A few years and career moves later, I find myself as an aquarist at the New York Aquarium (NYA). For the first time, I can confidently tell people that my job doesn’t feel like “a job”, which is something I have been wanting to find for a very long time. At NYA, I am one of the aquarist who is primarily in charge of the Conservation Hall galleries.

Like many of the extraordinary women featured on this site, I fell in love with the ocean early on and fell hard. Declaring myself a future marine biologist by the time I was about 9 years old, I spent summers exploring the barnacle-ridden rocky tidal pools at Wingaersheek Beach in my home state of Massachusetts or catch-and-releasing crabs and invertebrates that were unfortunate enough to pass by my grandparents’ dock in Chesapeake Bay. I was happiest when I was saltiest, and that hasn’t changed.

I became aware of threats against the ocean as soon as I started scuba diving, whether it was seeing coral bleaching during a dive or discarded fishing nets covering coral reefs, my eyes were now open to what most will never see. The threats to our ocean are mostly hidden to humans and this is why it has been so devastating, and little has been done to stop it.

The coral microbiome is still little understood. Nicole’s research aims to help us understand if we can utilize the coral microbiome to protect species from global and local stressors. Nicole also shares her advice for early career scientists and plans for the future.

Coral nurseries and coral restoration projects litter the internet as a ways to conserve and protect our reefs. But do they really work? What are their purpose? And what hope do they provide for our struggling reef systems? This week we spoke with two experienced coral nursery advocates, to hear their opinions on the importance of these projects for reef conservation.