Don Croll (Professor)
Don Croll received a B.S. in biology from the University of California, Davis, M.S. in Marine Sciences from Moss Landing Marine Labs, and a Ph.D. in Marine Sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He is a Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He co-founded Island Conservation, a science-based NGO with 35 employees and an annual budget of 5 million.
Bernie Tershy (Adjunct Professor)
Bernie Tershy received his B.S. in Biology from the UC, Santa Cruz, M.S. in Marine Sciences from Moss Landing Marine Labs, and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University. He is an Adjunct Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a Research Biologist in the Institute of Marine Sciences both at the University of California Santa Cruz. He has published over 70 papers on the conservation and ecology of seabirds and island species. He co-founded Island Conservation, a science-based NGO that has protected 242 seabird colonies and 224 insular endemics from extinction and formed over 900,000ha of new marine and island protected areas in Mexico.
Kelly (Newton) Zilliacus, Data Analyst & Lab Manager
M.S. Ocean Sciences, UC Santa Cruz, 2008
B.S. Ecology & Systematic Biology, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, 1999
Kelly joined the Conservation Action Lab in 2002 to run the Center for Integrated Marine Technologies Wind to Whales program. In 2005 Kelly started a Master’s Degree in Ocean Sciences using seabird data from the Wind to Whales program and the BeachCOMBERS beach walk program. Upon completion of her degree Kelly continued to work in the lab on the Conservation Measures project and the Threatened Island Biodiversity Database project. Kelly developed multiple databases still used by CAL including the Threatened Island Biodiversity (TIB) database, the Conservation Monitoring database, and the Island Eradication database. Kelly also is the project manager for the Mobulid Ray Research Project where her & Don have been tagging and tracking Mobulid Rays in the Gulf of California since 2005. Currently, she has expanded the TIB database to include seabird demographic data and seabird population sizes on islands for inclusion in the Seabird Population Viability Analysis project. In addition, she assists graduate students with database management, data analyses, and map creation.
Elizabeth Howard, Ph.D Student
Beth Howard is both a PhD student in the Conservation Action Lab, and the Manager of Younger Lagoon Reserve, a 72-acre reserve that is part of the University of California’s Natural Reserve System.
Beth’s passion for the outdoors grew from a childhood spent catching frogs and turtles in the woods, springs, and cypress swamps of Florida.
Beth received her bachelor’s degree in biology and environmental studies from UC Santa Cruz in 2001. After graduating from UCSC, she worked on sustainable agriculture projects in California and Vermont, and later on plant ecology research projects, primarily in California. Prior to her appointment as the Manager of Younger Lagoon Reserve, Beth worked as the Steward of UCSC’s Campus Natural Reserve, and as a researcher on UCSC’s Forest Ecology Research Plot, where she conducted long term monitoring of a coastal forest.
At Younger Lagoon Reserve she is responsible for facilitating research, teaching and public education at the reserve. Additionally, she coordinates biological and environmental monitoring, is responsible for compliance and annual reporting, and administers the reserve’s native habitat restoration program.
For her PhD project, Beth is studying the long-term success of native habitat restoration projects on the Central Coast.
Ando Rabeariosa, Ph.D Student
Ando worked for Conservation International Madagascar for ten (10) years, where she was in charge of Marine Conservation Program Management, Assessment of Social Impacts and Effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas and Marine Policy development. Having a background in Environmental Economics, she is a passionate practitioner and highly engaged researcher, convinced that an economic system respectful of social and conservation issues is the key solution for the sustainable development in developing countries. Through her publications in Nature, Science, and PNAS, she aims to find integrated solutions to achieve a social development that promotes natural resources management in biodiversity hotspot countries and also considerably alleviates poverty.
Jessie Beck, Ph.D Student
Jessie Beck is a PhD student in the Conservation Action Lab in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, and is co-advised by Dr. Myra Finkelstein. Jessie is also a seabird ecologist and program manager for the non-profit organization Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge.
Jessie’s work focuses on fisheries bycatch and threats to seabird populations. She leads the collaborative NOAA Seabird Bycatch Necropsy Program in the U.S. and investigates seabird fishery interactions in Chile. She is also co-manages the Año Nuevo Seabird Conservation Program in California. Since 2010, Jessie has worked on a wide range of seabird conservation issues including fisheries overlap, California coastal ecology, disease surveillance, and plastic ingestion. Jessie is also passionate about fostering international collaborations for migratory species and mentoring future generations of conservation scientists.
Arini Wijayanti, Ph.D Student
Arini Wijayanti was born and raised in Indonesia. Her fondness in drawing and nature made her choose biology as her education of interest. Her past research focused on local avifauna in remote wetland areas in East Kalimantan. After she graduated from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, she became a seasonal ornithologist. She later branched out to do research on mangrove and seagrass during her time as a junior researcher within the Fisheries and Marine Science Faculty at Mulawarman University.
Her research interests are in tropical wetland biodiversity and conservation. Her goal is to understand freshwater land degradation trends in Indonesia and the best possible ways to restore small natural wetlands.
Aspen Ellis, Ph.D Student
Aspen Ellis is a Ph.D. Student in the Conservation Action Lab in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at the University of California Santa Cruz. She earned her B.S in Environmental Science from the University of Michigan, where she contributed to research on climate-related declines in songbird body size using museum specimens. She has since worked with an array of federal agencies, NGOs, and non-profits on seabird research and monitoring projects across the United States.
Aspen’s research is focused on exploring tangible seabird conservation measures, with a current emphasis on examining and mitigating the potential effects of offshore wind energy on at-risk seabird populations. She is passionate about teaching, mentorship, and finding ways to make her field more accessible to future generations.