People Type: Staff

In June 2021, Dr. Molly Jacobs joined Manomet as our Vice President for Environmental Education and Outreach. With more than 20 years of experience as a scientist and educator spanning both K-12 and higher education, Molly will lead Manomet’s efforts to grow our education and outreach efforts regionally in southeastern Massachusetts and throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Since 2017, Molly has served as the Chief Scientist and Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Project Oceanology, a non-profit education and research facility in Groton, CT, dedicated to nurturing student and public interest in and enthusiasm for marine sciences. Molly led the education staff there through a significant rebuilding and expansion process, doubling the number of full time educational staff, expanding the scope and reach of Project Oceanology’s education programs, and building partnerships both locally and nationally.  As the chief scientist, Molly has also overseen the environmental monitoring and collaborative scientific work, including three long-running citizen science monitoring programs.

A native New Englander, Molly currently serves as an Affiliate Professor of Maritime Studies at the University of Connecticut and was recently appointed as Communications Editor for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), a volunteer assignment.  Before joining Project Oceanology, Molly was an Assistant and then an Associate Professor of Biology at McDaniel College in Maryland from 2010 to 2017.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Swarthmore College, Molly received her Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Washington and spent a year as a science policy fellow in the United States Congress. She has also held post-doctoral appointments at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the University of Connecticut.

Juanita Fonseca, of Mazatlán, Mexico, joined the WHSRN Executive Office in August 2020 as a Shrimp and Shorebird Conservation Specialist. Her activities focus on promoting and implementing best management practices that help integrate shorebird conservation with shrimp farming in Mexico, and supporting research on the use of these production systems by shorebirds in other parts of the Pacific Flyway. She also helps evaluate opportunities to develop new partnerships to strengthen the network of WHSRN sites in Mexico.

For several years, Juanita has been involved in different bird conservation and research projects, particularly in shrimp farms where she undertook her doctoral thesis project, evaluating their functionality as foraging sites for shorebirds. Her results have generated knowledge which has served producers in the development and implementation of best management practices. She is also part of the first collaborative network to install automated radio telemetry stations of the Wildlife Tracking System (Motus) in northwestern Mexico and collaborates with Environment Canada to monitor and evaluate shorebird connectivity using radio transmitters (nanotags) in the Pacific Flyway.

Juanita is a biologist and holds a PhD in Aquatic Resources Sciences from Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, México. In 2021 she was selected as a fellow of the Coastal Solutions program, and recently joined the National System of Researchers of her country.

I work at Manomet because it uses the best available science to develop effective management practices that help conserve species and their habitats while contributing to sustainable development. I am excited to be part of this organization and to be able to play an active role in science to contribute to problem solving to preserve biodiversity

Vianey is originally from Colombia and has more than 10 years of working on shorebird conservation. She joined the WHSRN Executive Office in May of 2020 and now serves as the Community Engagement Specialist. Vianey leads efforts to engage communities in the conservation and management of critical shorebird habitats across the Americas. Her responsibilities include developing and implementing community engagement strategies, building local and partner capacity, and promoting WHSRN’s Human Dimensions Toolkit. Vianey also collaborates on communication projects, integrating audience-focused strategies and supporting initiatives that strengthen partnerships and increase WHSRN’s visibility.

Vianey’s experience in shorebird conservation started when she worked as the Communications Coordinator at Asociación Calidris in Colombia for seven years. At Calidris she had the opportunity to develop and implement Calidris´ communications strategy to help advancing the organization´s mission. Vianey also participated in several site-based projects, developing activities and materials to promote community engagement and building local capacities. She is co-author of the Colombian National Shorebirds Conservation Plan and participated on the designation of the WHSRN site Delta del río Iscuandé.

Vianey holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Communications and has complemented her knowledge, skills, and personal interests with training on developing, implementation, and promotion of community-based projects.

Vianey is also passionate about creative pursuits. In her spare time, she designs jewelry and accessories for women and prints fabric and creates images with patterns of shorebirds and nature.

Joaquín Aldabe, Ph.D. from Uruguay, joined the WHSRN Executive Office as Conservation Specialist to develop a hemispheric program on shorebird conservation in grasslands and rangelands.  Joaquin also supports data analysis and modeling to evaluate population trends and habitat-bird relationships on WHSRN sites to support habitat management.

Through rigorous scientific work and innovative media, Joaquin works with rural producers to generate alternative management proposals. His work combines field ornithology, ecology, statistic modeling, agrarian sciences, and rural extension.

Joaquin has been working on shorebird conservation for 15 years. He was part of the promoting team of Alianza del Pastizal (Southern Cone Grasslands Alliance), and was the first national coordinator of this initiative for five years. He has worked on more than 20 research and bird conservation projects,. He was Conservation Director at Aves de Uruguay, the Birdlife partner in Uruguay for seven years. In that role, Joaquin also served as the coordinator for the  Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA). He has been professor and researcher at the Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay for 10 years

Joaquin holds a degree on Biological Sciences, a master’s degree on Ecology and Evolution, and a Ph.D. in Agrarian Sciences. He was recently incorporated in the Uruguayan National System of Researchers.

Julia joined the WHSRN Executive Office in April 2020 to develop an assessment of salt production and shorebird conservation, establishing better practices, and defining threats and benefits for shorebirds at salt production sites. Julia was born and raised in the southern part of Honduras and her experience growing up on her family’s salt farm gives her a different perspective, understanding the opportunities for a productive system to change their perception and become allies in conservation strategies for shorebirds.

After getting her degree in tourism and a master’s degree in project management, she began working her own project promoting environmental education tours in her family salt farm, receiving students from schools and universities that wanted to learn from salt production and mangrove ecosystems.

For her master’s degree, Julia’s thesis was on the importance of the mangrove ecosystem for salt production in Honduras. This gave her a broader view of the needs of salt production and conservation. Since then she has been working on implementing better practices and developing alternative products and services that can help create a new model of salt production. A model that is oriented to conservation, can be easily replicated, and that will promote the conservation of shorebirds in this productive system.