Tokea “Kea” is currently a Biological Sciences Ph.D. student at Clemson University studying reef species interactions with marine debris in the Florida Keys. She is involved in community education and outreach through the Something Very Fishy program where she helps bring ocean literacy principles to K-5 classrooms in South Carolina. She started diving as a sophomore in college and is now a PADI OWSI. She is pleased to have received this award as she will use it to enhance her instructor training and earn her DAN DEMP/DFA Pro instructor to teach safety skills to undergraduate researchers in her lab.