With an M.S. in publishing from Pace University in New York, Amanda spent a decade as a journalist. The majority of her career was as an on-staff editor at the international luxury-lifestyle magazine Robb Report, covering an array of categories from fine dining and travel to performance cars. Everything changed when a Michelin-starred chef shared his love of sustainable aquaculture with her during an interview. The information was contrary to everything Amanda knew about farmed fish. Fascinated and hungry to learn more, she soon found herself working in a remote coastal village in southwest Madagascar with the British NGO Blue Ventures. She spent four months on the organization’s community-based sea cucumber farm, which was part of an alternative livelihood program for local fishermen. Amanda immediately knew she would never return to her former life, and set out to work on the ground with coastal communities, facilitating conversations between scientists and village elders. The quest led to aquaculture and fisheries research in South Africa, the Philippines, Fiji and eventually a program coordinator role at Mālama Loko Ea—a nonprofit on the North Shore of Oʻahu that is working to restore a 400-year-old Hawaiian loko iʻa (fishpond).

Eager to fill in some of her scientific knowledge gaps and gain more hands-on skills, such as small boat handling and mechanics, she returned to California to pursue a second master’s, this time in marine biodiversity and conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her studies focused on how loko iʻa and traditional clam gardens in the Pacific Northwest (another form of indigenous and restorative aquaculture) can survive climate change and be a part of modern day food security. Having graduated in June 2020, Amanda now plans to return permanently to Hawaiʻi and continue her work with loko iʻa and other global forms of indigenous aquaculture.

Whether working or in her down time, Amanda strives to be outdoors and on the water as much as possible and can usually be found diving, surfing, or swimming.