Previous Student Explorers

Ryan Marr

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, East Carolina University

Rebekah Hernandez

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Edward Kim

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of South Alabama / University of Pennsylvania

Madelyn Cook

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of Michigan

Madelyn Cook was a 2021 NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and she holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry and environmental studies from Kenyon College. Madelyn is an alumna of Sea Semester's Ocean Exploration (S-265) class, where she had the opportunity to sail on a brigantine tall ship from New Zealand to Tahiti doing oceanographic research, which inspired her to pursue her doctorate in paleoceanography and chemical oceanography. Madelyn's doctoral research focuses on the application of different biological and geochemical indicators in foraminifera to reconstruct past seawater environments, with particular emphasis on understanding ocean dissolved oxygen variability prior to the Industrial Revolution. Outside of her research Madelyn works as a Graduate Student Mentor for her department, mentoring new graduate students on their pedagogy, and serves as a co-organizer of the Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School in Ghana (https://coessing.org), which she has participated in since 2019. While aboard the Okeanos Explorer, Madelyn contributed to mapping objectives on the Blake Plateau by cleaning and processing daily multibeam sonar data; producing data products to view relative seafloor composition using the amplitude of returned soundings (backscatter); and processing chirp data from the Knudsen sub-bottom profiler, which provided valuable information about the fabric of the seafloor. This information is of particular importance to paleoceanographers as they determine the best candidates for deep-sea drilling sites. When Madelyn is not working she loves to hike, bike, read, cook, eat, travel, be on the ocean, and play with her mini-goldendoodle, Waffle.

Marcel Peliks

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

Marcel Peliks was a mapping Explorer-in-Training who participated in the cloud mapping pilot project for the 2021 Okeanos Explorer field season. At the time of his internship, he was a graduate student working towards his Master's of Science in geological oceanography at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. Given his extensive experience with seafloor mapping, Marcel joined the NOAA Ocean Exploration team to participate in this new opportunity to conduct NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer mapping data processing from home. Marcel has also sailed aboard the Okeanos Explorer as an at-sea Explorer-in-Training in the past. Participating from his home in Califorina, Marcel helped test all aspects of the cloud-based mapping system. His efforts contributed to standard operating procedures for future cloud mapping operations. After completing graduate school, Marcel plans to pursue career opportunities in seafloor mapping.

Paola Santiago

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, University of Puerto Rico

Paola Santiago was a mapping Explorer-in-Training who participated in the cloud mapping pilot project for the 2021 Okeanos Explorer field season. Paola rejoined the NOAA Ocean Exploration team for this project after a successful 2019 Educational Partnership Program with Minority-Serving Institutions internship where she gained foundational skills in ocean exploration topics. At the time of her experience, she was an undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico studying biology. Paola's background and familiarity with seafloor mapping and deep sea science made her a great candidate for this unique opportunity. Paola's responsibilities included standing mapping watches from her home in Puerto Rico, processing data in real time as it came off of the Okeanos Explorer, and keeping updated logs of her activities. Paola's participation in this project helped launch a new option for engaging interns with NOAA Ocean Exploration's operations using the latest cloud computing technology.

Treyson Gillespie

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, College of Charleston

Treyson Gillespie was a mapping Explorer-in-Training who participated in the cloud mapping pilot project for the 2021 Okeanos Explorer field season. At the time of his internship, Trey was a Master's of Science student earning a degree in environmental studies from the the College of Charleston. Trey also holds a Bachelor's of Arts in geology and environmental geosciences from the College of Charleston. Given the novel nature of this cloud mapping pilot project, Trey was a great fit for the team given his experience in seafloor mapping. He is involved with the BEAMS (Benthic Acoustic Mapping and Survey) Program at his school and has worked with NOAA Ocean Exploration on several occassions as an at-sea and onshore Explorer-in-Training and mapping technician. He is also interested in promotoing STEM education for younger students. Trey joined the remote-based team from his home in Charleston, South Carolina to stand mapping watches that processed data in real time and provided significant support to make this pilot project a success.

Anna Takagi-Berry

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of New Hampshire Center for Ocean and Coastal Mapping

Anna Takagi-Berry was a mapping Explorer-in-Training who participated in the cloud mapping pilot project for the 2021 Okeanos Explorer field season. Anna holds a Bachelors of Science in ocean science from the University of Plymouth and a graduate certificate in ocean mapping from the University of New Hampshire Center for Ocean and Coastal Mapping. She has also worked as survey techincian for the University of Hawaii. Anna's extensive hydrography experience and training made her a great candidate to test the feasibility of this novel opportunity to have Explorers-in-Training processing mapping data in real-time from their home work stations. Anna joined the team virtually from her home in Portugal and was integral in getting this pilot project up and running.

Noelle Helder

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of Alberta

Noelle Helder was a 10-week Explorer-in-Training who, at the time of her internship, recently graduated from the University of Alberta with her Masters of Science in Ecology. Noelle also holds a Bachelor's of Science in Biology from the University of South Florida. Growing up in North Carolina, vacations to the coast just weren’t enough to meet Noelle’s ocean interests. As an undergraduate student, she studied coral reef ecology in Curaçao and researched jaw mechanics in suction-feeding sharks. After graduation, she conducted research on reef ecosystems and marine management during internships at the School for Field Studies Centre for Marine Resource Studies and the Central Caribbean Marine Institute, where she worked closely with Caribbean communities to understand local resource use. As a graduate student, Noelle worked with international collaborators using photogrammetry, underwater surveys, and stable isotope analyses to evaluate spatial patterns of nutrient flows across reefs. As an Explorer-in-Training with NOAA Ocean Exploration, Noelle worked with the Expeditions & Exploration Division on expedition planning and coordination objectives . Noelle produced map layers, ROV dive plans, and background materials that were helped to plan an ROV expedition in the U.S. Southeast. During her free time, Noelle is an outdoor enthusiast who loves to explore remote places by boat, ski, or bike.

Hannah Miller

NOAA Ocean Exploration Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, Emory University

Hannah Miller was a 10-week Explorer-in-Training who joined the NOAA Ocean Exploration team from Emory University where she was studying environmental sciences, Engligh, and creative writing. Born and raised in New York on the banks of the Hudson River, Hannah has always been passionate about the aquatic world. Hannah has become especially interested in merging science and humanities to make scientific information widely accessible. At her university, she has conducted research through Emoryl’s Environmental Sciences department, where she studied limnology in Georgia reservoirs. Her findings were presented at the Southeast Geological Society of America conference. As one of NOAA Ocean Exploration's first 10-week summer Explorers-in-Training, Hannah worked with the Science & Technology and Outreach & Education Divisions to update and produce new science and technology web content for the office's website. Throughout her internship, Hannah interviewed and networked with over 49 proffesionals to gather the information for her web stories. She was also invovled with the 2021 Okeanos Explorer field season via telepresence, monitoring science chat rooms and writing expedition features about the highlights of ROV dives.

Quinn Girasek

NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Scholar
Undergraduate, Juniata College

Quinn Girasek was a 2021 Hollings Scholar who completed her internship with NOAA Ocean Exploration. At the time, Quinn was a rising senior at Juniata College studying biology. Her interest in marine life started at a young age and grew as she was able to learn more about the ocean through snorkeling and summer programs. At her university, Quinn conducts genetics research involving snakes, brook trout, and rockfish. She has shared her love of science with the public by volunteering at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Q?rius learning space. For her internship with NOAA Ocean Exploration, Quinn worked with the Science & Technology Division to explore the relationship between water column organisms and the environment through data collected on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer from remotely operated vehicle dives along the U.S. Southeast Atlantic Coast and the Carribean. Quinn also participated as a onshore scientist via telepresence during the 2021 Okeanos Explorer field season by annotating ROV video data, monitoring the science chat rooms, and even calling in to a livestreamed water column ROV dive! In her free time, Quinn enjoys traveling, 3D design/printing, running/hiking in nature, stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking, as well as aquascaping.

Emily Speciale

William M. Lapenta NOAA Internship Program
Undergraduate, University of Miami

Emily Speciale was an intern with the 2021 William M. Lapenta NOAA Internship Program. At the time of her internship, Emily was a student at the University of Miami where she was studying marine science, biochemistry, and molecular biology at the time of her internship. Growing up in a small suburb outside of Annapolis, Maryland her experience on the Chesapeake Bay drove her passion for marine science. At her university, Emily is an undergraduate researcher in the Marine Genomics Laboratory, where she uses bioinformatics to analyze epigenetic mechanisms in the Atlantic killifish. She is very passionate about volunteer work, especially within the marine science field, whether it be initiatives to fight climate change, helping out with Bay data analysis in her hometown, or motivating young women to step foot in STEM. During her time with NOAA Ocean Exploration, Emily worked with the Science & Technology Division and National Centers for Environmental Information partners to complete a project developing open-source, cloud-based split-beam acoustic metric visualization tool using R and python coding languages.

Adriana Muñoz-Soto

NOAA Educational Partnership Program/Minority Serving Institutions Scholar
Undergraduate, University of Puerto Rico

Adriana Muñoz-Soto was a 2021 NOAA Educational Partnership Program/Minority Serving Institution Scholar from the University of Puerto Rico where she is completing her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. After a successful 2020 internship, NOAA Ocean Exploration was excited to welcome Adriana back to the team to continue her work desgning and testing aerial drone-based imaging payload systems for deep-sea exploration alongside Professor Brennan Phillips of the University of Rhode Island and Catalina Martinez of NOAA Ocean Exploration.

James Fain McGough

NOAA Official Volunteer
Undergraduate, University of Montana

Fain McGough was a 2021 NOAA volunteer with the NOAA Ocean Exploration Science and Technology Division while receiving his undergraduate degree in geography with a GIS certificate at the University of Montana, Missoula. His undergraduate research focused on conservation cartography which included mapping a marine protected area in Indonesia and conducting spatial analysis of rangeland restoration efforts in Montana using avian population data. Fain’s ability to bring data to life through cartography led him to work with the Science and Technology team on their Data Synthesis Product. Fain earned course credit for this project that involved working with a variety of data sets collected by the Okeanos Explorer and creating automated data visualization products in R. Fain is passionate about tropical ecosystems and understanding the human relationship with natural environments through GIS. When he’s not working on a GIS project, he is studying maps to plan his next outdoor adventure.

Adriana Muñoz-Soto

2020 NOAA Educational Partnership Program/Minority Serving Institutions Scholar
Undergraduate, University of Puerto Rico

Adriana Muñoz-Soto was a 2020 NOAA Educational Partnership Program/Minority Serving Institution scholar during her fourth year pursuing her bachelor's in mechanical engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM). Previously, she had worked with the NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies in the design of a LiDAR sensor adapter to fit a DJI M100 drone, and had also participated in the Google Hardware Product Sprint designing a unique plastic enclosure to fit the internal components of Google’s "Artificial-Intelligence-Yourself" Voice Kit. Her work as a graphic designer at the Society for Automotive Engineers, UPRM Chapter, and her undergraduate research in human centered design helped motivate her to pursue graduate studies in mechanical design. During her time with the office, she worked alongside Professor Brennan Phillips of the University of Rhode Island on a research project titled “Design Analysis of an Aerial Drone-based Imaging Payload System for Deep-Sea.” For this project, she designed several versions of a 3D-printed enclosure to fit the components of a Raspberry Pi-based deep-sea camera and lighting system, and remotely participated in offshore field testing.

Jason Gronich

2020 NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Scholar
Undergraduate, California State University, Monterey Bay

Jason Gronich was a 2020 NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Scholar with the OER Science and Technology Division. At the time of his internship, Jason was a senior undergraduate student working on a bachelor’s in marine science with a minor in statistics from California State University, Monterey Bay. His undergraduate research consisted of working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute on a mathematical lipid correction model for stable isotope analysis of the California spiny lobster. His studies led him to explore marine ecology and oceanography, as well as a become a certified American Academy of Underwater Sciences scientific diver and remote unmanned aircraft system drone pilot. During his summer internship, he worked on relating environmental CTD and acoustic data from past NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer cruises to the organisms found within the deep-sea scattering layer.

Jennifer Le

2020 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Jennifer Le was OER's 2020 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow, and worked on various science and technology initiatives including the annual grants program and the primary observations team. Jennifer double majored in environmental systems and economics at the University of California, San Diego, before completing her doctorate in oceanography with a specialization in interdisciplinary environmental research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Under the guidance of Dr. Lisa Levin, Jennifer's graduate research focused on ecosystem services in the deep sea and in natural stormwater treatment systems, and was heavily influenced by both ecology and economics. She made the most of her time as a graduate student by participating in seagoing expeditions (including two dives in the human occupied vehicle Alvin) and attending international policy meetings (such as the International Seabed Authority Session). As a Knauss Fellow, Jennifer was interested in learning more about how science can better address current and emerging management needs.

Phoebe Lease

2020 NOAA College-Funded Internship Program
Undergraduate, Smith College

At the time of her summer internship, Phoebe was a rising senior at Smith College where she studied the intersection of popular culture, economics, and climate change. Phoebe majored in American studies with an economics minor and concentration on climate change. For the two years prior to her time at OER, she was the managing editor for The Sophian, Smith’s student-run newspaper, where she coordinated the editorial activities for a 50+ person staff. As a science communication intern with OER, she worked on updating and producing new website content for the OceanExplorer.NOAA.gov site. She hopes to work in the climate change communication field upon graduation. When she is not at school, she enjoys reading and hiking in the woods of North Carolina.

Ryan Ware

2020 NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Scholar
Undergraduate, Coastal Carolina University

Ryan Ware was a 2020 NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Scholar with the OER Expeditions and Exploration Division. At the time of his internship, Ryan was working towards a bachelor’s in marine science with a minor in biology from Coastal Carolina University. His undergraduate research prior to his time at OER included species abundance studies via camera monitoring, a group study of the density of oyster parasites, and the observation of the effect of environmental factors on bivalve particulate filtration rates. Previous independent research also included the dissection and analysis of shark vertebrae at Texas A&M, Galveston, as part of the OCEANUS Research Experience for Undergraduates program, and the construction and maintenance of aquaculture systems for fish farming research. He plans to pursue graduate studies and aspires to become a field researcher. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, fishing, and SCUBA diving. During his summer internship with OER, Ryan worked with the Expeditions and Exploration Division to study how we explore the deep sea, how we can determine what has already been “explored,” and how we can distribute effort to efficiently and effectively explore in the future.

Akim Mahmud

2019 OER Explorer-in-Training
Post-Graduate, Johns Hopkins University

Akim Mahmud was a 2019 OER Explorer-in-Training. He received his Bachelor of Science in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from the City College of New York with a minor in Economics, and completed his Master of Science in Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University with a focus on coastal and marine geology. He was also in the advanced GIS program at Johns Hopkins University. As an Explorer-in-Training, Akim participated in the Mapping Deepwater Areas off the Southeast U.S. in Support of the Extended Continental Shelf Project expedition, a 24-day long, 24/7 mapping expedition in the eastern Blake Plateau, northeast of the Bahamas. On board NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, he worked as a night watchstander, working alongside mapping watch leads and the senior hydrographic survey technician. His primary responsibilities included acquiring and processing daily Kongsberg EM302 multibeam echosounder bathymetric, backscatter, and water column data; processing Knudsen chirp sub-bottom profiler data; performing routine expandable bathythermographs (XBT) to measure temperature in the water column; and occasionally taking readings of the marine aerosol layer for NASA using an instrument called a sun photometer. For his final project, Akim focused on refining and updating an in-house standard operation procedure.

Alisa Dalpe

2019 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of New Hampshire

Alisa Dalpe was a 2019 OER Explorer-in-Training. Allisa graduated in 2016 from Connecticut College with a B.A. in Physics and minors in Mathematics and Environmental Studies. To supplement her studies, she participated in the study abroad program, SEA Semester (Sea Education Association, Woods Hole), first as an undergraduate student and later returning as a deckhand for the program’s transatlantic trip, sailing from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to Cork, Ireland. She gained further experience interning and collaborating with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center – Division in Keyport, Washington. She is currently an Ocean Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of New Hampshire, where she specializes in autonomous marine vehicles with a specific interest in autonomous decision making, mission planning, and obstacle avoidance for seafloor mapping and scientific data collection applications.

Herbert Leavitt

2019 NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Scholar
Undergraduate, Eckerd College

Herbert Leavitt was a NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Scholar with OER's Science and Technology Division in 2019. At the time of his project, Herbert was a senior completing his Bachelor of Science in Marine Science and Environmental Studies at Eckerd College. His undergraduate research included studies of carbon flux in coastal Louisiana salt marshes, comparisons of bacterial assemblages in Aiptasia as a model for coral, and testing microplastic consumption by marine copepods. His main interest was in research informing conservation and management practices. In the summer of 2019, his project with OER focused on comparing active acoustics (EK60/EK80 data) and remotely operated vehicle video transect data from the Windows to the Deep 2019 expedition. Herbert loves going to sea and sailing, and is an avid SCUBA diver. On land he enjoys the outdoors and playing rugby.

Jahnelle Howe

2019 OER Explorer-in-Training/NOAA EPP Scholar
Graduate, City College of New York

Jahnelle Howe was a 2019 OER Explorer-in-Training. At the time of her experience, she was a Master's student and NOAA-CREST Fellow at The City College of New York, where she studied Earth and atmospheric science. Her inspiration for pursuing a career in environmental science was sparked by volcanic eruptions in her country of birth, Montserrat. The volcanic eruptions from Soufrière Hills spewed toxins such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, which are hazardous to both animals and humans. In addition, environmental issues such as food contamination, pollution, and climate change drove Jahnelle to pursue a career in the environmental sciences. Her current field is coastal resilience, researching how coral bleaching events and community structure relate to remote sensing observation of sea surface state variability.

Katharine Egan

2019 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, University of the Virgin Islands

Katharine Egan was a NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in OER's Science and Technology Division. Katharine received her Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology at the University of Rhode Island (URI), where her undergraduate research focused on salt marsh and macroalgae ecology. At URI, she was awarded the Hollings Scholarship and completed an internship with the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) to analyze coral reef data from the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). She continued this work as a contractor at NCCOS in Beaufort, North Carolina, with Dr. Shay Viehman. She also worked on a project analyzing data of endangered corals and provided field support as a benthic diver for NCRMP. Katharine’s interest in spatial analyses and data science continued to grow, and she applied her new skill set at the University of the Virgin Islands, completing her Master of Science in Marine and Environmental Science with Dr. Tyler Smith. Her thesis research involved predicting the distribution of coral species in mesophotic reef ecosystems along the Puerto Rican shelf. Katharine also completed an internship with NASA, received funding to conduct outreach activities related to marine debris in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and was a Girl Scout troop leader in North Carolina. When she’s not getting excited about data management, she enjoys reading.

Marcel Peliks

2019 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

Marcel Peliks was an OER Explorer-in-Training for the first leg of the Windows to the Deep 2019 expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Following his experience on the Okeanos, Marcel Peliks was in his second year working towards a Master’s degree in Geological Oceanography at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. His thesis was focused on developing multibeam mapping capabilities for the school, as well as conducting preliminary surveys of the Monterey Canyon head. His time aboard the Okeanos Explorer exposed him to a top-tier mapping expedition and provided him with an opportunity to adopt knowledge and skills from leading experts in the field. He is eternally grateful for all of his experiences at sea ranging from acquiring, processing, and analyzing seafloor mapping data, becoming familiar with multi-week at-sea routines, to meeting scientists and crew that will forever remain colleagues and friends.

Pacifica (Kitrea) Takata-Glushkoff

2019 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, Bowdoin College

Kitrea Takata-Glushkoff was a 2019 OER Explorer-in-Training and a student at Bowdoin College, double-majoring in Earth and oceanographic science and Russian. Through her interdisciplinary studies and research internships in physical oceanography, ecology, metamorphic geology, glaciology, and the Explorer-in-Training program, she is preparing for a career in geoscience research. While her early training focused on both geology and oceanography, she cohesively brought the fields together by delving deeper into marine geology through the Explorer-in-Training program. Ultimately, through a process of knowledge co-production, she hopes to contribute to our collective understanding of climate change impacts on the ocean and cryosphere. She also cares deeply about representing a diverse range of people and knowledge within geoscience. Her experience on the Okeanos Explorer was her first long-term vessel expedition and helped clarify her future graduate study research pursuits.

Paola Santiago

2019 NOAA Educational Partnership Program/Minority Serving Institutions Scholar
Undergraduate, University of Puerto Rico

Paola Santiago was an Educational Partnership Program/Minority Serving Institutions Scholar with the OER Expeditions and Exploration Division in 2019. At the time, Paola was an undergraduate from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus, majoring in biology. She worked with multibeam and remotely operated vehicle data of the southeast Atlantic region. As a rising junior at the time of her experience, her past research experiences varied from studying river bioindicators to analyzing bee patterns. In 2018, she helped form the Marine Environmental Society in Puerto Rico, where she organized and volunteered for numerous outreach events to create awareness of current threats to our ocean. She also volunteered as a certified diver on coral reef farms as part of the society’s coral restoration efforts on the island. After seeing the alarming status of the coral reefs, she engaged in an ongoing two-part investigation of the epigenetics of corals. All these experiences drove her to pursue a career path in oceanography. Aside from academics, she loves going to the beach, doing graphic design, and playing instruments.

Sophie Alpert

2018 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, College of Charleston

Sophie Alpert received her B.S. in Geology and Environmental Geosciences, focusing on marine and coastal geology, from the College of Charleston, South Carolina in May 2018. After graduating, she was lucky enough to join the Explorer-in-Training program as an offshore mapping intern on the Okeanos Explorer during the 2018 Mapping Deepwater Areas off the Southeast U.S. in Support of the Extended Continental Shelf expedition. Her duties onboard included cleaning and editing collected multibeam and sub-bottom raw data. These data were processed using various softwares including Qimera, Fledermaus, ArcMap, and SEGyJp2. With these data, Sophie was able to create usable surfaces for scientific analysis. This trip was an exploratory mapping expedition from Davisville, Rhode Island, to San Juan, Puerto Rico. For most of the mapping portions of the trip, the ship was located in areas east of the Blake Plateau and northeast of the Bahamas. Since her time as an Explorer-in-Training, Sophie has worked for the Atlantic Hydrographic Branch of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey as a hydrographic data technician. She was accepted into the Oceanography Graduate Program at the University of New Hampshire to pursue a master's degree starting in Fall 2020.

Derek Bolser

2018 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of Texas at Austin

Derek Bolser was a 2018 Explorer-in-Training, assisting with efforts to describe methane seeps and collect bathymetric data in the northern Gulf of Mexico and helping to calibrate the Okeanos Explorer’s echosounders. Shortly after his time as an Explorer-in-Training, Derek was able to use the knowledge he gained about operating multibeam echosounders and processing bathymetric data to map a previously undescribed coral reef system in the Central American Caribbean, which is now a candidate for protected area designation. Derek is a Harrington Doctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin in the Marine Science Program. In his dissertation research, he is identifying the drivers of variation in fish distribution, abundance, and community size structure using scientific echosounders and underwater video. He is particularly interested in interactions between fishes and industrial activities in the ocean, so does much of his research around petroleum platforms and ship channels in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gina Selig

2018 NOAA Educational Partnership Program Scholar
Undergraduate, University of Hawaii at Hilo

Gina Selig, at the time a rising junior at the University of Hawaii at Hilo (UHH), was a class of 2018 NOAA Education Partnership Program (EPP) Scholar. Gina was a marine science major and chemistry minor with certificates in Data Science and the Marine Option Program. She was an authorized scientific diver for UHH and completed monthly assessments of marine organisms at dive sites on the windward and leeward sides of the Big Island of Hawaii. During the Spring of 2017, she was accepted into the National Science Foundation Scholarship for STEM program (S-STEM) at UHH. She now works as the S-STEM Assistant where she leads an Introduction to Science seminar for incoming students in the program. From the Spring of 2017 to 2018, Gina worked as a year-long intern at the Marine Mammal Center: Ke Kai Ola. As an intern, she assisted with the development of a variety of programs related to Ke Kai Ola and ocean conservation, which included helping to enrich Nā Kōkua o ke Kai, a middle school marine science curriculum. Gina is fascinated with ocean exploration and marine biology, especially species in the deep sea such as corals. Due to her interests in deep-sea biology and exploration technology, she was excited to be an EPP Scholar with OER. For nine weeks of the summer, she worked with her mentors to investigate CAPSTONE campaign Pacific deep-sea discoveries made from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer.

James Murphy

2018 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, University of Hawaii at Manoa

James Murphy was a 2018 NOAA Sea Grant John A. Knauss Fellow with the OER Science and Technology Division. He received his Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. As an undergraduate Minorities Access to Research Careers (MARC) scholar, he conducted award-winning, novel research analyzing shifts in coral metabolism under hypoxia at Kewalo Marine Laboratory. His graduate research under Dr. Robert Richmond involved the development and refinement of molecular biomarkers for detecting oxidative stress in corals and examination of coral reproduction and settlement behaviors. His cultural background as a Native Hawaiian student studying in Hawaii led to him being heavily involved in STEM education and outreach events catered to the Native Hawaiian community throughout the Main Hawaiian Islands and facilitated the integration of Hawaiian cultural protocols into his field research methodology. He is a founding member of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) at the University of Hawaii ‘Ilima Chapter, has worked closely with the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries during their annual Humpback Whale Sanctuary Ocean Counts, and has been heavily involved in bringing communities on the west side of Oahu to the Pearl Harbor Kalaeloa Wildlife Refuge to work alongside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on restoration and habitat monitoring efforts.

Prian Vidal

2018 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, Florida A&M University

Prian Vidal was a 2018 Explorer-in-Training on the Mapping Deepwater Areas Southeast of Bermuda expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. The experience provided Prian with the opportunity to learn how to work with large sets of bathymetric data collected daily over the course of the 24-day expedition and about the day-to-day operations of maintaining a research vessel at sea. During his Explorer-in-Training experience, Prian was a second-year master’s student in the NOAA Center for Coastal and Marine Ecosystems (CCME) at Florida A&M University (FAMU). As a CCME scholar, he applied an interdisciplinary approach to address issues confronting marine and coastal communities. Nutrient enrichment, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, has been identified as one of the leading causes of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia in the coastal waters. Prian studied nitrogen transformations occurring in shellfish aquaculture operations. Shellfish are filter feeders and as they extract particles from the water column, they remove nitrogen and other nutrients from the system. His master’s thesis was focused on the impact, if any, of oyster aquaculture operations on eutrophication off the coast of Panacea, Florida.

Ryan Marr

2018 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, East Carolina University

Ryan Marr was a 2018 Explorer-In-Training, participating in the Mapping Deepwater Areas Southeast of Bermuda expedition. He was a master's candidate with the Maritime History Program at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Having grown up in New Jersey, he was fortunate to be surrounded by numerous Revolutionary War sites and as a result, historical preservation became a lifelong passion for Ryan. His area of concentration was ethnoarchaeology, working on a thesis discussing indigenous vessel design and construction techniques in the Tanga Region of Tanzania. As a maritime archaeologist, he has utilized magnetometers, sidescan sonars, and sea-bottom profiling equipment in the search for potential shipwreck sites or other underwater anomalies.

Sally Jarmusz

2018 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, Maine Maritime Academy

Sally Jarmusz was a 2018 OER Explorer-in-Training on board NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer for the Mapping Deepwater Areas Southeast of Bermuda expedition, working with and learning from the extremely talented science team, ship’s crew, and fellow interns. While on-board, she assisted in conducting seafloor mapping in an area southeast of Bermuda. At the time, she was in a five-year program studying for a B.S. in Marine Science and an Associate’s in Small Vessel Operations with a minor in Sail Training. As part of her program, she worked on an independent research project using sidescan sonar to create a map depicting the sedimentary environments of the local harbor at Maine Maritime Academy. Onboard the Okeanos Explorer, Sally honed her skills in collecting and interpreting sonar imagery. Her fascination in seafloor mapping grew as a Student Opportunity Participant on board Research Vessel Falkor during expeditions to the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in the South Pacific Ocean. Through these experiences, Sally came to truly appreciate not only the vastness of the open ocean, but how much of what lies beneath it has yet to be explored.

Savannah Goode

2018 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, Florida State University

Savannah Goode was a 2018 OER Explorer-in-Training on board NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer for the Mapping Deepwater Areas Southeast of Bermuda expedition. She received her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Florida State University (FSU), where she spent much of her time working with Dr. Amy Baco-Taylor studying deep-sea invertebrates. While working in Dr. Baco-Taylor’s lab, she completed two independent projects: 1) examining spatial trends in macrofaunal community structure of the DeSoto Canyon in the Gulf of Mexico and 2) identifying and investigating factors controlling community biodiversity on Mokumanamana in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Savannah also had the amazing opportunity to be a student scientist aboard the Research Vessel Ka’imikai-O-Kanaloa (KOK), assessing the recovery of deep-sea coral communities on seamounts from past trawling events. While on the KOK, she completed five submersible dives and assisted pilots with sample identification and collection. She had previous experience identifying many of the coral and sponge species observed during dives from autonomous underwater vehile (AUV) images, but had never seen these species live and in-person before. After the completion of this cruise, Savannah pursued a Ph.D. in biological oceanography with a focus on deep-sea coral communities. She is specifically interested in deep-sea coral because there are still many gaps in our knowledge of the environmental drivers of dispersal and diversity of these coral communities. As deep-sea communities come under increasing pressures such as from trawling and mineral mining, our understanding of these environmental drivers can be crucial to developing successful management strategies to conserve and/or recover these species. Savannah hopes to not only contribute to our overall understanding of deep-sea coral communities, but also to identify actions that can be taken to protect these communities.

Treyson Gillespie

2018 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, College of Charleston

Treyson Gillespie was a 2018 OER Explorer-in-Training. At the time of his experience, he was in the final year of his undergraduate degree in geology and environmental geosciences with a concentration in Coastal Geology and Ocean Mapping at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. He joined the Explorer-in-Training program as an on-shore mapping intern at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center command center at the University of New Hampshire. His duties included pulling data uploaded from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer from servers throughout the day, including multibeam, split-beam, and sub-bottom raw data, and processing that data using various software. For his final project on the expedition, he created two video fly-throughs of the processed data. One video was a general overview of several survey areas, while the second was of an interesting and unidentified feature found on the seafloor. While mapping, the survey teams on shore and onboard the vessel noticed a huge zig-zag feature, with several almost right angle turns in the backscatter. The team immediately sent screenshots of it to several different scientists and are working on figuring out what it is. It was definitely one of the neatest finds on this survey.

Adrienne Copeland

2017 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Adrienne Copeland was OER's 2017 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. She received a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Certificate in mathematical biology from Washington State University and a Ph.D. in zoology with a specialization in marine biology from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her undergraduate and graduate research varied from topics ranging from single-celled parasite genetics to mammalian behavior, but all of her diverse research projects employed mathematical tools to understand biological principles. This interdisciplinary approach continued in her Ph.D. research with Dr. Whitlow Au. Her current interest focuses on using active and passive acoustics to explore the water column. She led the active acoustic (Simrad EK60) field program for NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center from 2013 - 2017 and has been on over 20 seagoing expeditions, six on which she served as chief scientist, including a 2014 research cruise on Schmidt Ocean Institute's Research Vessel Falkor.

Brandon O'Brien

2017 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of New Hampshire

Elizabeth 'Claudia' Thompson

2017 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, Community College of American Samoa

Nikola Rodriguez

2017 NOAA Educational Partnership Program Scholar
Undergraduate, University of Hawaii at Hilo

Nikola Rodriguez joined OER as a 2017 NOAA Educational Partnership Program (EPP) Scholar, working on mapping and video analysis. At the time, she was an undergraduate at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, where she was pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science with a minor in chemistry, a Marine Option Program (MOP) Certificate, and a Hawaiian Culture Certificate. As a turtle responder with the Marine Fisheries department on the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle response team, Nikola helped stranded, sick, and injured sea turtles. She also assisted with educating the community on the importance of protecting the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. Her main interests are in coral reef health and underwater ecological surveying. Nikola is an AAUS scientific diver for the University of Hawaiʻi and completed the two-week Quantitative Underwater Ecological Surveying Techniques (QUEST) field course at Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaiʻi. QUEST provides science divers with extensive training in survey techniques used by agencies worldwide. Her future plans are to live in Hawaiʻi and work for NOAA as a science diver conducting benthic health research at the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Nikola enjoys freediving, surfing, and hiking into the hard-to-reach places around Hawaiʻi.

Sarah Rosenthal

2017 OER Explorer-in-Training
Hawaii Pacific University

Amanda Netburn

2016 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Amanda Netburn joined OER as an Executive Sea Grant Knauss Fellow in 2016. Representing California Sea Grant, Amanda holds a Master of Science in marine biodiversity and conservation and a Ph.D. in biological oceanography, both from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She has an enduring passion for the ocean and has previously researched sustainable seafood at a non-governmental organization, taught SCUBA, captained small boats, and cultivated finfish for a sustainable aquaculture start-up. She appreciates the importance of using science to inform the management and conservation of marine resources, and her Ph.D. research focused on understanding how a very abundant community of deep-sea fishes are impacted by natural and human-induced environmental variability. As a Knauss fellow, Amanda was excited to assist with OER’s work on deep pelagic exploration and to learn a little something about the seafloor as well.

Briana Grenier

2016 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, University of Rhode Island

Caitlin Ruby

2016 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, Mississippi State University

Caitlin's father was an oceanographer and instilled in her his love for everything water related. She always knew she would someday work in the ocean sciences, and has had positions with the Naval Oceanographic Office, NASA's DEVELOP Program, the Naval Research Lab, and NOAA. She gained her bachelor's degree at the University of Southern Mississippi and her master's degree at Mississippi State University. Her graduate research focused on improving the geospatial visualization of OER's ROV video data. Her biggest accomplishment thus far has been mapping a transect of the Mariana Trench while onboard the Okeanos Explorer.

Her personal pastimes include kiteboarding, sailing, scuba diving, trail running, hiking, climbing, snowboarding, and travelling, and she recently spent a year backpacking throughout Asia and Oceania. She currently works for NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) through the University of Colorado as OER's Video and Geospatial Data Manager. She is thrilled to work with such a wonderful group of data scientists, researchers, and explorers, and always looks forward to watching Deep Discoverer's live video from the deep!

Caroline Cooper

2016 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, College of Charleston

Chloe Baskin-Arboleda

2016 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, Rutgers University

Liana Roberson

2016 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Meagan Putts

2016 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, Hawaii Pacific University

Meagan was an OER Explorer-in-Training in 2016. Her time on the Okeanos Explorer provided a deeper understanding of bathymetry data used to analyze the topography of deep-sea lava flows and other features she was studying for her thesis research. The Explorer-in-Training program gave her hands-on experience running and processing data collected from deep-water mapping systems, inclduing Kongsberg EM302 multibeam sonar, EK60 split-beam fisheries sonars, and Knudsen 3260 chirp sub-bottom profiler sonar. The skills she learned and connections she made during this internship helped open many career doors, including the successful publication of her research and the opportunity to sail as a Science Lead during the Deep-sea Symphony 2017: Exploring the Musicians Seamounts expedition and the Deep Connections 2019: Exploring Atlantic Canyons and Seamounts of the United States and Canada expedition.

Megan is a research associate at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH), focusing on deep-sea coral and sponge communities. For her work, she collaborates with an experienced team of scientists specializing in managing deep-sea data sets and imagery analysis. This team most notably assembled OER's Benthic Animal Guide and completed the video analysis from the 2015-2017 CAPSTONE expeditions. Meagan is also the archivist for the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory archive and one of the team members that operates the University of Hawaii's remotely operated vehicle, Lu‘ukai.

Meagan completed her bachelor's in marine science and visual arts at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, followed by three years working as a taxonomist for an environmental consultating company. She then went on to pursued her M.S. in marine science at Hawai‘i Pacific University (HPU). Her thesis research at HPU focused on the development of deep-sea coral communities by comparing coral assemblages of varying ages growing on Hawaiian lava flows from the volcano Mauna Loa. Hawaii is one of the few places in the world where such a study can take place as the lava flows allow us to examine how the community changes across time scales longer than would be normally possible within a human lifetime.

Melissa Price

2016 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, East Carolina University

Melissa R. Price is an underwater archaeologist for the Florida Department of State. She specializes in Southeastern Archaic submerged archaeological sites, Spanish Colonial shipwrecks, and the effects of treasure hunting on historic shipwrecks. She is a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, and Diving Safety Officer. She earned her doctorate at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where her dissertation research traced the inundation of an 8,000-year-old archaeological site in the Gulf of Mexico using oyster shells as a marker for sea level rise. Her research investigated how marine transgression affects prehistoric archaeological sites, especially those that contain delicate organic material like wood and textiles.

In March 2016, Melissa served as a mapping intern onboard the Okeanos Explorer as it traversed the Pacific Ocean between Kwajalein, Wake Island, and Guam, with an emphasis on exploration within the Wake Island Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. During the internship, she created a poster that discussed sub-bottom profiling and the technology used to capture sediment profiles. She examined profiles of selected seamounts and abyssal hills covered with over 100 meters of sediment.

Shelby Bowden

2016 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, College of Charleston

Abigail Casavant

2015 OER Explorer-in-Training
Graduate, University of Rhode Island

Abigail Casavant sailed on the Okeanos Explorer as an Explorer-in-Training in 2015. At the time, she was a master's candidate at the University of Rhode Island (URI) in history and underwater archaeology, where she also earned her graduate certificate in GIS and remote sensing in 2014. She previously earned her bachelor's in history, anthropology, and underwater archaeology at URI in 2012. Her research interests include Irish immigrant shipwrecks of the 19th century, 19th century Ottoman naval history and archaeology in Israel, and underwater archaeological applications of GIS and remote sensing. She is an avid recreational and scientific diver, and especially enjoys diving the cold, murky waters of Rhode Island.

Jonathan Cotugno

2015 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, University of Florida

Jonathan Cotugno was an OER Explorer-in-Training in 2015. He received his Bachelor's of Science from the Geomatics Program at the University of Florida. He was highly interested in all types of geospatial mapping, especially aerial photogrammetric and hydrographic sonar mapping. He hopes to continue his research using remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) for aerial mapping in academia or in industry. In his spare time, Jonathan enjoys jamming to music, reading, and studying maps.

Kate von Krusenstiern

2015 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, Western Washington University

Kate von Krusenstiern was a 2015 OER Explorer-in-Training on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in physical geography, geographic information systems (GIS), and geology. Her experience on the Okeanos was her first time at sea and her first time using and processing multibeam bathymetry data. She is interested in continuing her studies researching applications of GIS to ocean science and ocean exploration. In the meantime, Kate hopes to continue working at sea, learning more about ocean mapping, and participating in cruises.

Neah Baechler

2015 OER Explorer-in-Training
Undergraduate, College of Charleston

Neah Baechler was a 2015 OER Explorer-in-Training and has been mapping aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer ever since. Neah graduated with a Bachelor of Science in geology from the College of Charleston. During her time there, she was a Benthic Acoustic Mapping and Sonar (BEAMS) program student who had the opportunity to sail on multiple research expeditions with NOAA, the University of Washington, and with hydrographic firms in the private sector.

Now the owner and operator of Abyss Hydrographic Mapping, Neah works with a variety of science-focused exploration vessels worldwide to grow the collective understanding of oceanographic processes and expand existing bathymetric maps. Discovery-driven mapping like that done aboard the Okeanos Explorer is not only Neah’s bread and butter, it’s her reason for getting up in the morning. She’s passionate about the environment and believes that by studying the ocean, we can broaden and deepen our understanding of the planet as a whole. Supporting the Okeanos Explorer’s mission, particularly on remotely operated vehicle (ROV) cruises when a bathymetric map collected and processed overnight can lead to incredible discoveries during an ROV dive the next day, is truly exhilarating for Neah.

Megan Cromwell

2014 OER Data Management Intern
Undergraduate, University of Southern Mississippi

Megan joined OER in 2014 as a Northern Gulf Institute intern with the OER Data Management Team located at the Stennis Space Center, MS. At the time, she was an undergraduate at the University of Southern Mississippi pursuing a Bachelor of Science in marine science with a minor in geography, and a Certificate in Geographical Information Systems Technology. During her internship, Megan developed and implemented a campaign to “reach back” to Principal Investigators funded under OER’s early competitive proposal process (2001-2006). This campaign was successful in recovering data collections and associated journal publications from more than 115 cruises, and for ensuring long term preservation and public access to these important collections. This campaign is still operating today, and most recently recovered data from the Sustainable Seas Expedition, a multiyear project of underwater exploration and discovery of the marine world with special emphasis on the National Marine Sanctuaries of the United States led by Dr. Sylvia Earle.

Megan is currently a Research Program Manager with the OER Data Management Team, and is responsible for the end-to-end management of data from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. She is a graduate student at Mississippi State University where her research interests include deep sea carnivorous sponges, video data management, and machine learning. Megan is a competitive sailor, which was the starting place for her love for the sea and is a hobby she pursues with passion.

Rebekah Rodriguez

2014 OER Explorer-in-Training
MD Sea Grant

Tomer Ketter

2014 GEBCO
Undergraduate, University of New Hampshire

Tomer Ketter was a Nippon Foundation GEBCO scholar at the University of New Hampshire's Ocean Mapping program from 2013-2014. Following a circumnavigation of Kodiak Island on board NOAA Ship Fairweather in the summer of 2014, his project with OER focused on evaluating the new seep detection tool for multibeam watercolumn backscatter data using EM302 data from several Okeanos Explorer expeditions. Following his internship with OER, Tomer was appointed as Hydrographer of the National Oceanographic Institute of Israel and continued sailing and mapping on various expeditions aboard Research Vessel (R/V) Bat-Galim, R/V Falkor, Deep Submersible Support Vessel Pressure Drop, and more.

Adam Boyette

2013 OER Data Management Intern
Graduate, University of Southern Mississippi

Adam Boyette joined OER in 2013 as an intern with the OER Data Management Team through the Northern Gulf Institute Cooperative Institute located at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. At the time, Adam was pursuing a doctoral degree in biological oceanography at the University of Southern Mississippi. His dissertation focused on microplankton community dynamics in the Gulf of Mexico and his work has helped local marine resources agencies address harmful algal blooms in regional waters. During his internship, Adam served as the scientific coordinator and liaison to the Stennis Exploration Command Center (ECC), where he also assisted with shoreside telepresence activities and participated in expeditions as a shoreside scientist. His most memorable experience was sharing the excitement of discovery with other scientists as they discovered an underwater asphalt volcano, or "tar lily," during a dive on a sonar anomaly of a suspected shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to ECC coordination, Adam ensured that ocean exploration data collections were quality controlled and publicly available.

Adam was named a Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative scholar in 2017, served as chief scientist on a research cruise examining the impacts river diversions have on the physical and biogeochemical structure of shelf ecosystems. Adam is now working as an oceanographer with the Naval Oceanographic Office at Stennis Space Center. For Adam, OER provided unparalleled opportunities for exploration and "real world" scientific collaboration: it is a place where creativity meets discovery. In his spare time, Adam enjoys backpacking adventures with his dogs, bluegrass music, and cooking.

Daniela Vitarelli

2012 Ocean Explorer Intern
Graduate, New Mexico State University

Daniela Vitarelli joined OER as a 2012 Ocean Explorer Intern during her senior year in high school, inspiring her to continue pursuing a path in research. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Science in geoscience and her Geographic Information System (GIS) Certification from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. During her time at Fort Lewis, she completed an undergraduate thesis focused on partitioning fault slip rate along a portion of the northern Rio Grande Rift. Her research eventually lead her to pursue a Masters of Science in volcanology at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico where she continues to work on evaluating minimum eruptive volume and explosion energy of Kilbourne Hole, a nearby maar volcano. Her main interests include physical volcanology and focusing on how water interaction contributes to changes in eruptive behavior and style. She hopes to continue her research in the future and contribute to the understanding of magma-water interactions.

Kelley Suhre

OER Explorer-in-Training Program
Graduate, University of Southampton

Kelley has been with OER since 2004. She has served several roles over the last 16 years, and is currently the Deputy Chief of OER’s Explorations and Expeditions Division. She recently completed a 1.5 year intensive leadership development and training program that included conducting details in multiple leadership positions across NOAA. She has more than a decade of experience supporting program management activities and conducting ocean science expeditions to explore the deep ocean around the globe. She is an expert in community-driven and telepresence-enabled ocean exploration, and has a proven ability to develop partnerships, work effectively across organizations, and engage stakeholders with industry and government. She has a Bachelor’s in Conservation Studies from New Century College at George Mason University, and a Master’s in Maritime Archaeology from the University of Southampton.

Kelley joined OER as a volunteer Maritime Archaeology Program intern in 2004. She was an undergraduate student at George Mason University at the time, pursuing a minor in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and interested in going to graduate school to study Maritime Archaeology. During her internship, she provided GIS support to OER by creating maps from NOAA databases containing actual and potential underwater cultural heritage (UCH) resources on a state-by-state basis. These maps were used to aid in the creation of Memorandum of Understandings (MOU) between the NOAA and State governments to share information about UCH in their waters. Following completion of her internship and undergraduate degree, she joined OER full-time as a Maritime Archaeological Program Assistant, and worked her way up through several positions. In 2007 she left and obtained a Masters in Maritime Archaeology from the University of Southampton. Kelley returned to OER in 2009 and sailed on her first NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer cruise as a Mapping Intern to conduct seafloor multibeam mapping offshore the main island of Hawaii. During the cruise, she learned to acquire, edit and process multibeam sonar data and created GIS products and fly-through sonar animations. She has continued to support OER Explorations and Expeditions ever since – serving several roles including as an Operations Coordinator, Senior Expedition Manager, and Operations Team Lead.

Christine Fletcher

2008 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, University of Rhode Island

Christine Fletcher was OER’s 2008 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and environmental studies from Williams College and her master’s degree in marine affairs from the University of Rhode Island (URI). While there, she was co-president of the URI chapter of The Coastal Society (TCS) and worked for the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. She spent several months as a TCS fellow in NOAA’s Office of Habitat Protection in Silver Spring, Maryland, before beginning her Knauss fellowship with OER. She stayed on an additional year beyond her fellowship as a contractor before moving to a position with NOAA’s Office of Communications, where she started just in time for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Later, she spent 18 months as a NOAA detailee to the National Ocean Council Office within the Council on Environmental Quality, a unit of the Executive Office of the President. Spending a month on a ship in the Arctic for OER as part of the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) expedition was a highlight of her ocean adventures, and the small sailboat crafted out of baleen that she purchased from an Alaska native shop upon its end remains one of her most beloved belongings. She tries to take as many vacations as she can in places she can SCUBA dive.

Emily McDonald

2008 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, University of South Carolina

Emily was thrilled to join the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research as an Executive Knauss Sea Grant Fellow in 2008. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science and a Masters in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of South Carolina. She worked in OER until 2012 supporting the commissioning and launch of the Okeanos Explorer, Lophelia II, Mid-Atlantic Canyons and various other expeditions. In 2012 she began working for the National Science Foundation in their Office of Integrative Activities supporting their Innovations-Corps and Major Research Instrumentation Programs before moving to California in 2014 and working for the University of California Research Programs Initiative. Serving as a Field Operations Specialist for OER and supporting web coverage of OER's Expeditions helped Emily discover a love and talent for photography, videography and public communications. While in California, a chance meeting on a mountain bike trail led Emily to an opportunity to pivot in her career and embracing working on public communications full-time, as she currently is the Communications and Marketing Manager for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, a non-profit that focuses on youth development through mountain biking activities.

Nicole Rankin

2007 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, University of West Florida

Nicole Rankin was a 2007 NOAA Sea Grant Knauss Fellow with the Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. During this fellowship, she was a field expeditions coordinator responsible for coordinating multidisciplinary expeditions to explore ocean ecosystems, including hydrothermal vents, hydrocarbon seeps, and coral reefs. Nicole earned her Master of Science in Biology from the University of West Florida in 2007, culminating in her thesis, “The Artificial Reef Effect of World War II Era Shipwrecks in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.” Her researched involved the examination of the community structure of fishes associated with deepwater shipwrecks using a remotely operated vehicle and fish traps.

Following the Knauss Fellowship with OER, Nicole began her career as a fish biologist at the Warm Springs Fish Technology Center in Georgia where she managed the National Fish Strain Registry and performed age and growth research on threatened and endangered freshwater mussels. In August 2011, she took a position as a coastal ecologist with the Refuge Inventory and Monitoring Program in South Carolina. She coordinated a marsh elevation monitoring project which covered 18 refuges within the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative. Currently, Nicole works as a fish and wildlife biologist in the Division of Conservation and Classification with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Atlanta Regional Office. She is part of the National Species Assessment Team and works with state field offices to conduct status reviews of at-risk species to determine if they warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Tim Birdsong

NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
Graduate, Louisiana State University

Timothy Birdsong was a 2005 NOAA Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow with OER. Timothy completed a M.S. in Fisheries and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University where he was a graduate research assistant with the Louisiana USGS Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and a NASA Geographic Information Science and Technology Fellow. He also served as Louisiana Sea Grant’s graduate student representative providing input into the Final Report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy titled “An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century.” Timothy’s graduate research focused on characterization of Essential Fish Habitat for recreationally and commercially important finfishes in the northern Gulf of Mexico. During his fellowship with OER, Timothy coordinated the development of fish habitat mapping products through the Southeastern United States Deep Sea Corals Initiative, a multi-agency program that informed protection of approximately 60,000 square kilometers of Essential Fish Habitat in the South Atlantic Bight. Timothy also served as Data Management Coordinator for OER’s 2005 Life on the Edge Expedition, which located, mapped, and surveyed habitat-forming, deep-water coral reefs from Cape Lookout, North Carolina to southeastern Florida using the Johnson Sea Link submersible.

Since 2008, Timothy has served as Chief of Habitat Conservation for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), a role in which he leads efforts to conserve aquatic species and habitats, emphasizing landscape-scale approaches to the restoration and preservation of watersheds and riverscapes. Tim has provided leadership for collaborative conservation initiatives such as the Native Fish Conservation Areas Network, Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership, and Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative. He has coauthored more than 50 scientific and technical publications, including serving as editor and coauthor of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) book “Multispecies and Watershed Approaches to Freshwater Fish Conservation” (2019), and has given over 140 presentations to a variety of audiences to profile effective conservation strategies and build broad-based support for conservation of fisheries resources. In recognition of his contributions to the conservation of fisheries resources, Tim was a recipient of the National Fish Habitat Award (2014) jointly presented by the American Fisheries Society (AFS) Fish Habitat Section and National Fish Habitat Partnership, TPWD Conservation Award (2015), James A. Henshall Warmwater Fisheries Award (2016) from Fly Fishers International, Sport Fish Restoration Outstanding Project Award (2016, 2020) from AFS, and TPWD Outstanding Team Award (2019), and he was twice named Outstanding Fisheries Worker of the Year by the Texas Chapter AFS (2013, 2020). In addition to completing a M.S. degree at Louisiana State University, Tim holds a B.S. in Biology from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Texas, completed the Texas Governor’s Center Senior Management Program, and was recently selected as a fellow of the National Conservation Leadership Institute.

Kelley Suhre

Maritime Archaeology Program
Undergraduate, George Mason University

Kelley has been with OER since 2004. She has served several roles over the last 16 years, and is currently the Deputy Chief of OER’s Explorations and Expeditions Division. She recently completed a 1.5 year intensive leadership development and training program that included conducting details in multiple leadership positions across NOAA. She has more than a decade of experience supporting program management activities and conducting ocean science expeditions to explore the deep ocean around the globe. She is an expert in community-driven and telepresence-enabled ocean exploration, and has a proven ability to develop partnerships, work effectively across organizations, and engage stakeholders with industry and government. She has a Bachelor’s in Conservation Studies from New Century College at George Mason University, and a Master’s in Maritime Archaeology from the University of Southampton.

Kelley joined OER as a volunteer Maritime Archaeology Program intern in 2004. She was an undergraduate student at George Mason University at the time, pursuing a minor in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and interested in going to graduate school to study Maritime Archaeology. During her internship, she provided GIS support to OER by creating maps from NOAA databases containing actual and potential underwater cultural heritage (UCH) resources on a state-by-state basis. These maps were used to aid in the creation of Memorandum of Understandings (MOU) between the NOAA and State governments to share information about UCH in their waters. Following completion of her internship and undergraduate degree, she joined OER full-time as a Maritime Archaeological Program Assistant, and worked her way up through several positions. In 2007 she left and obtained a Masters in Maritime Archaeology from the University of Southampton. Kelley returned to OER in 2009 and sailed on her first NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer cruise as a Mapping Intern to conduct seafloor multibeam mapping offshore the main island of Hawaii. During the cruise, she learned to acquire, edit and process multibeam sonar data and created GIS products and fly-through sonar animations. She has continued to support OER Explorations and Expeditions ever since – serving several roles including as an Operations Coordinator, Senior Expedition Manager, and Operations Team Lead.

Kristin Heron

NOAA ECO Program
Graduate, Duke University

Kristin joined the team at NOAA in 2002, shortly after completing her degree in Environmental Science and Policy at Duke University. Eager to explore the world, the ocean and contribute in a meaningful way, this internship did not disappoint. Her work began in the Special Projects Office at NOS and then shifted to the Office of Ocean Exploration. Her primary work was to develop and manage a database for the collection of information from research cruises. It also involved developing meaningful ways of sharing this data. The role was collaborative, taking her to many places around the country to meet with stakeholders, as well as participate in several as-sea expeditions. One of her most memorable moments was visiting the largely uninhabited Midway Island and seeing the beach littered with monk seals.

After three years at NOAA, life took Kristin to the tropical NE coast of Australia where she continued with some work in the management of marine science data. She also entered the field of radio broadcasting and has since jumped into the world of full-time parenting with three little girls now who love the ocean almost as much as she does!