After getting certified at 15, Kristina fell in love with scuba diving. She became a PADI instructor in 2008, and has used this certification to travel around the world, from Central America to the Caribbean to Thailand, introducing people to scuba diving. Through a local non-profit that assists returned military veterans with getting certified to dive, she became aware of the Handicapped Scuba Association and became interested in exposing a whole new population to diving. Kristina received her M.A. in marine biology and coastal zone management in 2014. Since then she has worked in several different marine environments, finally landing at NOAA in April 2015. There she is working as a program analyst for subcontractor Earth Resources Technology, Inc. conducting research and writing reports on NOAA Fisheries Leadership priority projects.