Originally from the UK, I graduated from the University of Sheffield with a Master of Biological Sciences degree in Zoology in 2004. I then spent a few years exploring different research positions, including time volunteering for an NGO studying coral reefs in Honduras, working for the UK government and assisting on a PhD programme in French Polynesia. In 2012, I was awarded my PhD from Imperial College London. My thesis focussed on the recovery dynamics of a sea urchin species in the Caribbean that had been wiped out by a mass mortality event. Between 2012 and 2017 I worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Queensland, Brisbane. My first role was under a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant, and I later joined the Capturing Coral Reef and Related Ecosystem Services (CCRES) project funded by the World Bank. I joined Victoria University of Wellington in January 2018 as a Lecturer in Fisheries Biology.