AltaSea’s Earth Day Special: The Importance of Marine Protected Areas to our Planet

Thursday, April 22, 2021 at 12:00 pm

To register, click here.

Panelists

Meredith Brooks

Meredith Brooks is the Strategic Grants and Special Projects Manager (Consultant) at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. She is developing the AltaSea Marine Grants program to expand the portfolio of government grants, with a focus on STEM education, aquaculture and growing the Blue Economy in Los Angeles.

Originally from Rancho Palos Verdes, Meredith now splits her time between the Olympic Peninsula, RPV, and Hawai’i, where she has spent the last decade helping manage one of the USDA Regional Aquaculture Centers. She has fifteen years of management and communication experience in the fields of sustainable aquaculture R&D and conservation, and has authored two K-12 STEM curriculums for Hawai’i schools. Meredith graduated from the University of Southern California with Bachelors Degrees in Political Science and Journalism, and is a member of the Lambda Pi Eta honor society of the National Communication Association.

Bruce Heyman

Bruce Heyman is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Maritime Institute, which has been involved with tall ships in the harbor for many years. Los Angeles Maritime Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses hands-on experiences at sea to provide an array of social, education, and leadership development opportunities to middle school and high school students in San Pedro and Wilmington, and throughout Los Angeles County. Their TopSail Youth Program is offered year-round aboard the Tall Ships SSV Irving Johnson and SSV Exy Johnson, 110-foot traditionally rigged vessels named after sail training pioneers who sailed around the world seven times with young crews.

Dr. Julianne Kalman Passarelli

Dr. Julianne Kalman Passarelli is a marine biologist who specializes in parasitology and ecology of marine fishes. She received her Ph.D. in Biology from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), M.S. degree in Biology from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), and B.S. degree in Marine Biology from CSULB. Dr. Passarelli is the Education and Collections Curator at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, California. She manages the educational programs and provides curatorial support to the aquarium’s museum collection. She also runs a field research program and conducts long-term monitoring surveys in marine habitats near Cabrillo Beach. She uses many of her field research projects to engage local students and volunteers. She also is a Lecturer at CSULB and a Research Associate at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. She is a past President of the Southern California Academy of Sciences (SCAS) and recently completed a book revision of “Miller and Lea’s Guide to the Coastal Marine Fishes of California.”

Moderator

Val Zavala 

Val Zavala was anchor and executive producer of “SoCal Connected” until her retirement in 2018. Since joining KCET in 1987 she has won 15 L.A. Emmy awards. She has covered major issues in southern California politics, education, government, demographics, healthcare, environment, economy, and arts and culture. She has been honored for her community service by numerous organizations including the California Chicano News Media Association, and Hispanic Americans for Fairness in Media among others. She was a John S. Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford University in 1993. She received her M.A. in journalism from American University and her B.A. in Latin American Studies from Yale University. https://www.kcet.org/people/val-zavala