I completed undergraduate studies at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University in pursuit of a degree in Environmental Science and am currently working on my PhD at UCLA under the tutelage of Peggy Fong and Paul Barber within the UCLA EEB department. Over my college career, my passion for advocacy has evolved, and my desire to become an influential voice for environmental stewardship and justice remains steadfast. I have hopes of one day working for an organization focused on corporate responsibility and/or environmental concerns.

Outbreaks of coral diseases and other lesions can alter ecosystem functioning and services of coral reefs. Recent evidence suggests they may be increasing in magnitude and duration due to human impacts, including climate change, that will only intensify in the Anthropocene. Massive corals in the genus Porites have a visually distinctive response to physical stresses, including diseases, by forming lesions that are small multi-focal swollen pink spots (SMSPS). While outbreaks of SMSPS have been observed globally, and recently at Mo’orea, French Polynesia, temporal patterns of intensity (number of SMSPS per m² on affected corals) and change in intensity (% change in average SMSPS per m² between each weekly sampling period) within an outbreak have not been evaluated. In 2021, we chose five sites within two human-impacted bays at Mo’orea and photographed 7 - 14 affected coral colonies per site over a four-week times series. Four sites exhibited persistently high intensity of SMSPS across all four weeks, while one site exhibited low intensities throughout the study. The temporal patterns of intensity varied between bays, with one bay showing a consistent increase whereas the other bay exhibited fluctuations over time. Overall, we determined that severe SMSPS outbreaks in areas affected by human activity can show significant variability in intensity across bays though they persist at all sites over time. These results led to the formation of several testable hypotheses regarding the effects of human activities on SMSPS. Thus, more research is needed to determine if environmental and ecological factors interact to increase outbreak severity or persistence on reefs.