Consulting and Advising Experience

ConSulting Experience

I have consulted for and advised multiple different stakeholder groups, including nonprofits, startups, large corporations, and government agencies.

I have met with Indonesian diplomats and advised on policy ideas for their country, presented about marine debris and bioplastics to multiple Fortune 500 companies, and given formal input on Californian marine debris legislation. I have also consulted on the plans for a new marine debris research vessel and on the plans for multiple marine debris cleanup prototypes.

I was honored to be asked to be a guest of the U.S. Consulate in Brazil in Fall 2019 as part of their U.S. Speaker program, to discuss marine debris with Brazilian journalists, academics, and government agencies. The picture above is from that trip, where I gave multiple talks as well as being interviewed by one of the most prominent Brazilian newspapers, O Globo.

While at Applied Ocean Sciences, I gained extensive experience as both a consultant and government contractor, working for everyone from non-profits fighting climate change to the Department of Defense protecting the safety of the ocean.

While at King Philanthropies, I gained invaluable experience working with multiple nonprofit organizations working on regenerative agriculture, food waste, and blue carbon projects, as well as conducted scientific due diligence on several impact investments from renewable energy to ocean alkalinity enhancement.

Advising and committee Experience

I was previously on the Board of Directors for the The Climate Initiative, a non-partisan, solutions-oriented organization pushing to mobilize the nation’s youth in the fight against climate change. I also served as a scientific advisor for Clear Blue Sea, a marine debris cleanup organization in San Diego, and for Plastics Credit Exchange, an innovative nonprofit based in the Philippines helping companies become plastic neutral.

I am currently on the Science and Knowledge Holder Board for Oceanic Global, as well as the Regional Board for Young Life for the California South Coast region, spanning from Orange County to the border, and the national Young Life board for younger women’s engagement and philanthropy.

Mentoring Experience

One of my favorite parts of my academic career has been mentoring undergraduate, Master's, and PhD students. I was the official PhD mentor for three Master's students, and have served on three more committees, both at Scripps and SDSU. For one student's project, I helped her develop an iPhone app that mapped and monitored deep-sea marine debris. During my postdoc, I was the Committee Chair for one Master's student's thesis committee, and helped her develop NGSS-aligned marine debris curriculum for educational sailing vessels. I also mentored three REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) students over the summers and had four additional undergraduate employees. This one-on-one mentoring required me to manage their daily work, teach them multiple scientific skills, and also let me pass on the good advice I received in my academic career to the next generation of scientists. 

I also currently advise a PhD student at Scripps on an interdisciplinary project called The Penguano Project, examining penguin guano samples from Antarctica for their diet composition and the amount of microplastics they consume through the marine food web.

Pictured below are some of the graduate student members of Penguano and me.