LiMPETS staff

About Us

The LiMPETS network was created in 2002 when the National Marine Sanctuaries of the West Coast worked together to streamline their intertidal student monitoring programs. Student-friendly protocols for monitoring rocky intertidal and sandy beach ecosystems were developed with the expertise of Dr. John Pearse, Dr. Jennifer Salzman, and many others. The LiMPETS network is a collaborative effort among California’s National Marine Sanctuaries, Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association, Marine Science Institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. Meet the LiMPETS team!

Julie Bursek coordinates LiMPETS for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary region, which includes Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. She is the Education Coordinator for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and works with southern California educators in the LiMPETS network.

Amy Dean manages and facilitates the LiMPETS programs for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and works with teachers and students in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also the Education Manager for the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association.

Laura Francis is Education Coordinator for the Santa Barbara office of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and has helped to support the LiMPETS network since its inception.

Claire Johnson Fackler supports the LiMPETS network as the overall coordinator of the program. Based in Santa Barbara, California, she supports regional and national education programs for the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program to inspire environmental stewardship and bring oceans into America’s classrooms.

Alison Young facilitates LiMPETS for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. She is also the Education Specialist and Camp Director at the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association.

Michele Kissinger is the Education Programs Assistant for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her involvement with LiMPETS includes training, teacher assistance, and support monitoring in the field.

John Pearse is a retired biology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He taught courses and did research in kelp forest and intertidal ecology in central California at the University for 26 years before devoting his time to help develop the LiMPETS program. He is also the president of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.

Christy Walker leads LiMPETS programs for the Gulf of the Farallones and northern Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary regions. As the Education Specialist for the Gulf of the Farallones, she also teaches a variety of sanctuary education programs for students, grades K-12.

Brent Williams is our brilliant website engineer. Brent is the founder and President of Future Perfect Studios, Inc., a developer of custom middleware and enterprise database solutions.

“Teaching and communicating science is not just about providing facts. It is asking questions and developing creative approaches to answering them in a hands-on setting. LiMPETS is a wonderful example of how to do this.”

– Dr. Jenifer Dugan, Research Biologist, Univ. of California at Santa Barbara