Mission: Iconic Reefs team expands with hiring of research and monitoring coordinator

Dr. Katey Lesneski, an expert in reef restoration with a background in marine genomics, has joined Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary as Research & Monitoring Coordinator for Mission: Iconic Reefs. Her title is classified as Senior Research Scientist. Lesneski comes to the sanctuary from Freeport, Bahamas, where she was Director of Restoration Science at Coral Vita.  For Mission: Iconic Reefs, one of the largest coral restoration projects in the world, Lesneski will serve as technical manager for all research and monitoring activities, including data and information management.

“The coral restoration taking place in the Keys under Mission: Iconic Reefs is conducted by partner organizations, and our responsibility at the sanctuary is to provide management oversight,” says superintendent Sarah Fangman. “Dr. Lesneski will play a key role in planning and monitoring as we move forward with the ambitious goal of outplanting half a million corals over the next 20 years.”

Lesneski earned a Ph.D. in marine biology from Boston University, studying staghorn coral from an ecological and genomic perspective, primarily on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere. She will be based in Key Largo.

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