The Ocean Institute’s Distinguished Speaker Series, presented by the Nicholas Endowment, brings interesting innovations, real-world research, exotic experiences, and delightful discoveries to the surface through powerful presentations from an ocean of experts. Our speakers are ocean researchers, authors, artists, athletes, and many more respected professionals who support our mission of ocean education and conservation.
Carmen Koepfer
Marine Biologist
Our Next Speaker
Carmen Koepfer
February 4, 2026, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Join us for a powerful evening of discovery and inspiration with M.Sc. Carmen Koepfer, a passionate Mexican scientist and storyteller dedicated to ocean conservation. In her talk, “Closing the Gap for Our Ocean Giants: A Story of Hope from Baja,” she will take you on a journey into the human heart of one of the world’s greatest marine treasures: the Gulf of California.
Past Speakers
San Juan Creek Estuary Restoration Project Team
Sydney Rilum
Marine Debris Specialist
Kylie Kinne
PhD Student
Dr. Brittany Stevens
Vet at Aquarium of the Pacific
Colin Harris
EMT
Dr. Ben Perlman
Professor at CSU Long Beach
Dr. Magnus Egerstedt
Dean of Engineering, UCI
Kurt Yeager
STEM Mentor, Blue Robotics
Dr. Jeffrey Gee and Team
Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Dean Sauer
Founder of Pyrofarms
Kelly Nguyen
Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at UCLA
David Helvarg
Founder of Blue Frontier
Mark Girardeau
Wildlife Photographer
Drs. Kat Beheshti and Rachel Smith
Assistant Researchers at UCSB Marine Science Institute
Dr. Jayme Smith
Phytoplankton Researcher
Chris Zadra
Ocean Alliance Drone Pilot
Carlos Gauna
The Malibu Artist
Dr. Milt and Ann McMenamin
Ocean Institute Volunteers
Laura Frank
Assistant Director and Tonga Program Lead at Waitt Institute
Captain Brett McBride
Captain of OCEARCH
Oriana Poindexter
Photographer and Scientist
Lance Lee Davis
Professional Freediver
Adrienne Smith
Entrepreneur and Athlete
Joyce Hoffman
Surfing Legend
Dr. Chris Lowe
Head of CSU Shark Lab
Dr. Ari Friedlaender
Principal Investigator at Friedlaender Lab
Dr. Stephen Dunbar
ProTECTOR Inc. International Sea Turtle Researcher
Carmen Koepfer
Marine Biologist
M.Sc. Carmen Koepfer is a marine biologist whose work lives at the powerful intersection of shark science, community stories, and actionable hope. A native of Mexico, her journey began over a decade ago as a volunteer tagging sharks in the Sea of Cortez—an experience that showed her firsthand the majesty of these ocean giants and the delicate balance of the ecosystems they rule.
Her academic path, culminating in a Master’s degree focused on the economic value of sharks in Cabo Pulmo National Park, taught her a crucial lesson: conservation is as much about people as it is about animals. This insight led her from pure research into the heart of community-based work.
Now based in California, Carmen bridges two worlds. As an educator at Ocean Institute and an analyst for a major collaborative project between Pelagios Kakunjá and Shark Stewards, she is dedicated to a singular, groundbreaking vision: protecting sharks by empowering the communities that live alongside them. Her current work on the Marine Corridor Conservation Initiative in the Gulf of California isn’t just about drawing lines on a map—it’s about listening, understanding vulnerability, and co-designing a future where both marine life and coastal communities can thrive.
Carmen’s story is one of a scientist who learned that data tells only half the tale; the other half is written in the resilience of fishing families, the challenges of remote villages, and the unwavering belief that the most effective conservation is built on justice and collaboration.
Kylie Kinne
PhD Candidate for Polar Oceanography
Kylie is a PhD student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. She studies how icebergs impact the way water moves in fjords, acting like floating barriers and creating changes in water flow. Kylie is also interested in how water from melting glaciers leaves fjords and mixes into the larger ocean, affecting global currents.
Using observations from a fjord in Greenland and computer models, Kylie’s research helps us understand the important role icebergs and glaciers play in the ocean.
Gregg Casad
Owner and Managing Director, Exulans
Gregg is the Owner and Managing Director of Exulans, a consulting firm focused on ocean and wildlife conservation through regulatory compliance. Using their decades of experience in ocean conservation law enforcement, Exulans supports other countries in building surveillance systems that help monitor compliance with fisheries, wildlife trafficking laws, and more. With projects in over 15 countries, Exulans has worked with clients including the Allen Institute for AI, Global Fishing Watch, Pew Charitable Trusts, WildAid, and various UN agencies. Gregg holds degrees from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the University of Washington.
Sydney Rilum
Marine Debris Specialist
San Juan Creek Estuary Research Project (SJCERP) Team
Dr. Brittany Stevens
Veterinarian at Aquarium of the Pacific
Dr. Ben Perlman
Professor at CSU Long Beach and Principal Investigator of STABB Lab
Kurt Yeager
STEM Mentor, Blue Robotics
Dr. Jeffrey Gee and Team
SPREAD (Southern Pacific Rise Eruptive Accretion Dynamics)
Professor at Scripps Institute of Oceanography
About Dr. Gee:
I’m a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. My research focuses on what we can learn about the Earth from the magnetization of rock samples and the magnetic anomalies generated above these rocks. These data provide information about how Earth’s magnetic field has changed over time and can yield insights into how new crust is generated at oceanic spreading centers—the goal of our present cruise.
Also joining us from Dr. Gee’s team:
Anna Golub:
Dean Sauer
Founder of Pyrofarms
Dean Sauer is an ocean lover, science enthusiast, entrepreneur, and proud dad of two. He’s fascinated by all things that glow and finds joy in watching bioluminescent plankton light up the night. After years of research and working in biotech, Dean decided to dive into the world of marine biology and founded PyroFarms, a company dedicated to cultivating and sharing bioluminescent phytoplankton. When he’s not tinkering with his latest project, you might find him lost in the mountains or roaming the beaches at night.
Kelly Nguyen
Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at UCLA
Kelly Nguyen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at UCLA. With training in archaeology, ancient history and digital humanities, as well as having worked in the tech and non-profit spaces, she takes an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to both her teaching and her research. She is committed to bridging the academy and the community, and especially strives to uplift those who are from underrepresented and under-resourced backgrounds.
David Helvarg
Founder of Blue Frontier
David Helvarg is Executive Director of Blue Frontier, an ocean conservation group, the author of six non-fiction books, and co-host of the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast. He is the organizer of the Blue Vision Summit for ocean activists, the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards (with Wendy Benchley), the first global March for the Ocean, and helped launch the Ocean Climate Action Plan that contributed to major climate solution legislation.
Helvarg worked as a war correspondent in Northern Ireland and Central America, covered a range of issues from military strategy to the AIDS epidemic, and reported from every continent including Antarctica. An award-winning journalist, he produced more than 40 broadcast documentaries for PBS, The Discovery Channel, and others. His print work has appeared in The New York Times, LA Times, Smithsonian, National Geographic, and other outlets. He’s done radio work for Marketplace, AP and Pacifica radio and led workshops for journalists in Poland, Turkey, Tunisia, Slovakia, and Washington DC. He is also a licensed private investigator, bodysurfer and scuba diver.
Mark Girardeau
Wildlife Photographer
Mark Girardeau is a nature photographer and wildlife naturalist who specializes in the local species of Southern California and Orange County. He created the Instagram account and website Orange County Outdoors to inform the public of the wildlife, events, beaches, parks, and other outdoor features the area has to offer. His work has been published internationally, including in National Geographic.
Instagram : @markgirardeau
Website: Orange County Outdoors
Drs. Kathryn Beheshti and Rachel Smith
Assistant Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute
Drs. Kat Beheshti and Rachel Smith are Assistant Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute. Kat received her PhD from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California, Santa Cruz in 2021 and Rachel received her PhD from the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia in 2019. As Co-Principal Investigators of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Mitigation Monitoring Program, Kat and Rachel manage the long-term monitoring of Wheeler North Reef, a 373-acre artificial reef located off the coast of San Clemente, and the San Dieguito Wetlands, a 150-acre wetland restoration located in Del Mar, as well as the reference reefs and wetlands associated with each project. Coastal marine ecologists by training, Kat and Rachel bring their expertise working in salt marsh, mangrove, oyster reef, seagrass meadow, and kelp forest systems to the SONGS program.
Dr. Milt and Ann McMenamin
Ocean Institute Volunteers for Over 25 Years
Ann & Milt are Ocean Institute’s current longest standing volunteers with 2023 marking their 25-year anniversary. They began volunteering with Ocean Institute in 1998 and have continued to educate hundreds of thousands of children, parents, and families along the way. The McMenamins are our resident whale experts, perhaps best known at OI for their whale talks given every Saturday at 1pm. Over their 25 years at OI they have each donated nearly 5,000 hours of their time to educating our visitors.
Dr. Jayme Smith
Phytoplankton Researcher
With a storied career dedicated to the study of HABs (Harmful Algal Blooms), Dr. Smith’s research focuses on understanding the conditions that foster these toxic events in marine and freshwater systems, and their broader ecological and health impacts. Having earned her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Southern California, Dr. Smith has worked collaboratively with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and resource managers to make exciting advancements in HAB monitoring and research in California. Her talk promises to takeattendees on a deep dive into the world of phytoplankton, the foundational organisms of the marine food web, their role in oxygen production, and the dual threat they pose through the production of harmful toxins.
Chris Zadra
Ocean Alliance Drone Pilot
While studying engineering at Lehigh University, Chris became interested in building and flying drones. He turned that interest into a career, flying drones over whales for the Ocean Alliance’s Drones for Whale Research program.
Chris has traveled the globe studying whales via drone, from Mexico to British Columbia to Gabon.
Instead of invasive techniques like darting, the drone collects samples by flying over the whale’s blow, with a rig aptly named the SnotBot. The drones can also be used to drop tracking devices that stick to the whale’s back for a short period, providing data on their life under the surface.
instagram: @snotbot
Carlos Gauna
The Malibu Artist
Carlos Gauna, locally known as The Malibu Artist, is a photographer, observer, and ocean advocate. After COVID limited job opportunities as a wedding photographer, Gauna began aerial filming the famed Malibu coastline. His work now involves filming the little-known lives of Californias’ great white sharks by drone. Through countless hours of filming, his art has bridged into the realm of science, a testament to the growing importance of citizen science. Thanks to the videos captured by Gauna, California’s white sharks are getting the recognition deserved as ecologically important and misunderstood animals. He has submitted much of his observations and footage to scientists all over, helping them accumulate the data to understand and protect these species. In addition to sharks, Gauna has documented the behavior of marine mammals, sea birds, and rare open ocean fish. His work is generously available to all on YouTube (@TheMalibuArtist), with thousands of hours of film and observation.
Dr. Ari Friedlaender
Principal Investigator at Friedlaender Lab
Ari is an ecologist with a primary interest in understanding the relationship between the foraging behavior of marine mammals and their prey. He works on a wide range of marine mammal species including baleen and toothed whales and dolphins across a range of geographic regions. Ari has long-term ecological research projects ongoing in Alaska, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Antarctica. He has helped in the development of tag technology and analytical and visualization tools to better understand the underwater movements and behaviors of marine mammals.
For his dissertation research, Ari used geospatial tools to quantify how the distribution of cetaceans related to environmental variables in Antarctica. Ari’s lab focuses on developing new telemetry applications to elucidate the underwater behavior of marine mammals. In Antarctica, Ari is part of the Long-Term Ecological Research program at Palmer Station to better understand the ecological roles of cetaceans in a rapidly changing environment. In Alaska and Massachusetts, Ari’s research focuses on variability in the foraging strategies of humpback whales in relation to changes in their prey. In California, Ari is part of the SoCal Behavioral Response Study to understand the impacts of anthropogenic sound on a variety of cetacean species. Along with this research, Ari is an active member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, acting as an associate editor for Marine Mammal Science and serving on the Conservation Committee. Ari is also a principal investigator in the Southern Ocean Research Partnership to conduct non-lethal research on cetaceans in the Southern Ocean.
Dr. Chris Lowe
Head of CSU Shark Lab
Dr. Chris Lowe has been studying sharks, rays, and bony fishes for over 30 years, focusing on their behavior, physiology, and ecology. For the last 15 years, Dr. Lowe and his students have been studying juvenile white sharks off the coast of southern California. Dr. Lowe and his students use a wide array of technologies and educators to help lifeguards and the public understand the mysterious lives of sharks and just how much of a threat they may actually pose.
Dr. Lowe grew up on Martha’s Vineyard, where he spent a majority of his youth fishing and diving the waters around Cape Cod. He comes from a long line of New England fishermen and whalers and believes a career focused on the ocean environment was inevitable.
Dr. Lowe earned his Bachelor of Arts in marine biology at Barrington College in Rhode Island and a Master of Science degree in biology at CSULB. In 1998, he achieved a doctorate in zoology, studying bioenergetics of juvenile hammerhead sharks, at the University of Hawaii.
In 1998, he returned to CSULB to teach marine biology and oversee the Shark Lab. He has garnered several academic awards, including CSULB’s 2008-2009 Outstanding Professor Award and 2012 Impact in Research Award.
Joyce Hoffman
Surfing Legend
Hoffman has been a trailblazer in the surfing world from her teens. She broke new ground as a woman from the day she first paddled into the surf in front of her parents’ home in Capistrano Beach.
Throughout her career she has won many championships. The City of Dana Point recently unveiled a bronze statue of her likeness. It is displayed in Waterman’s Plaza among the likenesses of other surfing legends Hobie Alter, Phil Edwards and Bruce Brown. And again, Hoffman is the first woman to be so honored. In fact, Hoffman’s statue is believed to be the first life-sized statue of a female surfer in the country.
Among her accolades:
- She was the first American to win the International Surfing Association’s World Championships in 1965 and 1966.
- She won the United States Surfing Championships in 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1971.
- She won the Makaha International in 1964 and 1966, and the Laguna Masters in 1965 and 1967.
- She was the first woman documented to surf the Pipeline.
- In 1994 Hoffman became the only female in the first class inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach.
Laura Frank
Assistant Director and Tonga Program Lead at Waitt Institute
Laura is the Assistant Director and Tonga Program Lead at the Waitt Institute based in La Jolla, CA. She supports Tonga’s efforts to conserve 30% of their ocean space and sustainably manage their EEZ through Marine Spatial Planning. She provides core support to the Institute whose work engages governments and NGO’s around the world. Laura was previously a researcher in the Genetics, Aquaculture, and Physiology group at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, and a California Sea Grant State Fellow at the Unified Port of San Diego where she supported several environmental conservation, blue economy, and mitigation banking projects. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Communication: Advertising and Public Relations from Emerson College and a Master of Science in Marine Science from the University of San Diego where she focused on applied physiology research for yellowtail aquaculture.
Captain Brett McBride
Captain of OCEARCH
Brett McBride, a dedicated mariner and waterman, has spent the majority of his life surrounded by or in the water. Growing up in San Diego, he filled his time with fishing, surfing, and breath-hold spearfishing. At the age of five, McBride became captivated by fishing after his first offshore fishing experience on the 65′ New Lo-An. From that point on, he aspired to become a boat captain. At twelve years old, he got his first opportunity to work on the 65′ sport fisher. Throughout his junior high and high school years, he spent weekends and summers working on open party and long-range sport fishers, before transitioning to private yacht-fishers and broadening his exploration horizons.McBride spent a few seasons fishing along the coast of Baja, California before permanently relocating to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he called home for the next 21 years.
Over the following decade, Brett served as a deckhand or captain on various sportfishing boats and long-range yacht-fishers, covering locations from Panama to Alaska and everything in between. During this time, he devoted much of his attention to fishing marlin tournaments in Southern California and Mexico, as well as spearfishing. In the early days of spearfishing, building one’s own speargun was often necessary to obtain a decent one. Brett constructed his first speargun while in high school and continues to build them to this day. His passion for spearfishing led him to develop an interest in underwater filming.He purchased a waterproof housing for his video camera and started capturing his underwater trips. As he continued filming both above and below the water on long-range trips from Costa Rica to Panama, Brett became increasingly fascinated with creating professional videos to showcase life at sea.
In 1998, Brett received a job offer to run a 48′ sportfisher from a friend who connected him with entrepreneur Chris Fischer. Sharing a passion for the ocean, they embarked on a partnership, and when Chris upgraded his boat to a 72′ custom yacht-fisher, they began their journey in creating outdoor television aboard the 72′ GO FISCH. Their collaboration resulted in “Offshore Adventures”, an Emmy Award-winning show that dominated outdoor television ratings for 14 consecutive seasons on ESPN Outdoors. They also produced “Ocean Hunter,” a show with a focus on spearfishing that aired on ESPN Outdoors.
A pivotal shift in their work occurred when Fischer purchased the 126′ Bering Sea crab fishing vessel, now known as OCEARCH. In 2010, Chris asked Brett if they could assist scientists in capturing and releasing adult white sharks at Guadalupe Island. Brett accepted, marking the beginning of an extraordinary journey. The initial trip was a success and led to the development of Shark Men, a television series that showcased the scientific fieldwork involved in the White Shark Tagging efforts of the OCEARCH team. Since its inception, OCEARCH has completed 45 expeditions around the globe. McBride drew upon his lifetime of water experience to develop the fishing methods used by OCEARCH’s team, and has played a vital role in the capture, handling, and release of over 400 animals studied by OCEARCH. His expertise and leadership has provided researchers across the globe with unprecedented access to study our oceans’ apex predators and push science further. McBride appreciates all the gifts the ocean has given him over his lifetime and aspires to keep the ocean healthy through the conservation efforts of OCEARCH.
instagram: @captbrettmcbride
Oriana Poindexter
Photographer and Marine Scientist
Oriana earned her degrees at Princeton University and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. She went on to work for nearly a decade with academic institutions, government agencies, and environmental organizations as an expert in the sustainable seafood and fisheries management arenas.
Her work has been featured by the Getty Museum and The Wall Street Journal, and she has created interpretive visual exhibits for the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Birch Aquarium. She founded Pelagic Projects in 2020 to focus on interdisciplinary projects that engage the senses, inspire awe, and impact positive change for the oceans.
Oriana is based in San Diego, CA, where she is working on her first book, The Iridescent Ones, to visualize the natural and cultural history of abalone species on the Pacific West Coast.
Social handles:
Website: https://www.orianapoindexter.com/
Lance Lee Davis
Professional Freediver
“I have been swimming in the ocean since infancy and swam competitively for 11 years. While I do hold recreational SCUBA and nitrox certifications, my passion has always been freediving. My deepest freedives to date are 242′ (74M), constant weight without fins, as well as 80M done constant weight with bi-fins. Official records I currently hold include the US National Record in CNF at 74M, as well as one apnea related Guinness World Record. Besides competitive freediving, I do love to spearfish, and got my start with ‘real freediving’ while hunting the Southern California ocean in around 2010. I’m now into my seventh year as a full time professional freediver, having since then earned my US Coast Guard captain’s license, worked as a freediver on numerous film and TV projects, and been teaching under both Performance Freediving International and Molchanov’s.”
Social handles:
@socalspearit on Instagram and Facebook
Website: http://www.socalspearit.com
Adrienne Smith
Mother, Entrepreneur, Record-Breaking Athlete
As a mom, athlete, and business owner, Adrienne Smith has an appreciation for the strategies necessary to overcome obstacles and reach success. Drawing on firsthand knowledge of how it feels to be stuck when striving to accomplish goals, she is enthusiastic about sharing systems that help others transform anxiety, get organized and motivated, and most importantly, reignite a passion for life.
Adrienne is building a movement of expanded awareness to cure the personal energy crisis in our world through creative connection, storytelling, and intuition-based wellness programs. Together she helps individuals and teams make the seemingly impossible possible – just as demonstrated by setting a new World Record rowing across the Pacific Ocean with her team this past summer.
Social handles:
@theadriennesmith on Instagram
poweradrienne on Facebook
Website: www.alignedlivingnow.com
Dr. Ari Friedlaender
Principal Investigator at Friedlaender Lab
Ari is an ecologist with a primary interest in understanding the relationship between the foraging behavior of marine mammals and their prey. He works on a wide range of marine mammal species including baleen and toothed whales and dolphins across a range of geographic regions. Ari has long-term ecological research projects ongoing in Alaska, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Antarctica. He has helped in the development of tag technology and analytical and visualization tools to better understand the underwater movements and behaviors of marine mammals.
For his dissertation research, Ari used geospatial tools to quantify how the distribution of cetaceans related to environmental variables in Antarctica. Ari’s lab focuses on developing new telemetry applications to elucidate the underwater behavior of marine mammals. In Antarctica, Ari is part of the Long-Term Ecological Research program at Palmer Station to better understand the ecological roles of cetaceans in a rapidly changing environment. In Alaska and Massachusetts, Ari’s research focuses on variability in the foraging strategies of humpback whales in relation to changes in their prey. In California, Ari is part of the SoCal Behavioral Response Study to understand the impacts of anthropogenic sound on a variety of cetacean species. Along with this research, Ari is an active member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, acting as an associate editor for Marine Mammal Science and serving on the Conservation Committee. Ari is also a principal investigator in the Southern Ocean Research Partnership to conduct non-lethal research on cetaceans in the Southern Ocean.
https://www.instagram.com/friedlaender_lab/
Dr. Stephen Dunbar
Founder and President of the Protective Turtle Ecology Center for Training, Outreach, and Research, Inc. (ProTECTOR, Inc.)
Dr. Stephen G. Dunbar is a tropical marine biologist, Professor of biology, and the Graduate Biology Program Director in the Department of Earth and Biological Sciences in the School of Medicine at Loma Linda University. He is also the Founder and President of the Protective Turtle Ecology Center for Training, Outreach, and Research, Inc. (ProTECTOR, Inc.), which is a California non-profit 501(C)(3) organization established in 2007 to facilitate sea turtle research in the country of Honduras. Since that time, ProTECTOR, Inc. has branched out and is now undertaking sea turtle research and conservation throughout Honduras, Thailand, and Jamaica. Dunbar has undertaken marine biology teaching and research over the past 25 years in Australia, Bahamas, Fiji, the US, Honduras, Thailand, and Jamaica. He is always excited to travel and discover new people, places, and marine habitats to explore. Among his greatest accomplishments are that he married Sabine, who is one of his best research assistants, and his best dive buddy, and that he has recently been voted as the President of the International Sea Turtle Society for 2024.
https://www.instagram.com/protectorinc/
Website: