Articles by: Emi Koch

A former professional surfer with Billabong, Emi used her sponsorship to start the nonprofit, Beyond the Surface International (BTSI). For the past 10 years, Emi has worked at the local level with remote and marginalized small-scale fishing communities from India to Peru, using surfing, mindfulness, and participatory media (BTSI’s Coast 2 Coast Movement) as tools to engage youth and build social-ecological resilience. For her efforts, Emi was named a 2018 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. At Georgetown University, Emi earned her BA in Psychology with concentrations in Anthropology and Justice & Peace Studies. In June 2019, Emi graduates from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography with a Master’s in Marine Biodiversity & Conservation. Emi is a member of the Fisheries Conflict Research Consortium and a recent recipient of a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship. Beginning in October 2019, Emi will spend nine months facilitating Photovoice workshops with fishing communities in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and along the South China Sea to better understand challenges to human security.