Ayana Elizabeth is an American marine biologist. Elizabeth grew up in Brooklyn, NY and in her bio she proudly shares that she is the daughter of "a former teacher/current egg farmer and a former architect/current potter."
Elizabeth received her BA in Environmental Studies from Harvard in 2002 and her PhD in Marine Biology from the UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 2011. Elizabeth's list of fellowship is lengthy: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, NSF IGERT Fellowship, UCSD Diversity Fellowship, Switzer Environmental Fellowship, AAUW American Fellowship, and Knauss Sea Grant Fellowship. She is also the recipient of multiple grants and awards including the Rare/National Geographic Solution Search and was named a “World Changer” on Dell’s #Inspire 100 List. She is currently Executive Director of the Waitt Institute and a blogger for National Geographic.
Elizabeth's passion is sustainable fisheres, but when she's not collecting, creating, actualizing, and amplifying the best ideas in ocean conservation - or scuba diving (for work and for pleasure) - she is also a jazz singer and a keen investigator of dance parties.
Elizabeth has been on our Future-ish Stylish Scientist List two years in a row.
>> Blog: National Geographic Ocean Views
>> Twitter: @ayanaeliza