Isabella Ossiander

Isabella “Izzy” Ossiander is an interdisciplinary scientist currently enrolled in the Coastal Science and Policy Master’s Program at UC Santa Cruz. For the next year, she will be partnering with the American Bird Conservancy to implement a full-time capstone project that explores the scalability and implementation of a fisher-developed innovation aimed at reducing incidental capture of seabirds, also known as bycatch, in particular the critically endangered Waved Albatross. Her goal in working with this team is to both advance the understanding of the innovation’s viability while ensuring its deployment benefits both fishing communities and conservation efforts, with costs and impacts distributed equitably. For this work, Izzy will combine her passion for finding equitable, easy-to-deploy, and low-cost innovations with her skills in bridging communications between researchers, managers, and fishers so these tools are not only understandable, but also affordable and usable across scales.

Izzy grew up in Oceanside California, raised with a strong community ethic centered on protecting and conserving the ocean and organisms living within it. With a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology, and her experience as a Watershed Protection Specialist for the City of Oceanside, the importance of addressing the human dimensions of environmental challenges in order to build lasting and collaborative solutions is crucial to her work.