Willa Brooks graduated from Duke’s Master of Environmental Management (MEM) program in the Spring of 2019. Her Masters research employed a type of evidence synthesis, called evidence mapping, to systematically identify studies which evaluated impacts of social and ecological conservation interventions in mangrove ecosystems. This research is part of a larger project in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Ocean Evidence Systematic Map Bass Connection project, which Willa project managed through her second year at Duke.
Prior to attending Duke, Willa lived at sea as a fishery observer, and held seasonal positions in Eleuthera, the Bahamas, and in Guinjata, Mozambique contributing to research related to sustainable fisheries. She has worked intermittently as an intern in the Ichthyology Unit at the Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh since 2015, contributing to research on fish phylogenetics and lionfish brain morphology.
Willa currently works as a Data Technician on the Illuminating Hidden Harvest team. In this role, she provides feedback on data submitted by consultants in support of a collaboration between Duke, WorldFish, and FAO seeking to estimate global economic contributions provided by small-scale fishing.
In her free time, she enjoys scuba diving, playing beach volleyball, and learning about new packages in R.
Education:
M.E.M., Coastal Environmental Management, certificate in Geospatial Analysis, Duke Nicholas School of the Environment, 2019
B.S. Environmental Science, minor in Mathematics, Emory University, 2014