
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
