This summer, COASST welcomed a new Participant Coordinator to the team: Allie Brown!

Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Allie also spent a few formative years working on a Wildlife Ecology degree from the the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She comes to our program with a Master’s degree from the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental affairs, where she defined a new field of marine conservation photography. We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words – COASST pictures especially! – and conservation photographers harness their creative skills to inspire conservation of the places and oceans that require urgent human attention to survive.

Allie combines her own creative energies with her knowledge of the marine world – she’s an avid potter, and last year published a children’s book A Manta Ray’s Journey. When she isn’t in the office, she also takes adult learners on mountain bike and snow adventures with REI in Washington State!

We are lucky to harness Allie’s creative energies at COASST, where she has already started to contribute sketches to our latest identification guide project. Allie is also joining Julia and Jackie as in-community trainers for beached bird and marine debris training modules this year. She’s looking forward to working with COASSTers, on and off the beach!