Prior to joining Re:wild, Christina was a senior biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where her main areas of research were cephalopod aquaculture and deep-sea invertebrates. She planned and led expeditions aboard ROV-equipped vessels to document and collect previously unstudied species and record datasets of benthic oxygen concentrations, water chemistry, flowrates, and sediment distribution. Christina led a project to identify and replicate the base components of Monterey Canyon marine snow, particularly seasonal algal fall, which led to the first successful exhibit of the brisingid star, Hymenodiscus sp. Ancillary investigations focused on flapjack octopuses and strawberry squid. Her cephalopod nutrition profiles and life support equipment designs have been adapted for commercial, government, and academic aquaculture.

Christina loves to share fun facts about octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish, and has been a repeat guest on NPR. Her favorite community engagement work was the Chicago Traveling Aquarium, a mobile display of Great Lakes native species that visited under resourced city neighborhoods.

While at Shedd Aquarium, Christina was a member of the Animal Response team that handled U.S. Fish and Wildlife confiscations of animals illegally trafficked through O’Hare Airport. An AAUS research and rescue diver, Christina worked in conjunction with the New England Aquarium’s Gulf Stream Orphan project to document the seasonal occurrence of tropical fish congregations along the U.S. eastern seaboard. She studied marine biology at University of California Santa Cruz, journalism at DePaul University and did her graduate work in museum studies at Northwestern University.

Christina enjoys tide pooling on the rocky Pacific shoreline, kayaking brackish ocean inlets, and hiking the Big Sur mountains just south of her home with her husband and their three kids. A lifelong musical theater fan, she supports arts education as a board member of Write4Arts in Los Angeles.