Grace Walls joined Coonamessett Farm Foundation in April of 2026 as a Research Assistant and At-Sea Technician. She completed her B.S. in Biology with minors in Natural Resource Conservation and Psychology from University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2013. From there she developed 6 different marine education programs for different NPOs and school systems of her native Cape Cod. Drawn to research, she went aboard the NOAAS Henry B. Bigelow which started off the adventure of hundreds of sea days spent on both fishing and research vessels around the globe. The majority of her time was spent as a North Pacific Groundfish Observer with the Alaskan fishing fleets based the Aleutian Islands, sailing in the Bering Sea, and the Gulf of Alaska. Migrating to the Baltic Sea for her masters in Biological Oceanography at GEOMAR, her thesis monitored the effects of changing environmental conditions on plastic ingestion and feeding ecology of benthopelagic fish. While there her at sea experience lead to being the neuston catamaran team lead on R/V Poseidon on an interdisciplinary cruise to the Azores and Mid-Atlantic Ridge, as well as at-sea technician aboard annual R/V Alkor fisheries cruises. Switching gears once again and settling benthically to work with invertebrates, Grace completed her doctoral thesis field work in 2022. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the St. Francis Xavier University and Memorial University of Newfoundland joint program looking to unravel the mysteries of lobster foraging ecology to determine sustainable alternative baits for the lobster industry.

EDUCATION:

PhD in Marine Biology – In progress, Memorial University of Newfoundland and St. Francis Xavier University, 2026

M.S. in Biological Oceanography - University of Kiel and GEOMAR, 2020

B.S. in Biology, minors Natural Resource Conservation and Psychology - University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2012

INTERESTS & EXPERTISE:

Benthic Invertebrate Research, Foraging Ecology, Sustainable Fisheries, Ecosystem dynamics