Elin Torell

  • Director
  • Graduate School of Oceanography, URI Bay Campus
  • Phone: 401.874.6103
  • Fax: 401.874.6920
  • Email: elintorell@uri.edu

Biography

Elin Torell has been part of the University of Rhode Island since 2002 and became Director of the Coastal Institute in 2022. She provides strategic leadership for the Institute, guiding interdisciplinary research development, partnership growth, and long-term program planning across URI’s coastal and marine enterprise. Over the course of her career, she has led complex, multi-million-dollar international initiatives addressing fisheries governance, coastal resilience, and sustainable development in dynamic social and ecological settings.

Her work bridges environmental science, institutional development, and applied policy. She has advanced monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems that strengthen adaptive management across multiple countries and sectors. Her expertise includes gender equity and social inclusion, livelihood systems, fisheries value chains, population–environment dynamics, and environmental compliance. With more than two decades of global experience, she has supported governments, civil society organizations, and research institutions in building durable coastal governance systems grounded in science and community priorities.

She holds a PhD in Environmental Studies and a Master’s Degree in Human and Economic Geography.

Current Initiatives