2024. WRT wrote the original Sanibel Plan and is providing archival material for the exhibit.
The SCCF Pfeifer Conservation Fellowship was created by Eric and Mary Ellen Pfeifer to support the ongoing research relationship between the UF and SCCF in the areas of water quality and coastal resiliency.
“I am extremely excited and thankful for the opportunity the Pfeifer fellowship is giving me to advance my graduate terminal project and for their ongoing support of research on our beloved Sanibel,” said Mikkelson.