Sara is an undergraduate researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz, where she is currently finishing her degree in Marine Biology. She grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in rural Maryland, and water has always been an important part of her life. Her parents were avid scuba divers and she was exposed to the underwater world at a very young age. She is now working with Pacific Island communities to help find ways to protect marine resources within their traditional framework (while still having access for sustenance). As an undergraduate student, she has worked extensively in the outer islands of Yap, Micronesia. She plans to continue her work there as a PhD candidate in 2015.