In her role as a Conservation Data Scientist for The Nature Conservancy, Claire harnesses data science and strategic communications to drive innovative, long-lasting impact for marine conservation in California, Hawaiʻi, Micronesia, and the broader Pacific region. Claire's primary focus is tackling the global challenge of wastewater pollution, by fostering the growth of an interdisciplinary collaborative space and supporting Pacific Island communities in pursuing sustainable sanitation technologies. She also assists with the FAD Watch program, a partnership with the commercial fishing industry, to safeguard coral reef ecosystems in Palmyra and American Samoa.
Claire holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from UCLA, with minors in Environmental Engineering and Geospatial Information Systems and Technologies (GIS&T). Her career began at the California Center for Sustainable Communities, where she developed interactive geospatial platforms to contextualize resource consumption using sociodemographic and infrastructural data. After working in the field as an aquatic biotechnician restoring riparian habitats in the Santa Monica Mountains, she returned to academia as a researcher for the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability to take an intersectional approach to topics like environmental ethics, conservation practice, green education, and existential risk.
What Claire is working on now:
Claire is currently working to advance marine protection by translating science into engaging stories and developing data visualizations for conservation planning.