Dr. Ropicki is an Assistant Professor and Extension Economist-Marine Economics in the Agricultural Economics Department at Texas A&M University and the Marine Economics Specialist for the Texas Sea Grant Program. He is located at the District 11 Research and Extension Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. He holds both a B.S. (2002) and M.S. (2004) in Finance, and a Ph.D. (2014) from the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida with an emphasis in natural resource and environmental economics. His research interests include evaluation of rights-based fisheries management, application of social network analysis techniques to marine resource issues, seafood marketing, valuation of natural resources, and general marine resource issues. Dr. Ropicki’s work involves examining a broad array of marine resource issues important to the people of Texas and the Gulf region and assisting industry, regulatory agencies, and public user groups in the effective management, utilization, and investment in marine resources.