What inspired your connection to the ocean and led you to pursue a career in marine science? 

What inspired me to study marine biology is my love and curiosity of the ocean and its complexity. My passion to know more and to interpret nature by understanding its ecology and how marine life functions. The ocean inspires me to explore, learn all that I can and increase my awareness.

Tell me about the specific research or work you’re currently focused on and why it’s important?

My work currently in the aquatic nursery is raising knobby Sea Star larvae (Pisaster giganteus). The knobby star population was dismantled by a virus called Sea Star Wasting Disease. This disease has taken out 80% of sea star populations on the California coast. It is now rare to see these keystone predators, and we see how the tide pools are being affected. It is now illegal to collect them, due to their low population. I am also raising urchin larvae as a food source for the knobby stars. When the stars grow out of their planktonic stage and settle they will have food for the next stage of development. I also take care of other marine larva, and other animals that are critically endangered to increase their population in the wild to make a healthier ecosystem.

How does the location where we shot hold significance for you and/or your work?

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium is an aquarium and a museum focused on marine science including paleontology, chemistry, engineering, geology and more. I started volunteering at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium during my junior year of college. I quickly got a job in the education department as an onsite educator. I taught classes from toddlers to 12 grade. I later realized teaching was great and I was amazing at it, but my passion was to work in a marine laboratory. I then volunteered in the marine biology lab known as the Nursery and later transferred departments.  During my time at CMA, my accomplishments have been, keeping certain programs from being cut, expanding the aquariums where about and what we do from doing offsite work for the education department, and most importantly, children and parents telling me how important it was for them to see me represented in this field and what it has done for their children. In the aquatic nursery I am hoping to accomplish raising many of the knobby sea stars and partnering with other aquariums to teach about the process of successfully raising them and their food sources and built stronger relationships with other aquariums in the future.

What are your thoughts on the potential cuts to NOAA funding, and how do you think it might impact your work and the broader field of marine science?

Federal cuts are impacting the science world in a huge way. Studies have been dropped, organizations have been shut down, and marine organizations have had to distribute and release animals due to the cuts. Luckily for myself I am a city employee and there have not been cuts for my department however, this can impact our relationships with organizations, reducing our access to animal’s exchange, research, and expertise in certain fields. The reduction also decreases jobs for scientists that impact the world in ways that go unnoticed. Some of this will have a domino effect on other professions and some big business in the future.

What does it mean for Black people to have access to and to be represented in this field?

It is pivotal for Black people to have access and be represented in this field because it allows our minds to expand on what we can do and offer, not just to marine science, but to the world. There are so many Black inventors/scientists throughout history and expanding the mind with no limitation is beautiful for our children now and in the future. Who knows how it can change and affect the world in many ways, not just in marine science but the expansion i.e medicine, architecture, art, engineering etc…