STAFF BIOS
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, and currently sits on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council as the alternate for Conservation and Environment.
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.
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.
BEN KLITZKIE, Senior Field Instructor |
MARTHA LOIZEAUX, Consultant, Operations