In 2024, St. Mary’s River Watershed Association (SMRWA) purchased a brand new 22-ft C-Hawk research and work vessel with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since then, SMRWA staff and volunteers have been cruising the river monitoring water quality, planting oysters, and conducting scientific studies.
But until recently, the C-Hawk didn’t have a name.
Allison Rugila joined SMRWA as a summer intern in 2011, between her freshman and sophomore year at St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM). By 2012, she was promoted to program director, and she remained in that role until 2015, when she became the Director of Communications and Outreach.
At SMRWA, Allison excelled at oyster restoration, outreach, and problem solving. She was instrumental in expanding our oyster restoration operations and was part of the team that designed and assembled our oyster nursery tank in 2012. While SMRWA began planting oysters in 2010, the nursery tank, which still runs today, allowed the organization to scale-up our oyster restoration efforts and led to the successful construction of the five-acre reef site adjacent to St. Mary’s College, which began in 2013 under Rugila’s leadership.
Current SMRWA Executive Director Emma Green Ewing was delighted with the name choice. “Allison’s impact is still felt today,” she said. “Our oyster restoration program is built on the foundation she helped lay, so it’s only fitting that the boat we use to continue that work now carries her name.”
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from SMCM in 2014, she earned an M.A. in Applied Ecology and Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolution from SUNY Stony Brook and worked as a National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Today, she is the Associate Soundkeeper at Save the Sound, where she uses the passion for environmental stewardship that she honed at SMRWA to protect and improve the Long Island Sound.
Bob Lewis, former executive director of SMRWA (2008 to 2023), said, “Allison changed who the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association would become,” and “this is a well-deserved honor.”
Allison’s legacy will be remembered as we plant oysters, monitor water quality, and work to protect and improve the St. Mary’s River on the Allison Rugila.
