About

Allison Payne

Allison is a PhD student in the Beltran Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her dissertation research is focused on instrumenting elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Park with passive acoustic monitoring devices in order to listen to the sounds of the deep ocean. Her role with FieldFutures allows her to express her passion for field safety and inclusion. As a queer ecologist, she has been dreaming of a class like this one for a long time! In her spare time, she likes to rearrange trinkets on bookshelves, wear giant earrings, make playlists, and taste test baked goods.

You can check out her personal website at allisonpayne.github.io.

Aspen Ellis

Aspen is a PhD student in the Conservation Action Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where her research focuses on approaches to understand and respond to offshore wind energy impacts to seabirds. She’s interested in projects that help direct actionable conservation for marine wildlife, and approaches to improve the conservation field more broadly, especially around fair pay and support for graduate students. Outside of her research, she loves to make pottery, elaborate salads, and statement birthday cakes.