Katey Lesneski

While often mistaken as being from lower latitudes, Katey is a true New England native at heart. Escaping the winter at opportune times, Katey has volunteered, studied, and worked in Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Belize, and the Florida Keys. Her time in these communities before college, studying abroad while at Brown, and during her PhD at Boston University led her to appreciate the importance of community involvement, which she gained a deeper understanding of as a 2018 Switzer Environmental Fellow. Katey has enjoyed weaving her knowledge of coral reef conservation and management into lesson plans for when she was a middle school science teacher, a graduate Teaching Fellow, and a divemaster and assistant scuba instructor. Katey is excited to bring her background of marine ecology and genetics as applied to reef restoration projects to Coral Vita. Now that she is done with her PhD she is rediscovering free time, and enjoys freshwater fish husbandry, plant cultivation, reading sci-fi novels, and just about any watersport. She can't wait to adopt her own Bahamian potcake to also bring onto the Coral Vita team.