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Bio: Patrick Shirey is a Certified Fisheries Professional and a Certified Ecologist (Ecological Society of America). Patrick earned his Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from The Pennsylvania State University (2001), and his Master of Science from New Mexico State University (2004). Working on an endangered species impacted by environmental change and politics in an over-appropriated river system led him to earn a law degree (J.D.) with a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law at the Dickinson School of Law (2007). Motivated to combine his knowledge of science and the law, Patrick was supported by an NSF-sponsored Integrative Graduate and Education Research Traineeship (IGERT) to earn a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame (2014) where he studied the impacts of stream restoration on fish communities in Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and environmental regulations pertaining to endangered species. After graduate school he worked for an environmental consulting company doing wetland delineation and watershed planning and later took a career break from full-time work to care for his daughters before a postdoctoral associate position at the University of Pittsburgh. During that time, he continued volunteer work with AFS to stay engaged in the profession. Patrick works as an assistant professor at Pitt’s Department of Geology and Environmental Science in their Environmental Studies Program where he serves on the faculty advisory board for the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory and the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation as a Leonard Peters Faculty Fellow. He teaches Environmental Justice, Environmental Law and Policy, and Current Issues in Sustainability in addition to supervising undergraduate and graduate students conducting research in aquatic ecosystems.

Candidate Statement: I am a 19-year AFS member who has served as a policy fellow for AFS (2014-2015), as an Emerging Leaders Mentorship Awardee (2016-2017), as the vice chair (2016-2017) and chair (2017-2020) of the Resource Policy Committee (RPC), and as an officer for the Northeastern Division (2019-2023). Relevant to the Fish Habitat Section, I have worked with policy staff and AFS volunteers as part of larger team efforts on Waters of the United States, climate change, imperiled species, and coordinating volunteer input for federal regulation comments like the USFWS definition of habitat. As an officer for the Fish Habitat Section, I will help 1) advance fish habitat science, education, and policy needs within the society; 2) foster an environment to broaden participation particularly with student members of AFS; and 3) make sure the section’s membership breadth is represented in volunteer efforts.

Rebecca Krogman is a fisheries biometrician with Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Her specialty up until November 2023 was reservoirs, the problem child and yet ever-so-useful product of anthropogenic alterations to our freshwater environments. She then worked briefly on big rivers, where the center of her work remained the same: the intersection of diverse habitats, a myriad of water uses, and fish both native and not. In October 2024, she became the biometrician for Iowa DNR’s Fisheries staff, applying her quantitative skills to solving problems statewide. She earned her B.S. from Iowa State University and M.S. from Mississippi State University, with a thesis focused on fish habitat characteristics in reservoirs.

In addition to her state agency duties, she serves as the Communications Coordinator for the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership/Friends of Reservoirs, and has served AFS as Iowa Chapter President (2022-2023), Fisheries Information and Technology Section President (2017-2019), NCD Reservoir Technical Committee co-chair and chapter representative (2014-2023), AFS Angler Survey Committee (2022-), subunit president, and various other committees and working groups. Her goal for the Fish Habitat Section is a renewed banking solution that is easier to hand down from officer to officer.