PEOPLE

Kelly thinks of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno as a home away from home. In her current role, Kelly supports students in their project development at Penn and onsite in San Cristóbal; however, her involvement with GERA predates its founding: she began working with Dr. Weisberg in 2014 while completing her undergraduate degree at Penn. Kelly has helped with various endeavors during her tenure, including launching the first iterations of several LAVA projects, building the lab’s website, developing new projects, and creating culturally-informed training materials for new students. In her free time, Kelly enjoys traveling, attending live music events, practicing hot yoga, scuba diving, and learning new skills, from languages to paint-pouring.

Originally from Quito, Ecuador, Research Coordinator Lia Enriquez is passionate about understanding climate change impacts, different social vulnerabilities, and politically-driven solutions in the Global South, particularly in Latin America. Lia graduated from the University of Pennsylvanian 2023 with a degree in Environmental Studies and minors in Political Science and Latin American Studies. . In her free time, she enjoys latin dance, hiking and gardening.

Wilson is our Local Coordinator and our regional head of communications. His main passion is addressing the needs of the community: when Wilson is not working with GERA’s team of Community Scientists, he is serving the community as a Pastor at the Church of God. In his free time, Wilson likes to spend time with his family, but he is always open to discuss philosophy, music, or the relationship between the environment and religion.

Fausto Rodriguez is originally from Riobamba in the countryside of the Ecuadorian Andes. He first visited the Galapagos in 1990 and has since become an experienced and biologically knowledgeable guide. In 1996, he completed the rigorous training to become a licensed Galapagos National Park Naturalist, and shortly thereafter he spent several years in London where he studied languages. He has also been trained by National Geographic to lead photography expeditions.He has guided personalized cruises, birding expeditions, and photography tours throughout the Islands. He has particular interests in geology, plants, birds, marine life, and mammals, and is passionate about guiding and teaching.

Ernesto Vaca has lived in Galápagos for the last three decades and is one of the founding members of GERA. He served at the helm of the GERA’s endeavors as a Senior Advisor, informing our community-driven approach at every step, from 2014-2023. As a Galápagos Naturalist Guide – Level III, with specializations in ornithology and evolutionary biology, he has over 30 years of experience guiding groups through this fragile ecosystem. When Ernesto is not guiding or spending time with his family, he is a Scoutmaster, mentoring the Oceanic Scouts in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, and is a lawyer, developing environmental law in the archipelago.

Deena Weisberg is Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Villanova University, where she directs the Scientific Thinking and Representation (STAR) Laboratory. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University and received postdoctoral training at Rutgers University and at Temple University. Her research interests include scientific thinking and reasoning in children and adults, the development of imaginative cognition, and the roles that the imagination plays in learning. Her work has been published in a variety of scholarly journals, including Science and Cognition, and has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Templeton Foundation. She is the co-author of Constructing Science: Connecting Causal Reasoning to Scientific Thinking Young Children (MIT Press, 2022).

Andrea oversees GERA’s Climate Change Adaptation project. She is an assistant professor of environmental planning and urban policy at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers. Andrea initially joined GERA during her time as a postdoctoral fellow at Penn’s Perry World House, where she focused on the emergence of more environmentally sustainable and socially progressive planning institutions in cities in the global South and how state and non-state actors attempt to stabilize those emerging practices. Andrea holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, a MPP from the Lee Kuan Yew School, National University of Singapore, and a BA in Economics and International Relations from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Jennifer Pinto-Martin is the Viola MacInnes/Independence Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the Perelman School of Medicine. She currently serves as Ombuds for the University. She recently completed 10 years as Executive Director of UPenn’s Center for Public Health Initiatives. Jennifer received her undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University and her masters and doctoral degrees in public health/ epidemiology from UC Berkeley. Her current research interest is the mental health sequelae of climate change and climate disaster, ranging from climate anxiety and depression to PTSD. She has worked with public health and medical students from Penn as they explore health related community priorities on San Cristobal. 

Lisa began working with GERA through our collaboration with Dr. Dan Beiting’s Lab, where she has been a member of the Institute for Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases (IIZD) since early 2022. Together with Dan, she developed GERA’s OneHealth projects related to Antimicrobial Resistance and Zoonotic Disease. Before joining the Beiting Lab, she directed the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Microbiome Center’s sequencing core. Lisa earned her PhD in Immunobiology at Yale University, and she completed her postdoc in the Molecular Diagnostics Lab at Yale New Haven Hospital.

For more than 40 years, Jack has carried out marine biological research in the eastern tropical Pacific. An award winning underwater photographer and naturalist, he has served as a leader on worldwide expeditions from the North Pole to Antarctica, encompassing many of the most remote regions of the world’s oceans. A Dive Master and certified as a professional naturalist by the Galapagos National Park Service, he lived in the Galapagos Islands for seven years, doing research for his book. During the past four decades, Jack has served on the Board of Directors of the Seychelles Island Foundation and he is an advocate promoting the establishment of a multinational marine protected area including Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. Dr. Grove is an active member of the General Assembly of the Charles Darwin Foundation. Stanford University Press published The Fishes of the Galápagos Islands (Grove & Lavenberg, 1997). At this time, Jack is dedicating most of his energy to the second edition of this comprehensive volume.

Jesse Hamilton has a Philosophy Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His primary research interests lie in ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of science. Specifically, he focuses on issues related to human rights, distributive justice, climate change, and just war. Before coming to Penn, Jesse spent ten years in the U.S. Army, followed by ten years in finance and consulting.

Carol McLaughlin is a public health specialist and infectious disease physician passionate about community-based health programs. She co-directs the Global Health Track in Penn’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program and is the senior advisor for global public health and founding team member at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy in Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice. Trained in internal medicine, pediatrics, and tropical medicine, she is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and directs the Global Health Equities track in Penn Medicine’s internal medicine and med-peds residency programs. She studied environmental science and international policy at Princeton and received MD and MPH degrees from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Martha Yumiseva-Lackenbacher is originally from Quito, Ecuador. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health. She earned her M.S.Ed. in Human Development at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a passionate researcher, investigating parenting practices in the context of health as the baseline of children’s optimal cognitive, social and emotional development in vulnerable populations. Martha enjoys reading, traveling and working out with her husband.

Eliana Atienza is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Environmental Studies with minors in International Development and Chinese. She is a climate activist passionate about addressing the unequal impacts of climate change. Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Eliana is an avid scuba-diver and freediver. In her free time, she loves reading, hiking, and birdwatching.

David Han is a student at the Wharton School studying finance and minoring in English. He is passionate about using infrastructure to mitigate climate change. His research background is in the social sciences; he worked on urban planning research projects with Professor Nicola Ulibarri at UC Irvine. He is interested in the interaction between business strategy and the social sciences. In his free time, David enjoys going to film festivals and working on his historical fiction novel.

Jade is a first-year medical student at Penn. Before medical school, she graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Human Biology and spent two years as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at NIH. Her academic interests include One Health, emerging infections, and infectious disease epidemiology. In her free time, Jade enjoys distance running, songwriting, and playing with her cat.

Katherine is a second-year Master of Public Health student at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in Neuroscience and Psychology and a minor in Spanish. Katherine has spent the last 2.5 years working as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Penn, and she is interested in population and environmental health. In her free time, you can find her crafting and baking.

Maya Mathur is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in Earth Science with minors in Data Science and Sustainability & Environmental Management. She is especially interested in using data analysis techniques to examine complex environmental systems, such as the intersection between animals and the built environment. In her free time, Maya loves cooking, hiking, and playing tennis.

Solange Campos is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania studying International Relations with a focus on Latin America. As an Ecuadorian-American, she has visited Ecuador almost every summer and considers it her second home. At Penn, she is a writing fellow at Marks Family Center for Writing, is involved with the Dean’s Advisory Board, and is part of the Quaker Girls Dance Team.

Jesse is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Health and Societies with a concentration in Public Health and a minor in Latin American and Latinx Studies. They are interested in local ecologies of care and specifically around the role that clinics/health centers play in communities as sites of social cohesion, advocacy, protection, and healthcare. They’re passionate about public health, education, and community and hope to continue doing meaningful work through them. As coffee has always been a constant in Jesse’s life, they enjoy discovering new cafes in their free time.

Kate Nicole Hoffman is a PhD graduate of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests are in philosophy of science, especially environmental ethics, climate change, and animal consciousness and welfare. Kate Nicole has an MA in Philosophy from York University, and a BA in Music from the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY. She is currently working with Michael Weisberg on a project involving governance issues surrounding climate change and geoengineering.

Arnav Lal graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023 with degrees in biophysics, biology and philosophy. He is interested in the evolution of infectious diseases and prevalence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. In Galápagos, he conducted public health experiments focused on antibiotic resistant in ocean water and wastewater.

Victoria is a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics physician completing her residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. This specialty provides care to patients of all ages, with a particular emphasis on adolescents and global health. Victoria has been working with GERA since her first year of medical school at the Perelman School of Medicine; today, she provides oversight on GERA’s OneHealth Projects. Victoria spent the summer of 2019 conducting a public health needs assessment in San Cristóbal alongside Gina Chang, Ernesto Vaca, and members of the community. She returned in 2022, among the first recipients of Penn Global’s PGRI award, where she investigated the relationship between climate change and children’s mental health. Prior to attending the Perelman School of Medicine, she completed her undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania where she double majored in English and Hispanic Studies. In her free time, she loves scuba diving, spending time with her dogs and parrot, reading, and playing the piano.

Jacqueline Mae Wallis is a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, bioethics, and social & political philosophy as they intersect with issues of justice. Before graduate school, she worked as a biology research technician at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. Jacqueline has an MA in Philosophy of Biological and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Bristol, and a BS/BA dual-degree in Cell & Molecular Biology and Philosophy from Seattle University. She’s inherited some Spanish from her Argentine abuelita and is a lover of reading, walking, and peanut butter.