I am a senior-level marine scientist with three decades of experience in scientific research, teaching,
and mentoring students. My work includes over climate science, plastics in the marine environment,
paleoceanography, and impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. As a professor, I won prestigious
awards for outstanding teaching and research. During my tenure, I was awarded over $1.5 M from
30 different grants. My work involves producing and using the best science, is inspired by
environmental sustainability, and is grounded in social justice and equity. I focus on solutions, not
simply describing the problem.
My primary research interests include paleoclimatology, or the history of past climate changes, plastics in
the marine environment, and impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. The reconstruction of past ocean
temperature is an essential component in understanding the controls of past and future climate change. I
am able to determine sea surface temperatures over geologic time, using the incorporation of Mg and Sr
into the shells of foraminifera and ostracodes.
As a marine geochemist, I responded quickly to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I am interested in
how redox sensitive metals in sediments are responding following the large pulse of organic matter to the
sea floor to estimate changes in oxygen in marine sediments.
I am especially engaged and passionate about science policy and organizing within different
communities for social, environmental, and economic justice. As a scientist engaged in the
community, I was invited to speak at more than 50 events in an effort to inform and inspire, including
a keynote speaker for the St Petersburg March for Science.
I engage actively in policy conversations regarding climate change with the public and with elected
officials. I have written numerous op-eds regarding climate change science and solutions. I met with
Florida Governor Rick Scott regarding the science of climate change and the imperative of taking
action in Florida to mitigate impacts. As a result of that meeting, I was selected as “Science
Champion” by Union of Concerned Scientists for “speaking (scientific) truth to power.”