Meet the Team
The CALeDNA program was founded by the UC Conservation Genomics Consortium that involved faculty from 6 UC Campuses. We have a Los Angeles headquarters as well as a Santa Cruz headquarters and are a partner of the UCSC Genomics Institute.
Dr. Rachel Meyer
CALeDNA Program Director, UCSC
Dr. Jen Quick-Cleveland
Chief Research Scientist, NPS, Wildfire, CDFW, Pinto Lake
Sean Johnson
CALeDNA Lab Manager, Project Lead ONR
Dora Rasch
CALeDNA Technician, Legless Lizard and Water Boards Project Lead
Julien Pometta
CALeDNA Technician & CIB project lead
Ajith Serensinghe
CALeDNA Technician & CIB project lead
Keana Wolcot
CALeDNA Technician
Madeline Slimp
UC Santa Cruz GRADUATE STUDENT
Janvier Uwayezu
UC Santa Cruz GRADUATE STUDENT
Milagros Rivera
UC Santa Cruz GRADUATE STUDENT
Jacob Nesslage
Graduate Student, UC Merced
soon-to-be Postdoc on CDFW
Syniah Nevils
Undergraduate Researcher, RMI fellow
Jackson DeWitt
CALeDNA Intern
Dr. Beth Shapiro
Professor and HHMI Investigator, UC Santa Cruz
Dr. Lenore Pipes
Postdoctoral Scholar, UC Berkeley Nielsen lab
Dr. Erin Hestir
Associate Professor, UC Merced
Dr. Dannise Ruiz Ramos
USGS Researcher
Dr. Princess Gilbert
Assistant Professor, Monterey Peninsula College
Meixi Lin
Doctoral Student, UCLA
Rachel Turba de Paula
PhD Candidate, UCLA
Maya Lemmon-Kishi
Doctoral Student, UC Berkeley Nielsen lab. Website: maya-lk.com
Adam Wall
Director of Special Projects for NHMLA Diversity Initiative for the Southern California Ocean (DISCO) Project, and Collections Manager of Crustacea
Dr. Michael Dawson
Professor, UC Merced Professor
Dr. Maura Palacios Mejia
Formerly Postdoctoral Researcher, UCLA, now Assist. Prof of Biology, Mt. San Antonio College
Sarah Stinson
PhD Candidate, UC Davis
Dr. Tiara Moore
Director of Black in Marine Science, TNC
Dr. Regina Wetzer
Curator, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Suzanne Lipton
Graduate Student, UCSC
Dr. Paul Barber
Professor, UCLA
Dr. Ana Garcia Vedrenne
Formerly Postdoctoral Researcher, UCLA, now Teaching Faculty UCLA
Alicia Gibbons
Research Intern, UCLA
Yuerong (May) Xiao
Research Intern, UCLA
Lauren Kim
Research Intern, UCLA
Dr. Jason Sexton
Professor, UC Merced
Dr. Bob Wayne
Professor, UCLA
Program founder, forever in our memories
Past Team Members
Dr. Ariel Levi Simons
Formerly Community Web Tools Director, Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Chloé Orland
Postdoctoral Researcher, UCSC
Dr. Kim Ballare
Postdoctoral Researcher, UCSC
Miroslava Munguia Ramos
Formerly Project Manager, UCLA
Anna Worth
Formerly CALeDNA Laboratory Manager, UCSC
Hailey Nava
Formerly UC Santa Cruz Research Intern
Dr. Sabrina Shirazi
Formerly Doctoral Student, UCSC
Haylee Bregoff
UC Santa Cruz Research Intern
Sam Rapp
Formerly Research Intern, UCSC
Dr. Van Wishingrad
NPS-CALeDNA Postdoctoral Researcher, UCSC
Dr. Emily Curd
Formerly Postdoctoral Researcher, UCLA
Now: Bioinformatics Analyst with Vermont Biomedical Research Network (University of Vermont)
Teia Schweizer
Formerly Laboratory Manager
Gaurav Kandlikar
Formerly Doctoral Student, UCLA
Colin Fairbairn
Research Intern, UCSC
Dr. Zack Gold
Formerly Doctoral Student, UCLA
Max Ogden
Open Source Software Engineer
Dr. Jordan Moberg Parker
Formerly Director of Undergraduate Laboratory Curriculum and Assessment, UCLA
Eric Beraut
Formerly Research Intern, UCLA, Lab Manager UCSC
Laura Rabichow
Research Intern, UCLA
Emily Soth
Formerly Research Intern, UCSC
Jennifer Flores
Undergraduate Research Intern, UCSC
Amber DeVries
Formerly Research Intern, UCLA
Foundational Website Architects and Artists
Design by the UX Information Architecture team
Angela Cao, Ashley Miao, Faith Yu, Joyce Wang, Lucy Liao, Mickey Yin, Morgan Wofford, and Joanne Kwon. Professor: Lynn Boyden, Library Sciences, UCLA
Wai-Yin Kwan
Web Developer, Community Scientist
Maya Edelman
Artist, made all artwork images and animations