Kristen Weiss: A Series of Solutions

Kristen Weiss: A Series of Solutions

About the Project

Kristen's proposed project A Series of Solutions will include 4 micro-docs - each about 3 minutes in length - that highlight different aspects of ocean research that are paving a way toward more sustainable ocean management and protection of coastal resources and habitats

Each of the four films would feature an aspect of ocean health and sustainability related to the research that staff from the Center for Ocean Solutions and its partner institutions are leading. The Center for Ocean Solutions is a partnership of Stanford University (through the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and Hopkins Marine Station), the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Kristen feels that highlighting this work through short films will bring wider recognition of the role that science can play in keeping our oceans healthy.

The key target audiences for this film series include academics who may want to collaborate on these projects, students (particularly graduate students), policy makers and other decision makers who make decisions involving ocean management/protection, as well as coastal community members and consumers of fish and other ocean resources that are concerned about the future availability of these resources, or concerned about protecting their coastal regions from negative ocean impacts.

The 4 films will cover the following topics:

1) Protecting California's abalone from ocean acidification and oxygen shortages.

2) Improving ocean monitoring and protection through the Marine Biodiversity Observing Network.

3) Making coastlines resilient to sea level rise by protecting natural assets, focusing on protection of dunes and wetlands, which improves ocean health as well as protecting coastal human communities.

4) Improving sustainability in small-scale fisheries, focusing on how to sustain both marine resources and human livelihoods in these fisheries which are so important globally.

About the Grantee

Born and raised in California, Kristen has had a passion for conserving the natural environment from an early age. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Resources Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley, she also made her first documentary film centered on a university union strike over unfair working conditions. While conducting research for her PhD in Queensland, Australia, Kristen produced two short documentary films featuring an innovative program that trains Indigenous rangers to manage their own community’s sea turtle and dugong populations in the Torres Strait Islands. Kristen is currently an early career fellow in science communication at the Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, where she helps produce mini-documentaries about ocean challenges—from climate change to overfishing—and the novel research helping to solve them. Kristen is driven by her combined fervor for ocean conservation and science communication to produce meaningful films that invite people to experience both awe and concern for our amazing planet.

Kristen Weiss / Series of Solutions: The Postdoc

Kristen Weiss / Series of Solutions: Mentors & The Intern