Helen is a first-year Master’s student in the Hughes lab since graduating from Sonoma State University in spring of 2026 with a B.S. in Environmental Science, Geography, and Management and minors in Biology and Sustainability. In spring of 2025, Helen began working as an intern for the lab and earned her AAUS scientific diver certification that summer. Becoming a diver was a life-long ambition for her and it’s been an incredible experience getting to practice science underwater! As an intern, Helen primarily supported with kelp restoration monitoring dives in Mendocino and estuary monitoring in Marin and Sonoma counties. She is thrilled to begin her own research with the lab! Helen’s personal interests include kelp forest and estuarine food webs and ecosystem restoration. She hopes to focus on predator-prey interactions post-Sea Star Wasting Syndrome and keystone species loss with an emphasis on sea star species.

During her time at SSU, Helen worked for the SSU Office of Energy & Sustainability where her research focused on campus-wide waste reduction through the development of better waste-management practices and increasing awareness and interest in sustainability practices. Helen also worked as a research assistant to Dr. Allison Ford in the College of Humanities, Social Sciences and Arts where she contributed to ethnographic research on the Working Lands Project in collaboration with Point Blue Conservation Science.

Helen is inspired by nature and those working to protect it and hopes to give back as much as possible. In her free time, she loves to practice yoga in the garden, swim in the ocean, and backpack where there’s no cell service!