Nancy Friday

Nancy Friday is the Deputy Director of the Marine Mammal Laboratory (MML), a division of Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC). She came to MML in 2000 as a member of the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program. Her primary research interests include: modeling cetaceans as part of their marine ecosystems, estimating the abundance and modeling the distribution of cetacean populations, and improving the management and conservation of cetaceans through the development of quantitative models. Over the years, she developed an interest in assisting individual colleagues and programs with reaching their goals, and her focus shifted from research to program management. She is committed to increasing diversity and transparency at MML. In 2020, she accepted the position as Deputy Division Director. Before joining AFSC, Nancy was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Protected Species Branch at the NOAA NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole, MA, where she conducted research on North Atlantic humpback whales. Nancy received a Ph.D. in Oceanography, with an emphasis in Biological Oceanography, from the Graduate School of Oceanography of the University of Rhode Island, Narragansett. Her dissertation focused on photographic identification methods for estimating the abundance of the North Atlantic humpback whale population. Nancy earned her A.A. (with distinction) and B.A. (magna cum laude) in Social Sciences from Simon’s Rock College of Bard, Great Barrington, MA. Nancy also attended McGill University, Montreal as a visiting student for her undergraduate junior year and took post-graduate courses at The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.