Brenda
was born and raised on O'ahu, Hawai'i. She left her
beloved island and her warm ocean to attend Occidental
College in Los Angeles, California. Despite intense
phases of homesickness, this proved to be one of the
best decisions of her life. In her undergraduate years,
she was able to experience a slice of "the big
land" (aka continental US), study abroad in New
Zealand, and generally satisfy her enthusiasm for science.
While at Oxy, Brenda dipped her toes in a wide range
of field work; she became quite adept at catching and
preserving leaf-litter invertebrates, counting infauna
from sediment cores, hunting for cone snails, and counting
fish in freezing California waters (while wearing an
insanely thick wetsuit). Despite the scattered variety
of her research experiences, they were all held together
by fundamental concepts of ecology and the potential
relationship between science and management. In May
2007, she left Oxy with a B.A. in Biology and a Marine
emphasis.
Brenda happily returned home and jumped into a summer
internship while ultimately preparing to begin her graduate
studies at Hawai'i Pacific University in the fall. Her
summer project was a study of marine algal virus diversity
in Kane'ohe Bay, and it was extended to continue until
June 2008. At HPU, Brenda's thesis work will be studying
green sea turtles and their small-scale patterns of
habitat use in Kailua. Her overarching interest is in
marine protected areas and ways to devise more effective
resource management approaches by integrate research
with traditional cultural and ecological knowledge.
When she's not doing school-type things, Brenda works
as a part-time educational coordinator for Paepae O
He'eia, which is a non-profit organization dedicated
to the restoration of a traditional Hawaiian fishpond
in Kane'ohe. She also participates with Halau I Ka Wekiu
in learning hula and she surfs whenever she gets a chance.
Brenda
defended her thesis on December 2009
After
graduating from HPU, Brenda was awarded a one-year fellowship managed by the Hawaii
Institute of Marine Biology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration fellowship, working at the Humpback
Whale National Marine Sanctuary, starting in October
2009.
After completing her one-year internship at the
NOAA National Marine Sanctuary program, Brenda is currently
working on a part-time basis with the NOAA Humpback
Whale Sanctuary and at the
He'eia fish pond.