Meet Our Team
Dr. George Shillinger, Executive Director
George develops scientific partnerships and leverages data to set conservation priorities, build support in key constituencies and advance protections for turtles at sea.
He has worked in environmental conservation since 1986, including satellite-tracking pelagic species such as sea turtles, billfish, sharks and tuna. As a Great Turtle Race co-founder, he used satellite-tracking data to raise global awareness for critically endangered leatherbacks.
George has a PhD in Marine Biology and an MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Stanford University, an MBA from the Yale University School of Management and a BA in the Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Heather Harris, Wildlife Veterinarian
Heather is a wildlife veterinarian with a specialty in marine ecosystem health.
Heather uses an integrative One Health approach to study sea turtles as sentinels for ocean and human health at the land-sea interface. She leads research to investigate global health threats to sea turtles and provides veterinary support for field work and stranding response.
Heather has a DVM in Veterinary Medicine and MPVM in Wildlife Disease Ecology from the University of California, Davis, and a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a board-certified diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
Kayla Fisher, Research and Administrative Manager
Kayla provides support to Upwell's sea turtle research and conservation programs. Kayla's strong organizational skills are bolstered by her professional background in scientific and rescue diving, volunteer experience in marine animal husbandry and academic research on marine habitats around Monterey and the Channel Islands.
She has a BS in Marine Science from California State University, Monterey Bay and is also a certified scuba instructor, lifeguard and CPR/first aid and emergency oxygen provider.
Aimee Doyle, Researcher
Aimee conducts primary research to improve hatchling dispersal models, advises on outreach strategies and creates tools to predict and prevent fisheries interactions with sea turtles.
Aimee's wider research portfolio has focused on the effects of large-scale ecosystem changes on populations of marine organisms. She was a Knauss Fellow with the NOAA NMFS Office of Science and Technology’s National Observer Program.
Aimee has a BS in Marine and Atmospheric Science from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and an MS in Fisheries Science from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
Anna Ortega, Researcher
Anna models future population dynamics and assesses long-term impacts of proposed conservation interventions for critically endangered sea turtle populations.
During her scientific career, Anna has collected samples from the Great Lakes, tracked coral disease in Turks and Caicos, and taught science on a catamaran in the Caribbean.
She has a BS in Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity from the University of Michigan. She completed her MSc in Marine Biology at the University of Western Australia and is now pursuing her PhD.
Dr. Sam Kuschke, Lab Veterinarian
Sam is investigating the microbiome of leatherback sea turtles, including documenting changes that occur in turtles incubated at elevated environmental temperatures (e.g., hot nests) and turtles held in captivity (e.g. headstarting programs, rehabilitation). This study is elucidating the role of the microbiome in leatherback health and identifying mitigation strategies to enhance turtles' survival during exposure to increasing temperatures associated with climate change or during short-term captivity.
Samantha Kuschke, DVM is pursuing her PhD training at the University of Tennessee under the mentorship of Dr. Debra Miller (UT) and Dr. Jeanette Wyneken (FAU).
Sierra Fullmer, Research Project Technician
Sierra assists with leatherback aerial surveys and logistics to support vessel-based research on foraging sea turtles off the US Pacific coast. She also develops data processing and management tools for current and archival aerial survey information used in habitat-based density models.
Sierra has a BS in Marine and Atmospheric Science from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. She is pursuing her Master’s in Marine Science at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories through California State University, Monterey Bay.
Kayla Sargent, Multimedia Communications Associate
Kayla creates blog posts, videos, newsletters, and more to share Upwell's work with the broader community. She also supports internal communications and manages multimedia assets.
Kayla has a BA in Storytelling from New York University.
Sam Malagon, Software Collaborator
Sam maintains a server for Upwell to run leatherback Species Distribution Models and provides a web portal called Forecaster for fishery management to interact with Upwell's model results. Sam is a full stack software engineer and data scientist with cloud architecture, development operations, machine learning operations, and machine learning experience. He has designed and developed sensor-based, spatial, data management, and AI software for the US Army, Navy, and Pentagon.
Sam has an MS in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Claremont Graduate University and a BA in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Claremont McKenna College.
Dr. Kristin Reed, Operations Director
Kristin builds program strategy and operational capacity to ensure organizational effectiveness, meet conservation objectives and sustain partnerships.
She has conducted research with fishing communities on three continents. She directed the Human Rights Fellowship for the University of California and has consulted on pan-African humanitarian initiatives and campaigns to end illegal wildlife trade in Cambodia.
Kristin has a BS in Foreign Service and a certificate in African Studies from Georgetown University and a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Sean Williamson, Researcher
Sean conducts research to improve the odds for leatherback hatchlings.
He has collaborated with Upwell scientists to prepare leatherback turtle hatchling dispersal field experiments at Pacuare Nature Reserve on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. His continuing work with Upwell focuses on building consensus among scientists on efforts to decrease East Pacific leatherback hatchling mortality.
Sean has a PhD in Biology on the ecophysiology of embryonic development in turtles and crocodiles from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Liz Gregg, Development and Communications Manager
Liz leads fundraising with institutional donors, and assists with individual donor and board communications to ensure that Upwell's mission and accomplishments are presented to the broader community.
Liz has worked in non-profit fundraising and communications for over five years, primarily within the marine conservation field. She has a BA in Botany from UC Santa Cruz and a MS in interdisciplinary ecology with a focus on tropical conservation and development from the University of Florida.
Derek Aoki, Researcher
Derek is exploring the viability of acoustic tags as a tool for the long-term collection of location data on leatherback turtles. He is also a Senior Nighttime Tagging Technician with the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. His research examines the environmental and human impacts to leatherback sea turtles, including their movement patterns, health and nesting.
Derek has an MS from the University of Freiburg and is currently a doctoral student at Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.
Stephanie Rousso, Researcher
Stephanie is a PhD student at the Polytechnic Marine Science Center (CICIMAR-IPN) in La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico and five-time Rufford Foundation fellow. She is investigating the "Spatial Distribution of Five Sea Turtle Species within Fishing Zones of the Southern Gulf of California." She uses a citizen science approach to work with local communities to report incidental sightings of sea turtles and collaborates with a set of small-scale fishers to report sightings and bycatch during fishing trips.
Through her research collaborations in Mexico, Stephanie discovered that a barnacle endemic to sea turtles can be used to identify important sea turtle feeding regions. This new methodology can be used as a complement to tagged turtles to help identify hotspots of potential sea turtle bycatch.
Dr. Nicole Barbour, Researcher
Nicole studies the migratory movements of sea turtles of different age classes to inform more effective, targeted conservation strategies.
Upwell’s “lost years” partnership with Dr. Helen Bailey at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) has supported Nicole’s research tracking leatherback hatchlings in the Caribbean through different tide and wind states.
She has a BS in Biology from California State University, Monterey Bay and a PhD from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
Tony Candela, Oceanographic Researcher
Tony studies the impact of oceanographic conditions on the dispersal features of juvenile sea turtles at sea. His modeling work simulates the active dispersal of sea turtle juveniles under the impact of oceanic currents and active swimming movements and sheds light on the behavior of juvenile turtles during the “lost years” life history stage.
Tony has a Master’s Degree in Ocean Physics from SeaTech, Engineering School of Toulon University, France, and is working towards a PhD. focused on the application of satellite-tracking and numerical modeling to reveal initial dispersal patterns of juvenile loggerhead turtles in the North Atlantic to evaluate the impact of human-related threats on these populations.
Aileen Lavelle, Researcher
Aileen is investigating sea turtle bycatch in artisanal fisheries in Sinaloa, Mexico, as a model for implementing camera technology to improve bycatch characterization in remote areas on small-scale fishery (SSF) vessels. The project collaborates with local fishers trained and permitted through a Mexican nonprofit, Grupo Tortuguero de Las Californias (GTC), to elucidate regional bycatch hotspots and encourage transparent fishing practices.
Aileen has her B.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. Aileen is currently a Master’s student in Coastal Environmental Management at Duke University.
Elle Onsathit, Volunteer Liaison
Elle assists with communications and coordinating projects between Upwell's sea turtle research and Thailand's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources. The goal of the relationship is to improve understanding and knowledge exchange on best practices for captive-rearing or head-starting leatherback sea turtles, including post-release survival, by gathering information on their movements following release.
Elle has a BS in Microbiology from King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi and an MS in Immunology from Mahidol University in Thailand.