Research Assistant II - Biology Department

I'm from Rhode Island, so I grew up living on the water. I was in high school when I took my first marine science class, and loved it! I knew from there that I wanted to pursue a career in marine science.

During graduate school, I worked full time at a veterinary hospital. At the time, I was really struggling to complete my master’s thesis and started to feel like I wasn’t cut out to be a marine scientist. I even contemplated switching to becoming a certified veterinary technician. But when they tried to teach me how to draw blood from a dog, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

As much as I loved working with dogs and cats, I realized that I was not meant to be a vet tech. With the support of some really good friends, my family, and my dog, Maverick, I decided to keep working on my thesis project and defend my thesis.

I’m so glad I stuck with grad school, because now I’m working my dream job at WHOI and getting to contribute to the Northeast Shelf Long-term Ecological Research project. I go to sea at least four times a year. It’s my favorite part of this work.