 JESSICA PULFER, Director
BS in Marine Biology, University of West Alabama
As Director, Jessica's duties include training and monitoring staff, curriculum development, and supervising everyday MarineLab operations, in addition to her previously held responsibilities of Dive Program supervisor and senior captain. Jessica began her marine science career soon after graduating by working as a Fisheries Observer aboard various commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea and Gulf and Alaska. She collected biological data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration & the National Marine Fisheries Service. Jessica has previous experience as a marine science instructor from Seacamp on Big Pine Key and as an environmental educator at the Wahsega 4-H Center in Dahlonega, GA.
She is a certified Divemaster and Coast Guard licensed Captain.
 MARTHA LOIZEAUX, Assistant Director, Operations
BA Zoology, Ohio Wesleyan University
Martha's position as Assistant Director in charge of operations gives her the opportunity to bring son Marco into the office as she handles administrative tasks such as scheduling. Martha still spends a lot of time in the field, however. As our most senior instructor, she is instrumental in training new staff and being a leader in the field. Her interest in tropical marine ecology was sparked when she attended Broadreach summer programs in 1997, where she learned to dive while living aboard a yacht in the Caribbean. While in college, she studied marine resources in the Turks and Caicos Islands and assisted in coral reef fish population studies. She also was able to travel to the Galapagos Islands and Panama to study island biology, and worked at the New England Aquarium in Boston as a tropical aquarist. Since graduating college, Martha has taught environmental education and other marine programs at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples, Camp Surf in San Diego, and the Key West Aquarium. Prior to her employment at MarineLab, she worked as a mate in Key West, and as a marine biology and dive instructor for Broadreach in the Caribbean where her passion first began. Martha is a PADI SCUBA Instructor and a Coast Guard licensed Captain.
 SARAH EGNER, Assistant Director, Curriculum
BS Biology, Wake Forest University
MS Marine Science, University of South Florida
Sarah always loved the water and her interest in marine science was solidified when she studied abroad as an undergraduate on South Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands. As a graduate student, Sarah was in the Marine Sensory Ecology Lab. Her thesis project was on the hearing capabilities of coral reef fish and the possibility for pelagic larval fish to use reef sounds as a biological cue for orientation towards the reef for settlement. All of her research for her project was conducted in the Florida Keys, a place she immediately fell in love with. While in graduate school she spent her summers teaching marine biology for the Oceanography Camp for Girls and for three months she lived, taught and dove while sailing around the British Virgin Islands for Action Quest, a sailing/SCUBA/marine biology program for high school students. When she returned to the US, she took a position as an Environmental Specialist at Biological Research Associates in Tampa, FL, then positions with the Florida Institute of Oceanography and the Florida Wildlife Legacy Initiative. Sarah is published in various scientific journal. She recently returned to MarineLab after a brief stint with the Dade Marine Institute in Miami, FL.
 CHRISTOPHER OLSTAD, Operations Director for MarineLab Undersea Laboratory and Marine Ecology Field Instructor B.S. in Biology, Lynchburg College; Associate of Science in Underwater Technology, Florida Institute of Technology
Mr. Olstad is a biologist and underwater technician, with considerable experience in undersea research. As a marine biologist he worked as a benthic invertebrate taxonomist. He worked as a diver/scientist on several oceanographic cruises to the Flower Gardens Bank (Gulf of Mexico) using water quality arrays, bottom sampling and underwater photographic techniques to assess oil rig impact on the nearby coral reef. As a submersible mechanic he has worked on manned and unmanned systems rated from 1,000 to 20,000 foot depths, including diver lock-out subs, remotely operated vehicles, and hyper-hypobaric saturation complexes for the offshore industry and shore based physiological research facilities. As a commercial diver he is experienced in underwater cutting and welding, inspection, search and recovery. Since 1985, Mr. Olstad has worked for Marine Resources Development Foundation as Operations Director for its manned underwater laboratory (MarineLab) directing over 500 scientific and educational missions involving more than 1000 aquanauts. Scientific missions have involved NOAA, NASA and the University of Pennsylvania (Institute for Environmental Medicine) researching the effects of saturation diving. He has co-authored and published scientific papers on this topic in the Journals of Applied Physiology and Undersea Biomedical Research. Chris is a Divemaster and holds a US Coast Guard Ocean Operator's License.
 RYAN TRUEBLOOD, Marine Science Field Instructor
BS Marine Biology, Minor in Biology, Coastal Carolina University
Ryan's interest in marine science began at a very young age growing up in Virginia Beach, VA. He spent many summers in and around the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay and the outer banks of NC surfing, water skiing, kayaking, camping and fishing. He began working with the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center at the age of 13 as a docent and outreach volunteer which led into a job between 1999 and 2003. Ryan spent 5 years at Coastal Carolina University graduating in May 2008 with a BS in Marine Science and a minor in Biology. While at Coastal he worked in various areas of marine science from marine geology, marine chemistry, marine biology and physical oceanography. Ryan's education included specialty courses in shark biology and behavior, ichthyology, marine benthic ecology, marine ecology, and he maintained an interest in maritime history. Ryan spent time working and studying at the Bimini Biological Field Station. During the summers he worked in a variety of summer camps beginning in 2006 at the Myrtle Beach SC Ripley's Aquarium, then to Big Pine Key FL in 2007 and SEACAMP, followed by the summer of 2008 working with students and Orangutans at Busch Gardens, Tampa. These opportunities finally landed him in Key Largo, FL at MarineLab. During summer of 2009 Ryan spent a month in Port Angeles, WA where he was involved in a graduate school class studying the Ecological Perspectives of the Northwest Bioregion. The course included camping, alpine hiking at Hurricane Ridge and Obstruction point in the Olympic Mountain Range, hiking in the Hoh River Rainforest, coastal excursions from Neah Bay to Cape Flattery down to Cape Alava and Salt Creek. Ryan is currently a dive master and also in pursuit of obtaining his USCG Captains License. |
