Biography

I am from one of the disaster-prone countries on the planet, Vanuatu. Growing up in the cool tropical waters and white sandy beaches of Vanuatu, the ocean is but everything, a source of strength, food and life. I got attracted to the University of Rhode Island’s work through the USAID OurFish OurFuture Project – a Pacific regional coastal fisheries project where I first served as Deputy Chief of Party/Senior Regional Fisheries Advisor in 2022 based out of Port Vila initially before moving across to join the OurFish Project Management Team at the URI Foreign Branch Office (FBO) in Suva, Fiji in 2023. In February 2024 I got appointed to the Chief of Party position for OurFish OurFuture, managing URI FBO Team and providing technical and administrative leadership of OurFish OurFuture Program implementation across six Pacific Island countries in the Melanesia and Micronesia subregions.

Prior to joining OurFish OurFuture Program, I served at the Pacific Community (SPC) in New Caledonia as SPC’s regional Aquaculture Adviser for 12 years providing policy and technical assistance across aquaculture management to SPC’s 26 member countries and territories. I have extensive experience working across the Pacific region, including a career in Solomon Islands with ICLARM (now WorldFish) and as a public servant within the national Department of Fisheries in Vanuatu having served through several fisheries and aquaculture technical roles to Director of Fisheries before moving to SPC in 2010. I hold undergraduate and post graduate qualifications in fisheries, aquaculture and environmental management from University of Edinburgh (UK), University of Wales (Bangor, UK) and University of Tasmania (Australia).

I am keen to contribute to CI by helping to build partnerships and collaboration in coastal fisheries science and management, empowering coastal communities with the necessary tools, skills and knowledge to help them make better decisions on the management of their resources for their future, their children’s future and the planet’s future.