Onny Nurrahman Marwayana
I am a graduate (Ph.D.) student at Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). I graduated from Gadjah Mada University for my B.S. degree and from EEB, UCLA for my M.S. degree. I am recently also a marine biologist at Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and a curator for preserved specimens and genetic materials (fish) at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (MZB). My current research on Environmental DNA (e-DNA), which is also my thesis research, aims to reveal (1) distribution and diversity of saltwater fish, (2) the efficiency of practicing e-DNA method on time-series monitoring and survey in Indonesia.
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W. Richard West Jr.
W. Richard West Jr. is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Autry Museum of the American West. He is responsible for all operations at the Autry from collections development and financial sustainability to institutional growth and visitor experience. He oversees a team of 160 professionals as well as 300 volunteers, all dedicated to the Autry’s core mission. West has devoted his professional life and much of his personal life to working in the national and international museum communities, and with American Indians on cultural, educational, legal, and governmental issues. West is also the Founding Director and Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, where he served as Director from 1990-2007.
West practiced law at the Indian-owned Albuquerque, New Mexico, law firm of Gover, Stetson, Williams & West, P.C. (1988-1990). He also was an associate attorney and then partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson (1973-1988). He served as counsel to numerous American Indian tribes, communities, and organizations. In that capacity, he represented clients before federal, state and tribal courts, various executive departments of the federal government, and the Congress.
West’s current board affiliations and memberships include: International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (2007-present); Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (2015-present); California Association of Museums (2019-present); Denver Art Museum (2021-present); UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability (2021-present); Center for Large Landscape Conservation (2021-present). He also has served on the boards of trustees of the Ford Foundation, Stanford University, and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
He served as chair of the board for the American Alliance of Museums, the nation’s only national membership organization representing all types of museums and museum professionals, from 1998-2000. From 1992-1995 and 1997-1998, he served as member-at-large of the Alliance’s board of directors and in 1995-1996 as vice chair of the board of directors. West also was a member-at-large (2004-2007) and Vice President (2007-2010) of the International Council of Museums.
West, who grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of American Indian master artist, the late Walter Richard West Sr., and Maribelle McCrea West. He earned a bachelor’s degree (major in American history) magna cum laude in 1965 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Redlands in California. He also received a master’s degree in American history from Harvard University in 1968. West graduated from the Stanford University School of Law with a doctorate of jurisprudence degree in 1971, where he also was the recipient of the Hilmer Oehlmann Jr. Prize for excellence in legal writing and served as an editor and note editor of the Stanford Law Review.
West is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in the State of Oklahoma. He also is a member of the Society of Southern Cheyenne Peace Chiefs.
He is married to Mary Beth West, who retired from the U.S. Department of State in 2005. They have two adult children, Amy and Ben.
David Yousavich
My research focuses on the investigation of biogeochemical mechanisms including sulfate reduction and sulfur oxidation in the Santa Barbara Basin and the Salton Sea.
I received my Bachelor’s degree from Miami University (OH) where I majored in Chemistry and Zoology. There I did research in algal biofuels and cellulose degrading bacteria. After graduating, I worked as a research assistant on projects involving K-12 science education and molecular biology. I received my Master’s degree from Cal State LA in Geology and did research in the bioremediation of heavy metals in Los Angeles, specifically in analyzing processes governing the sequestration of copper, lead, and zinc in bioremediation media. My areas of expertise include molecular biology techniques, analytical chemistry techniques, and statistical programming and modeling (SAS, R , Python).
DeMarcus Robinson
My research at UCLA focuses on the investigation of biogeochemical mechanisms including sulfate reduction and sulfur oxidation in the Santa Barbara Basin.
I received my Bachelor’s degree from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU) where I majored Environmental Science with a concentration in Toxicology/Risk Analysis. At my undergraduate university my research looked at creating a material that absorbs oil through organic chemistry and electrospinning. I also received internship investigating microbial lake productivity in the Sierra Nevada Watershed at University of Southern California (USC) through the C-DEBI (Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigation) course, and another internship at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) investigating Turbinaria Ornata, an invasive macrogalge, in the coral reefs of Mo’orea.
Benjamin Knowles
Viral infection of microbes is probably the most common ecological interaction on the planet. However, it is unknown what fraction of infections are rapidly lethal or establish long-term virus-host symbioses because viruses can act as lytic predators or temperate parasites. Viruses sculpt the evolution, composition, structure, and vital rates of host communities from molecular to global scales and affect ecosystem processes like biogeochemical cycling, productivity, and food webs. While most viral ecologists have focused on these phenomena as an outcome of density-dependent lethal lytic infection, my research shows that these ecosystem processes are more likely to the outcome of physiology-dependent long-term temperate infections. This changes – even upends – the narrative of virus-host interactions from being deterministic and easily measured as host and viral densities to a much more challenging and long-term one centered around host physiology. Importantly, this mechanistic shift also means that accepted outcomes of infection like how and why energy and matter flow through ecosystems must be revised from cellular to global scales.
Elsa Ordway
Elsa Ordway is Co-Director of both the Center for Tropical Research and the Congo Basin Institute. She joined UCLA as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2021. She joined the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability as Affiliated Faculty in 2022. Before that, she was a Harvard University Center for the Environment Postdoctoral Fellow. Elsa earned a PhD in Earth System Science from Stanford University in 2018 and a Master’s in Conservation Biology from Columbia University in 2013 and has published articles on a range of issues relating to forest ecosystems and global change since then.
Elsa’s research group examines social-ecological systems in forested regions in the context of two globally pressing challenges: climate change and increasing demands for land to accommodate food, fuel, and fiber production for ten billion people. How we choose to address these challenges will have far-reaching impacts on ecological processes, biodiversity, and society. Combining remote sensing, field observations, models, and socioeconomic analyses, we integrate theory and methods from ecology, earth science, economics, and land system science to gain new insight into pattern and process across scales in forests. We are primarily working in forested systems in the tropics and California.
We work closely with collaborators at the Congo Basin Institute and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems group.
Zack Parisa
Zack Parisa is the co-founder and CEO of the Natural Capital Exchange (NCX) a data-driven forest carbon market. In 2021, NCX created the largest forest carbon project in the contiguous US.
A forester and biometrician by training, Zack has spent the last decade developing cutting-edge tools for precision forest management and putting them to work for some of America’s largest landowners. NCX (formerly SilviaTerra) collaborated with Microsoft to create “Basemap,” the first high-resolution forest inventory of the United States, creating a map of over 92 billion trees that now underpins the NCX market. Zack earned an M.F.S. from Yale University, where he developed NCX’s core technology and a B.S. in Forestry from Mississippi State University.
Yolanda Joab Mori
Yolanda Joab Mori is a daughter of the Lasialap clan and a mother of two from the islands of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Her roots drive her activism and work on climate action and ocean protection for over a decade.
Currently serving as the Blue Prosperity Micronesia Program Coordinator, Yolanda is leading the FSM’s effort in developing its blue economy, strengthening sustainable fisheries, and creating marine spatial plans that will protect 30% of its marine environment.
Growing up in Micronesia, she’s seen firsthand the impacts climate change has on her community and has committed herself to be a part of the solution.
Yolanda previously led the first climate change education program in schools and communities across Micronesia, bringing climate change education to over 10,000 young students and over 3,000 community members. To address the intersection of climate and social justice, Yolanda founded Island PRIDE Micronesia, a grassroots non-profit dedicated to empowering communities by uplifting the most marginalized to take action, particularly women and girls.
Yolanda’s been a leading advocate for the region, including as the keynote speaker at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, World Forum on Natural Capital, United Nations ECOSOC Youth Forum and UN High-Level Political Forum.
She is an alumnus of the Obama Foundation Leaders Program, East-West Center Pacific Islands Leadership Program, and serves on the Board for the UN Major Group on Children & Youth.
Tristin Anoush McHugh
Tristin Anoush McHugh is a subtidal ecologist and kelp forest restoration practitioner based in Mendocino, California. She is an accomplished scientific SCUBA diver and instructor who has over 1,500 dives in some of the most logistically challenging and unpredictable waters of the Eastern Pacific. Her strong leadership and ability to conduct reputable science have advanced the knowledge and preservation of invaluable kelp forest ecosystems.
During the rapid climate-driven collapse of northern California’s kelp forest ecosystem, over 95% of kelp habitat was lost over 350 km of coastline in under a decade. In her leadership role as the North Coast Regional Manager for Reef Check, she took initiative to expand monitoring sites alongside community scientist divers to capture critical ecosystem information. She communicated the findings broadly to policy makers, scientists, the public and NGO’s to catalyze interest, funding, and research opportunities.
Tristin is the daughter of an immigrant and her Armenian heritage, along with the strong matriarchs in her life, instilled the value of having true connections with people to foster relationships across entities that otherwise may not have worked cohesively. Notably in 2020, she collaborated with state agencies, commercial fisherman, and coastal community members to secure state funding and launch a multi-partner kelp forest restoration project. With Tristin’s leadership, this project has so far demonstrated the regrowth of carbon-sequestering kelp, the ability to conduct work in a challenging oceanographic environment, and unite people with diverse priorities and perspectives. The successes of the restoration project have furthered her dedication to co-develop long term solutions to kelp habitat protection.
She is currently the Kelp Project Director with The Nature Conservancy where she leads projects to develop innovative and scalable solutions in the protection and restoration of kelp forests locally and worldwide. Her focus on community enrichment, human connection and communicating the importance of kelp forest ecosystems is a continued priority. She recently co-developed the Above & Below project which is designed to produce an array of tangible product lines and communication strategies that are intended to engage the public and to support actions and secure sustained funding for kelp recovery and accelerated engagement.
Tristin received her B.S. from the University of California Santa Cruz in 2013 where she majored in Marine Biology and minored in Legal Studies and received her M.S. degree in Biology with an emphasis in Ecology from San Diego State University in 2017, becoming the first in family to attend and complete college.