Education

Fall 2023

2014

PhD in Environmental Science and Management

University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), Bren School | Santa Barbara, CA

Dissertation Topic: Seaweed Aquaculture Co-Benefits & Seafood Market Shifts

Advisors: Darcy Bradley & Steve Gaines

BA in Environmental Studies and Anthropology

Dartmouth College | Hanover, NH

PDF CV

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • Estuarine Project Director

    Increasing the pace and scale of Olympia oyster and eelgrass restoration across California.

  • Research Advisory Panel

  • Project Coordinator

    Managed seaweed aquaculture field experiments focused on ecological impacts of production

  • Aquaculture Program Officer (6/16-12/16)

    Supported uptake of ASC certification in China, India, and Thailand while managing a business case for better practices in shrimp aquaculture

    Program Associate (6/15-6/2016)

    Managed development of a unique transparency tool, elemental profiling, for the shrimp aquaculture

    Produced videos, web content, photo series, thought and promotional pieces

    Research Intern (2/15-6/15)

    Built environmental and social tools for farm self-assessment against the shrimp ASC standards

    Collected water quality data in Thailand and China, aided in business case survey collection

  • Aquaculture Branch (FIRA) Intern

    Wrote and presented report focused on the role of inter-specific and intra-specific diversification of aquaculture as a tool to increase industry resilience

  • Peer Advising Program Coordinator (9/12-1/14)

    Designed and managed peer advising program that targeted retention of 61 freshmen Native American students 

    Peer Advisor (9/11-6/12)

    Advised two sets of 20 first-year Native American students

Publications

Peer Reviewed

Liliana Sierra Castillo, Caroline E Ferguson Irlanda, Nicolás Gómez Andújar, Elliot M Johnston, Hannah L Harrison, Phoebe Racine, Jessica Blythe, Lisa Campbell, Grant Murray, Joshua S Stoll. “To feed the world, recognize the interconnectedness of aquaculture and fisheries”. Nature Ocean Sustainability (2026).


Amanda Guthrie, Phoebe Racine, Nicole Barbour, Sara E. Cannon, Sara E. Marriott, Ruth Young, Ashley Bae, Sarah E. Lester, Adriane Michaelis. “Assessing socio-environmental suitability and social license of proposed offshore aquaculture development: a Florida case study.” Journal of the World Aquaculture Society(2024). 


Phoebe Racine, AnnaClaire Marley, Halley Froehlich, Steven Gaines, Ian Ladner, Ilan MacAdam-Somer, Darcy Bradley. "A case for seaweed aquaculture inclusion in US nutrient pollution management." Marine Policy 129 (2021): 104506.

Li Li, Claude Boyd, Phoebe Racine, Aaron McNevin, Benjaporn Somridhivej, Hang Ngo Minh, Huynh Quoc Tinh, Ravibabu Godumala."Assessment of elemental profiling for distinguishing geographic origin of aquacultured shrimp from India, Thailand and Vietnam." Food Control 80 (2017): 162-169.

Claude Boyd, Aaron McNevin, Phoebe Racine, Huynh Quoc Tinh, Hang Ngo Minh, Rawee Viriyatum, Duangchai Paungkaew, Carole Engle."Resource use assessment of shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei and Penaeus monodon, production in Thailand and Vietnam." Journal of the World Aquaculture Society 48.2 (2017): 201-226.

Carole Engle, Aaron McNevin, Phoebe Racine, Claude Boyd, Duangchai Paungkaew, Rawee Viriyatum, Huynh Quoc Tinh, Hang Ngo Minh. "Economics of sustainable intensification of aquaculture: evidence from shrimp farms in Vietnam and Thailand." Journal of the World Aquaculture Society 48.2 (2017): 227-239.

For Practioners

Phoebe Racine. Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Open Data in Environmental Sciences. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. June, 2022.

Phoebe Racine, “Making Shrimp Sustainable in Thailand.” WWF (2016)


Phoebe Racine and Daniel Brizuela, “Technology for Traceability.” Wildlabs(2016)

For General Audiences

Phoebe Racine, “California’s Seafood Supply Chain Through COVID-19 – Early insights from surveys on seafood consumers, farmers and fishers”California Fisheries & Seafood Institute  (2021)

FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS & GRANTS

In sum: $795,632 (2012-12/23)

Fellowships

National Socio-Ecological Synthesis Center (SESYNC) Graduate Fellow (2021) – ~$25,000

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) (2018) – $138,000

Doctoral Scholars Fellowship, UCSB, 2017—$113,000

Awards

Grad Slam Finalist 2019, UCSB (2019)

Best Paper in Applied Sciences 2017, World Aquaculture Society

Dean of the College Award for Service at Dartmouth 2014 

Devotion to Native Americans at Dartmouth 2014, Dartmouth College

Native American Program’s Emerging Leader Award 2011, Dartmouth College

Grants

Class Improvement Grant, UCSB ($8,392)- Teaching Assistant & Lead Instructor (6/22-4/23)

  • Awarded to develop Environmental Studies food systems class to a larger format

Environmental Justice Research, UCSB Bren School ($1,000) – Graduate Researcher (1/22-7/22) 

  • Developing a public resource and training materials on Indigenous data sovereignty

SeaGrant ($220,000) – Co-Manager & Graduate Student Assistant (9/19-8/22)

  • Awarded to co-manage, “Fisheries Interactions & Carbon Offsets: Assessing Existing and Potential Seaweed Markets” 

H. William Kuni Bren Research Award, UCSB Bren School ($12,200) – Co-PI (8/19-8/22)

  • Project in partnership with fellow PhD student to research the potential co-benefits of seaweed farms while bringing in several guest speakers

Grantham Foundation ($200,000) – Collaborator (1/19-12/19)

  • Awarded to interdisciplinary team of researchers at UCSB to assess carbon sequestration potential of seaweed mariculture

Coastal Fund Grant, UCSB ($9,100) – Principal Investigator (12/17-3/19)

  • Developed public-facing scientific and policy review for offshore shellfish farms in California with a masters and undergraduate student

Innovation Grant, World Wildlife Fund ($43,500) – Lead (1/16-12/16)

  • Partnered with Dr. Li Li to develop elemental profiling techniques for aquaculture species to trace product back to country of origin

Other: AISES Chapter Grant (‘22), Porter Sustainability Transitions Award (Dartmouth, ‘14 | $5,000); Steffanson Fellowship (Dartmouth, ‘14, $1,500); Undergraduate Research Grant (Dartmouth, ‘13 | $5,000); Mote Scholarship (‘12, $3,000); Pearl Family Grant (Dartmouth, 12/13 | $5,000)

Select Media

2025
San Francisco Chronicle | “These native California creatures are unusually well adapted for climate change”

2022

Growing in the Ocean | Short Documentary by Laurel Wee et al.

Engineering and Technology Magazine. “Tackling the oceans’ dead zones.” Len Williams

KCSB Schooled Radio. “School for Fishes? Mae Rennick and Phoebe Racine Talk Aquaculture”.

2021

Seaweed Revolution | Short Documentary by Gabriel de la Rosa et al.

Bloomberg | Virginia Gewin, ”Coastal ‘Dead Zones’ Are Multiplying. Seaweed May Be a Solution.”

AnthropoceneMagazine| Emma Bryce, ”The unrealized potential of seaweed farming to clean up agricultural pollution.”

2020

CalMatters/ABC news | Julie Cart, ”Did sea farm debacle sink California aquaculture?”

2018

Netflix, Santa Clarita Diet | Shellfish Aquaculture Consultant, Season 2

Leadership & Mentorship

TEACHING

Co-Advisor - Traditional Ecological Knowledge Lab, UCSB (9/22-12/22)

Advising student-designed and led course covering traditional knowledge and plant care

Co-Lead Teacher - Food, Agriculture, and the Environment, UCSB (7/22-9/22)

Instructed 40+ undergraduates in a survey course covering global food systems, student feedback considered “best in department”with a 91% “excellent” teaching.

Teaching Assistant - Food, Agriculture, and the Environment, UCSB (9/21-12/21) 

Led and developed weekly materials for section and conducted the grading for 65 students, student feedback: 100% “excellent”.

MENTORSHIP

Mentor | Graduate Scholars Program 

Deanna Cervantez, Olivia Isbell, Jose Valero (21 - 6/22)

Mentored minoritized PhD students by holding monthly meals & targeted, specific support

Advisor | Undergraduate Thesis

Sierra Emrick (9/18 - 6/19)

Guided Environmental Studies student researching seaweed aquaculture in California & its potential to become part of carbon-offsetting

Advisor | Independent Study

Sutara Nitenson (1/18 -3/18)

Guided undergraduate student in two unit class on California aquaculture policy

MANAGEMENT

Manager | Bren Environmental Leadership Fellows

Shey Dorjit (2026), Leah Jensen (2026)

Hired and supervised UCSB Masters and Undergraduate student to develop a data management system for Olympia oyster hatcheries

Manager | Masters’ Student Advising

AnnaClaire Marley (1/19-8/19), Elliot Matthews (5/20-8/20), Gabriel de la Rosa (5/20-8/21)

Hired and supervised Bren masters’ students across several projects in spatial analysis & consumer surveys

Client | Bren Masters’ Class Project 

Laurel Abowd, Sydney Rilum, Jaleise Hall (3/21-6/21)

Partnered with Bren masters’ class to create an interactive application (Shiny) to explore seaweed aquaculture remediation potential

Client | Bren Master’s Group Project

Ian Ladner, Shelby Oliver, Iwen Su (1/17 - 6/18)

Provided guidance for California seaweed aquaculture project while ensuring skillset development of students

COMMUNITY WORK

Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (6/26-Cont.)

Research Advisory Panel


American Indians in Sciences and Engineering Society (AISES), UCSB (9/21-Cont.)

Co-President - Rechartered UCSB’s AISES Chapter after community request and held quarterly events serving STEM students.

Dean's Advisory Council, UCSB Bren School (9/20–6/22) 

PhD Representative–Shared successes: development of Bren Leadership Collective; initiated student representation at Faculty Meetings; developed Bren PhD Town Hall; developed standards for faculty PhD mentorship

UCSB Coastal Fund, UCSB, (6/19- 12/20) 

Board Member - Allocated approximately $350,000 in funds each year to projects that conserve and increase access to the watershed associated with UCSB.

Amigos Marinos (2/18 - 9/19) 

Media Coordinator - Produced content to promote Amigos Marinos, a non-profit focused on providing dive fishermen with tools to conserve and protect their environment and livelihoods.

Native Americans at Dartmouth (6/12-9/12, 5/13-4/14) 

President & C0-President - Led and represented interests for a community of 4-5% of Dartmouth’s campus.

Speaking

  • Undergraduate Aquaculture Course,  Virginia Institute of Marine Science | William & Mary College

  • Traditional Ecological Knowledge Studies, UCSB Environmental Studies Department | 20 Students

  • Food, Agriculture and the Environment, UCSB Environmental Studies Department |162 Students

  • Environmental Research Design, UCSB Environmental Science and Management | PhD Course, 10 Students

  • Marine Pollution, Science, Policy and Public Perception, Moss Landing Marine Lab | Grad Course, 12 Students

  • Blue Horizons Summer Program for Environmental Media, UCSB | 25 Undergraduate Film Students

Select Guest Lectures

Select Presentations (*invited)

  • Seaweed Panel, Santa Barbara City College, Public Event

  • Motivating your PhD

  • Bren PhD Dean’s Advisory Council

  • Aquaculture America, “Revisiting Seaweed Aquaculture for Pollution Remediation”

  • Creative Writing Workshop, Guest Scientist

  • “Big Mussel: will they eat us out of the water?”

  • “Best Management Practices for Shellfish Aquaculture”

    *Bren Women’s Caucus, Co-presented with Timnit Kefela: “Having a Seat at the Table: The importance of intersectionality in your feminism”

    2018

    *UCSB Bren School Aquaculture Night,”Making Sense of Aquaculture Certification”

  • Co-presented with Timnit Kefela: “Having a Seat at the Table: The importance of intersectionality in your feminism”

  • ”Making Sense of Aquaculture Certification”

Skills

Methods: synthesis, panel surveys, semi-formal interviews, literature review, marine spatial analysis (intermediate), perception analysis, network analysis

Data Science: R: Tidyverse, RMarkdown (Bookdown), Shiny, spatial analysis (e.g. Leaflet), other data visualization (e.g. Sankey diagrams in networkD3)

Collaboration: GitHub, Google Suite, Task Managers (Trello), Zoom