Applied Anthropologist Profile: Patricia M. Clay, Ph.D., Anthropologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Patricia (Trish) Clay, Ph.D. (Source: NOAA)

 

In an interview with her employer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Patricia (Trish) Clay said, “One of the things I love about being an anthropologist is that our topic of study is humans. We can study anything people do or think or believe. There are always new and interesting topics to study because people are endlessly inventive.” This sums up not just the purpose of anthropological study but what she was hired to do within the NOAA.  She was the first anthropologist employed by the NOAA, who sought out such expertise to delve deeper into the sociocultural aspects of fisheries and fishing communities.  She has done that and more in her role as Anthropologist for the NOAA’s Social Science Division, and this blog post will address the entirety of her career, from undergraduate student to present day.

 

Clay grew up globetrotting around the world due to her parents’ line of work.  This enabled her to be exposed to and an active participant among various cultural groups.  This would seem like fertile ground to inspire her to study anthropology, but that was not the case.  She enrolled at the University of Notre Dame with aspirations of becoming a social engineer, but she ultimately majored in anthropology after she enrolled in an introductory anthropology course.  Falling in love with the subject matter and being adept in three languages she earned her degrees in Anthropology and Modern Languages in 1981. 

 

She wanted to pursue her graduate studies in linguistics, but she took a gap year to work alongside her father in Venezuela.  It was here where she took a position working for the Venezuelan government.  She was responsible for completing an ethnographic study on local farming and local fishing communities.  This ignited a new passion within her, and she decided to pursue her doctoral research on fishing communities instead of linguistic anthropology. 

 

Clay joined the doctoral program at Indiana University, pursuing research in Venezuela again.  Her doctoral research focused on two very similar fishing communities that received government funding to improve fish production and the living conditions of the local fishermen.  Despite the similarities in the communities and funding opportunities only one program was successful.  Clay realized that it was not economic or environmental factors that affected the failure or success of the program.  It was actually social factors that predicted the program success.  The successful program had a manager who had a great deal of social capital, which increased buy in and cooperation from both employees (fishermen) and the community at large.  The other program did not have this, and it ultimately failed as a result.

 

As is expected of any graduate student Clay was presenting and publishing her research widely.  While attending at conference she met a sociologist employed at the NOAA.  During their conversation he informed her that his branch was looking to hire an anthropologist, the first ever for the organization, and she should apply.  She did and successfully landed the position the same year she defended her dissertation (in 1993).  As excited as she was to take on the responsibilities of this new role she ran into some challenges.  First, many of her colleagues, particularly the hard scientists, saw no value in her anthropological expertise, so they provided little support.  Second, because she was the first anthropologist employed at the NOAA her job responsibilities were undefined.  Rather than shrink away she took advantage of her situation and showed everyone what value she could bring to the position.  She worked hard and demonstrated the utility of anthropological research in better understanding the issues the hard scientists were investigating, and she used the lack of definition of her position to explore research and problems that she identified as she explored the NOAA’s projects. 

 

This caused her to be asked to define similar positions at other NOAA branches, which she has done over the decades she has worked for the agency.  She also was tapped to help various state and federal agencies write legislation to improve fishing regulations.  Her individual work has also been instrumental in humanizing the problems faced by fisheries and fishers.  She has conducted oral histories on fishermen, completed sociocultural studies on marine mammals and their interactions with fishermen and their vessels, and identified both qualitative and quantitative indicators for assessing the health of fishing communities.  She has served on numerous boards and organizations, and she was recently awarded the Society of Applied Anthropology’s Bronislaw Malinowski Award. 

 

Ultimately, Clay’s work demonstrates the need for anthropologists in any area where humans are involved, which means that any organization, business, or agency can benefit from using anthropological knowledge and expertise.  Anthropologists help understand and assess the human aspects of any problem that may exist or help identify the issues that affect the humans that are impacted.  She most certainly has made a positive impact not only at the NOAA but for fishermen and fisheries both in the US and across the globe, which also means that she has helped all people directly and indirectly impacted by their work.

 

Works Cited

Clay, Patricia. "Biography: Patricia Clay." n.d. Danny Yee. Electronic. 24 May 2024.

NOAA Fisheries. " Patricia M. Clay, Ph.D.: Anthropologist." n.d. NOAA Fisheries. Electronic. 24 May 2024.

Society for Applied Anthropology. "2024 Bronislaw Malinowski Award." 2024. Society for Applied Anthropology. Electronic. 24 May 2024.

Soulen, Heather. "Women's History Month: Talking with Patricia Clay." 18 March 2020. NOAA Fisheries. Electronic. 24 May 2024.

 

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