by Elizabeth Hefner, Development Team
The Wetlands Institute is pleased to announce it has awarded the first fellowship in the Jeannie Morris Graduate Fellowship Program for Coastal Conservation and Research. Our first fellowship recipient is Garret Maggio, a Ph.D. student in the Biology, Biomedicine, and Chemistry Program at East Carolina University.
![](https://wetlandsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Jeannie-Jim-Morris-02-249x300.jpg)
Jeannie & Jim Morris
The Fellowship supports academic training and development and diversifies and expands research endeavors focused on wetlands and coastal ecosystems. It was made possible by a generous donation from Jim and Jeannie Morris. “We are pleased to support the research aspect of TWI’s mission by endowing a yearly research fellowship for graduate students,” says Jeannie.
Garret will use this $10,000 fellowship to investigate the population structure of the diamondback terrapin, a species central to the work of TWI. Terrapins live exclusively in tidal wetlands and can be quite difficult to find, capture, and survey. Through this work Garrett, hopes to provide a new tool to help researchers learn more about terrapin movements and dispersal, and inform future research and conservation efforts for the species.