What inspired your connection to the ocean and led you to pursue your career? 

What initially sparked my interest in the water was the summers I would spend in Chicago on my grandfather's boat. Being able to recreate in the lake on Chicago's South Side was formative in helping me develop comfortably in, and curiosity about, large bodies of water. Growing up in Santa Monica, I originally wanted to be a marine scientist. This prompted me to obtain my open water scuba certification in 2007. While I didn't end up following that path in undergrad, I studied marketing and after a four year stint in entertainment marketing, I found my way to working and traveling full-time as a scuba instructor. In my first two years instructing, I had only taken two Black people diving. Being a Black person, I wanted to see more people like myself able to access the ocean environment because it had such a transformational affect on my life. Knowing the history of Black people and other People of Color being systematically barred from public pools and beaches, I felt the draw to create some of the change I wished to see. 

I launched DiverSeaFy in 2020 which serves to provide scuba certifications and ocean conservation courses to high school students from underrepresented communities. We also provide swim lessons for students who aren't already comfortable in the water. The goal of the organization is to create a symbiotic relationship with the ocean environment; meaning that the positive first-hand experiences enrich the lives of the students and the students subsequently go forth with a greater affinity for the ocean environment and a sense of duty to protect it.

Tell me about the specific research or work you’re currently focused on and why it’s important?

DiverSeaFy has been operational for 5 years now and to-date we have certified 36 students across 11 cohorts. We intend to certify at least 12 more this year thanks to the Liberated Pathways Grant from Justice Outside. We will also be using funds from the California Coastal Conservancy's Explore The Coast Grant to support alumni of our program in diving recreationally around the coast as certified divers. Through this work we are opening doors to alternative career pathways that may have been less accessible to these students. In addition to our program activities, DiverSeaFy is working on a new strategic plan to extend these opportunities to more people.

How does this location where we shot hold significance for you and/or your work?

I've done training dives at this beach off Old Malibu Road. It's one of the more accessible dive sites close to Los Angeles, with the next closest being either Veteran's Park in Redondo Beach or Leo Carrillo State Beach further north in Malibu. What I love about the ocean is that it's all connected. Whenever I'm at the edge of the water, I feel captivated by the vastness of it and the curiosity of what lies beneath the waves. I feel very fortunate any time I have the opportunity to take it all in, and especially when I have the opportunity to bring others to it.

What are your thoughts on the potential cuts to NOAA funding, and how do you think it might impact your work and the broader field of marine science?

Cuts to NOAA would be devastating. The ocean is quite literally our last line of defense in mitigating the climate crisis. The more resources that are cut from it, the more likely we are to spell our own demise as a species. The ocean places on full display the interconnectivity of an ecosystem. We as humans like to think of ourselves as separate from nature which only feeds into our hubris in trying to control and manipulate it to our will. For the sake of our species, we need to learn to understand nature and work within its bounds. The work of marine scientists is crucial to that equation. It's my hope that the policy makers wake up to this reality and invest in the future of humanity by investing in this critical research.