The Pacific’s reef systems have lost nearly half their living coral cover in my lifetime. I have spent the last decade studying why — and, more urgently, what it takes to bring them back. I am writing to apply for the position of Program Lead for NOAA’s Pacific Coral Reef Restoration Initiative.
I completed my PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography under Dr. Nancy Knowlton, where my dissertation on thermal-tolerance assisted gene flow in Acropora populations across the Line Islands laid the groundwork for several of the intervention protocols now used in the Papahānaumokuākea restoration corridor. In the eight years since, I have built a field research program spanning American Sāmoa, Palmyra Atoll, and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, focused on scaling reef recovery from the square-meter experimental plot to the hectare-scale management unit.
What I would bring to the role. My work has always sat at the intersection of rigorous science and operational delivery. I have led three international multi-institution expeditions — most recently the 2023 Phoenix Islands Resilience Survey, coordinating sixteen researchers across four nations and a USD 2.4M budget — and I have published twelve peer-reviewed papers in journals including Nature Climate Change, Coral Reefs, and PNAS. Just as importantly, I have spent years working alongside NOAA Fisheries staff, indigenous co-management councils, and Pacific Island resource agencies, and I understand that restoration outcomes at scale are determined as much by trust and governance as by larval biology.
I see three priorities for the program over the next five years: integrating heat-resilient propagation pipelines across the Pacific jurisdictions, standardizing monitoring so recovery can be measured on policy-relevant timescales, and ensuring Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities lead stewardship where their waters are concerned. I would be honored to carry that work forward under NOAA’s mandate.
A current CV, full publication list, and references from Dr. Knowlton (Scripps), Dr. Ruth Gates Fellowship coordinator Dr. Crawford Drury (HIMB), and Dr. Tupou Vaipulu (USP) are enclosed. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how my experience aligns with the Initiative’s goals, and I thank you sincerely for your consideration.