MEDS 2025
Pronouns: she/her
Bio
Marina's passion for ecology stems from her heritage. She is a member of the Native Village of False Pass raised on the Swinomish Reservation, a tribe at the forefront of climate change adaptation. Members of her community taught her early on the importance of environmental problem solving. As a Gates Millennium Scholar, she earned a BS in Environmental Science and Resource Management from the University of Washington (2019). Her undergraduate research included work with UW's hydro-biogeochemistry lab studying methane emissions from permafrost thaw bogs, and a capstone project conducted in Costa Rica's cloud forest examining the relationship between mycorrhizal abundance and soil organic carbon. After graduation, she worked alongside the National Parks Service as a field ecologist with UW Botanic Gardens' RareCare program. She and her small team utilized GIS and field techniques to establish long-term monitoring plots for rare and endangered alpine plants throughout Washington's Olympic and North Cascades National Parks. Marina is now pursuing a Master's in Environmental Data Science at UC Santa Barbara. She aims to apply her skills at the intersection of ecology and data science to wildlife conservation, the protection of culturally significant species, and inclusivity in STEM.