Jesse Senko, PI
Assistant Professor, School of Ocean Futures,
Arizona State University
Jesse Senko is PI of the Senko Lab and an Assistant Professor in the Schools of Ocean and Conservation Futures at Arizona State University. His research transcends disciplines by integrating natural and social science with innovation and governance to ensure a future for threatened wildlife as well as coastal fisheries and the people who depend on them. Senko’s work has been published in leading biology, conservation, fisheries, social science, and policy journals as well as featured in CNN, Reuters, The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, The Economist, NPR, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Forbes, and other major outlets. A winner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize and a member of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group, he holds a BS in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences from the University of Connecticut, a MS in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida, and a PhD in Biology from Arizona State University.
Kayla Burgher
PhD Candidate,
Arizona State University
Kayla Burgher is a PhD Candidate in Environmental Life Sciences at Arizona State University. Her research integrates quantitative modeling, bycatch reduction technologies, and community-based conservation to assess and mitigate bycatch of sea turtles and elasmobranchs. Kayla works in coastal gillnet and pound net fisheries in North Carolina and Mexico. She also co-hosts the SciChronicles Podcast.
Janie Reavis
PhD Candidate,
Arizona State University
Janie Reavis is a PhD Candidate in Biology at Arizona State University. Her dissertation focuses on the behavioral responses of sea turtles to fishing gear and bycatch reduction technologies. Janie aims to understand why and how bycatch reduction technologies, specifically net illumination, reduce sea turtle bycatch in small-scale fisheries by conducting controlled laboratory trials with wild-caught sea turtles.
Cindy Vargas
PhD Candidate,
Arizona State University
Cindy Vargas is a National Science Foundation research fellow and a PhD candidate in the Environmental Life Sciences program at Arizona State University. Her research centers on improving fisheries sustainability by better understanding the human dimensions of fisheries and bycatch reduction solutions. Cindy conducts social-ecological research on Isla El Pardito, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Teal Guetschow
PhD Candidate,
Arizona State University
Teal Guetschow is a PhD Candidate in Biology and Society at Arizona State University. Her research investigates the role of leatherback turtle nest density on hatching success and net illumination to reduce leatherback bycatch in Trinidad. She hopes to identify effective conservation solutions to recover this globally iconic species.
Teagan Keating
PhD student,
Arizona State University
Teagan Keating is a PhD student in Ocean Futures at Arizona State University. Her work focuses on sea turtle behavior, particularly social interactions between sea turtles and the ecological consequences of these interactions. Teagan is additionally exploring net interaction dynamics in pound net fisheries in North Carolina.
Victoria Carvajal
Masters student,
Arizona State University
Victoria Carvajal is a graduate student pursuing her Master’s degree through the Ecology, Economics and Ethics of the Environment track under Arizona State University’s Biology & Society program. Her thesis is assessing the diverse and complex ecological benefits of Turtle Excluder Devices in global shrimp trawl fisheries.
Jasmine Abe
Masters student,
Arizona State University
Jasmine Abe is a Master’s student in Biology and Society at Arizona State University. With passions for education, interdisciplinary science, and conservation, her research centers around the development of a novel underwater camera system to assess sea turtle and fisheries bycatch.
Nina Zaynor
Masters student,
Arizona State University
Nina Zaynor is a Master’s student in the Biology and Society program at ASU, with a concentration in the Ecology, Economics and Ethics of the Environment track. For her Master’s thesis, she will be assessing the diverse perceptions of multiple stakeholders on leatherback turtles in Trinidad.
Arveer Maharaj
Masters student,
Arizona State University
Arveer Maharaj is a Master’s Student in the Coastal and Marine Science and Management program at Arizona State University. His Master’s thesis explores long-term growth rates of leatherback turtles in Trinidad to inform conservation and management strategies for this iconic species.
Andrea Kraetzer
Masters student,
Arizona State University
Andrea Kraetzer is an Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s student in Biology at Arizona State University. Her Master’s project will test the optimization of buoy configurations to reduce sea turtle bycatch in gillnet fisheries at Isla El Pardito, Mexico.
Emily Bowen
Accelerated BS/MS,
Arizona State University
Emily Bowen is an Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s student in Biology at Arizona State University. Her Master’s research will consist of assessing and reducing bycatch of protected species in North Carolina gillnet and pound net fisheries.
Siena Webb
Accelerated BS/MS,
Arizona State University
Siena Webb is an Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s student in Biology at Arizona State University. Her Master’s research will examine the complex interactions between leatherback turtle nest density and hatchling fitness in Trinidad and Tobago.
Madison Landin
Accelerated BS/MS,
Arizona State University
Madison Landin is an Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s student in Biology at Arizona State University. Their Master’s project will assess the effects of net illumination on a diverse assemblage of fish in small-scale estuarine gillnet fisheries in Mexico.
Graduate student alumni
Rachel Smith (PhD, University of Florida)
Rovindra Lakenarine (Masters, ASU)
Kyli Denton (Masters, ASU)
Neha Chettri (Masters, ASU)
Current ASU undergraduate students
Koa Honsberg (Conservation Biology and Ecology)
Erica Severson (Conservation Biology and Ecology)
Calyn Hart (Ocean Futures)
Kimberly Duvall (Ocean Futures)
Other graduate students
Rovindra Lakenarine (PhD Candidate, FIU)
Neha Chettri (PhD student, ASU)