A transplant from the Northeast United States, Jessi Florendo took their academic marine biology training to the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle to study how people are incorporated into marine resource management and decisions. Under the guidance of Professor Yoshitaka Ota, their thesis examined how Filipino environmental activists in the greater Seattle region led with cultural values in order to determine how governance can be more meaningfully inclusive in environmental justice initiatives. They are now the Habitat Program Coordinator at Puget Sound Restoration Fund, a marine restoration non-profit organization that focuses on ecosystem recovery through studying critical native species like the Olympia oyster and Bull kelp. Their interests remain in how people connect to marine resources and the ways aquaculture and spatial planning decisions can be inclusive of people typically excluded from such management. In their free time they are either wrangling two sweet but chaotic cats, exploring Seattle’s wonderful food options, or eternally trying to catch up on sleep.