Tess is a research associate who relocated to Washington in 2020 after completing her bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. During her undergraduate studies, she interned for the Marine Mammal Research Program, led the American Cetacean Society Student Coalition UH Manoa chapter, and obtained her AAUS Scientific Diver qualification. For her undergraduate research she worked on a team assessing Hawaiian green sea turtle and algal occurrences in Kaneohe Bay.

With SR³, she is currently working on two killer whale projects: 1) Antarctic Peninsula killer whales- which uses photo-identification monitoring and aerial photogrammetry to assess the health and abundance of three ecotypes of killer whales (Type A, B1 and B2) and 2) Southern Resident killer whales, which uses aerial photogrammetry to assess and monitor the health of the endangered population of Southern Resident killer whales. Tess is interested in the use of technological advances to further cetacean research.