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Education & Outreach Team

	Jim Foley Marine Science Educator Jim comes to C-MORE with extensive offshore research experience in the North Atlantic, Caribbean, and Central Pacific as a Senior Scientist with Sea Education Association (SEA) of Woods Hole, MA. In that role, he helped undergraduates and high schools students get hands-on experience in biological, geological, chemical, and physical oceanographic sampling. Jim cultivated a passion for education that was reinforced as a National Science Foundation GK-12 fellow developing inquiry based lessons for middle schools teachers and students during his first year of graduate school. Jim’s passion for hands-on educational experiences has taken him to Africa, Europe, Central America, and several island nations. Jim hopes to draw on these experiences by developing and implementing education and outreach initiatives based on C-MORE research. (808) 956-7739 foleyj@hawaii.edu
	Elisha Wood-Charlson Communications Project Manager Elisha joined the Education team with a PhD in Marine Science and a mission to help scientists learn to better communicate their research to a global audience. Her goal is to design and integrate modular science communication training that can be easily incorporated into a scientist’s busy life. In addition to her science communication goals, she is also an active participant in C-MORE’s Education and Outreach programs. Finally, she has also taken on the role of Communications Project Manager on a NSF-funded Research Coordination Network at EarthCube focused on Oceanography and Geobiology Environmental ’Omics (ECOGEO). Through this effort, she has the interesting task of bringing together different research communities, facilitating communication among them, and aligning them towards a common goal. More information about ECOGEO can be found here. (808) 286-9547 elishawc@hawaii.edu www.linkedin.com/in/elishawc/
	Sherril Leon Soon Graduate Student Sherril is a PhD student in Oceanography and joins the C-MORE Education Team with a keen interest in promoting Science Research and Education amongst underrepresented groups here in Hawai‘i. She has had multiple opportunities to work with and mentor both high school and university students, as well as community members across a range of ages, academic backgrounds, and cultures. Her research background is in Environmental Science and Oceanography and she focuses on the hydrodynamics associated with macroalgae found in coastal coral reef systems. She investigates how these water flow patterns may determine nutrient distribution and nutrient availability for the macroalgae and their microscopic epiphytes. She is passionate about applied science and sharing research outcomes with others. She wants to continue doing research together with community groups so that scientific research questions are developed with not only the local environment in mind, but also with the culture of a place as a guiding factor. She advocates that this will generate products that are invaluable to both the scientific community and to the general public. leonsoon@hawaii.edu
	Heidi Needham Graduate Student Heidi is currently a Master’s student in Geography. As a non-traditional student, Heidi is committed to increasing science education within at-risk populations. She has specific interests in K–12 science outreach and mentoring entry level college students who are at risk of dropping out before earning a college level degree. She recently graduated with a Global Environmental Science degree from SOEST. Passionate about studying complex global systems, Heidi has conducted research with the Coastal Geology Group and the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, and she is currently working in the Ecohydrology Lab studying climate patterns in Hawai‘i. She will start her Master’s research this fall working on a climate hyrdo-downscaling model of the Hawaiian Islands with a team of distinguished climate scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and researchers here in Hawai‘i hneedham@hawaii.edu
	Surely Wallace Undergraduate Assistant Surely Wallace is a senior who is double majoring in Microbiology and English. Her interests include reading, writing and spending time with family. She is particularly interested in the role gut microbes play in maintaining digestive health.

Education & Outreach team members are all based at UH Mānoa unless otherwise noted.
Mailing address: C-MORE, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

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