Maria Cacho is an environmental planner for Stanford University where she focuses on planning analysis, GIS support, and modeling. She also oversees management planning for the Stanford Hopkins Marine Station facility at Pacific Grove. Originally from the Basque Country in Spain, Maria began her career as an ecologist specializing in water pollution in rivers and its dispersion into the ocean. She holds a PhD in environmental planning from UCB, an MRP from UPenn and a BS in ecological systems from the University of the Basque Country. She is passionate about the ocean and committed to supporting sustainable planning in coastal zones. 

Matt is the principal at SeaSpatial Consulting, a marine science consulting firm in Santa Cruz. A San Diego State and Moss Landing Marine Labs graduate, he has 20+ years experience in marine science and GIS. Matt specializes in Python programming for geoprocessing and spatial analysis and JavaScript for web mapping. His recent clients include the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and Liquid Robotics.

Marine Lebrec is a data specialist at the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS), based at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. In this role, Marine assists with the development of information products, such as data portals, to meet stakeholder needs. She is also involved in using GIS to produce US West Coast benthic habitat classification models to inform resource management. Marine recently earned a Master’s in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, where her thesis research was focused on developing new methods for measuring ocean macronutrients using micro-fluidic analyzers.

Monica is a marine ecologist on the Environmental Defense Fund's Ocean Science Team, where she is currently researching where seaweed farming can be scaled up to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Prior to joining EDF, Monica studied the geographic patterns in impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems, specifically marshes and coral reefs. Monica earned her PhD at University of California Santa Cruz studying the ecological consequences of sea star loss in California's rocky intertidal communities.

Jane is currently a geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California. In this role she uses geospatial tools and analysis techniques in wide-ranging applications to study the physical and biological phenomena found in benthic marine ecosystems of the deep ocean. She provides onshore and at-sea support to interdisciplinary oceanographic research projects on the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii and works on solutions for sharing science broadly with stakeholders and the public. Jane earned a Master's in Marine Science and a professional certificate in geographic information systems (GIS) from San Francisco State University.