Kristen Yarincik, Vice President & Director of Research & Education, Consortium for Ocean Leadership

& 

Allison Hays, Manager of Public Affairs, Consortium for Ocean Leadership

Bios: Kristen Yarincik is the Vice President and Director of Research and Education, providing strategic and programmatic oversight for research and education related program, which includes the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, the Interagency Ocean Observation Committee, Pop-Up / Drill-Down Science, the Deep Ocean Observing System, the Ocean Sciences Educators' Retreat, and additional projects in ocean literacy, education, and professional and workforce development for the ocean sciences. She received a bachelor's degree in Environmental Geosciences from Boston College, and a master's degree in Earth Sciences from Boston University, focusing her research in paleoceanography. Allison (Alli) Hays is the Manager of Public Affairs at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. In this role, she implements legislative positions and proposals and develops and executes plans and projects for the public affairs, media relations, and marketing and outreach activities. Alli received her B.S in biology from Principia College and earned her M.S. in biology from the University of Central Florida where she studied the impacts of coastal restoration on marine turtle nesting in and around the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most important loggerhead and green turtle nesting beaches in the world.