Meet Our Team

  • Melissa Cronin, PhD

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER

    Melissa is a marine fisheries ecologist and conservation scientist. She has worked to increase equity and inclusion in STEM for over four years, and co-founded the Building a Better Fieldwork Future Program at University of California, Santa Cruz. She is currently a Smith Conservation Research Fellow in the Coasts and Commons Co-Lab at Duke University.

  • Erika Zavaleta, PhD

    CHIEF STRATEGIST, CO-FOUNDER

    Erika is a professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She and her research group study the drivers and consequences of changing biological diversity and the role of ecology in guiding effective conservation practice. She directs the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program and the CAMINO (Center to Advance Mentored, Inquiry-based Opportunities) at UCSC.

  • Allison Payne

    DIRECTOR OF FACILITATION

    Allison is a FieldFutures facilitator and PhD student in the Beltran Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she studies elephant seals. She is passionate about safe fieldwork for all scientists and has facilitated and supervised dozens of workshops for lab groups, agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

  • Mandy Frazier

    CERTIFIED TRAINER

    Mandy is a PhD Candidate at the University of California, Davis in the Graduate Group in Ecology. Mandy's research focuses on the physiology, behavior, and ecology of young Antarctic fishes to better understand their adaptive capacity to anthropogenic stressors. Mandy is dedicated to teaching and mentoring following an activist pedagogy that centers social justice for all groups of people.

  • Michele Allen

    ACCOUNTANT AND BOOKKEEPER

ADVISORY BOARD

  • Roxanne Beltran, PhD

    Assistant Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

    UC Santa Cruz

    www.roxannebeltran.weebly.com

  • Justin Cummings, PhD

    Founding Director, Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program @ UCSC

    Co-Founder and Associate Director of the UCSC CITRIS Initiative

    Santa Cruz County Supervisor

  • Sophia Melas

    VP Sales, APEXX Global

  • Abraham Borker, PhD

    Assistant Teaching Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

    UC Santa Cruz

    Program Director, Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program @ UCSC