Meet the Office

 Jennifer Loder, General Manager

Jenn is our General Manager, based in Brisbane. Whilst managing the regional survey monitoring in both the GBR and SEQ, she also works on partnership development, implementation of strategic marketing plans, data reporting and development of educational programs.

Jenn holds a GDipSci in Marine Biology from James Cook University and a MSc in Environmental Science from Florida International University. Her Master's research analysed the effectiveness of different communications techniques to increase public awareness about local marine conservation issues in South Florida and prompt participation in simple, concrete actions to limit personal impacts. Inspired by her first Indo-Pacific experience in Palau, Jenn moved to Australia to expand her marine biology knowledge and to pursue a career that blends science and education to protect reefs & oceans.

Corinna Byrne, SEQ Project Officer

Corinna joined Reef Check Australia as a volunteer in September last year, and has recently taken on the part-time position of project officer for the 2010 SEQ survey season. Corinna holds a BEnvSc with honours in Marine Botany from the University of Queensland, and currently works as an environmental planner within local government. Corinna is looking forward to the upcoming 2011 survey season and working with the Reef Check Australia team to help monitor and protect SEQ's reef communities.

Alex Lea, SEQ Project Officer

Alex graduated from the University of St Andrews, Scotland with a BSc Hons in Marine Biology, where her thesis was a literature review of coral reefs and the impact of climate change. She then moved to Australia to complete a Masters in Environmental Management at the University of Queensland. Alex has also been involved in several marine conservation projects in Fiji and is an active member of the University of Queensland Dive Club.

Jodi Salmond, SEQ Project Officer

Jodi Salmond is a marine biologist, completing her degree, with honours in Marine Parasitology, at James Cook University in Townsville. She started diving and helping with reef surveys on the Great Barrier Reef, before following her passion to a variety of new and exciting places. She spent three years at Underwater World on the Sunshine Coast in between two nesting seasons tagging turtles on Lady Musgrave Island, before moving to Christmas Island where she studied a myriad of amazing animals, and returned to reef surveys once more. She has recently returned from completing her DM whilst in Tofo, Mozambique, studying whale sharks and turtles, and helping with a new reef check program for the Mozambican coastline as part of a research team for All Out Africa. Jodi enjoys working with the Reef Check Australia team along her local coastline.

Meet the Company Consultants

Jodi Davison, Company Treasurer

Jodi joined as Reef Check Australia's accountant in 2009 and takes care of all the everyday accounting and financial management. In 2010 Jodi agreed to join the Board as Company Treasurer further fulfilling Reef Check Australia's financial and accounting needs. She has a Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Economics and is a Certified Practicing Accountant.

Krystal Stubbs, Company Secretary

Krystal joined Reef Check Australia as Company Secretary in September 2008 and now acts as one of the Company's named representatives on legal documents as well as maintaining the company records. She also practises as a lawyer at Connolly Suthers Lawyers in Townsville. Her specialities include general commercial law, company law, property law and wills and estates. This means she can ensure that Reef Check Australia complies with relevant legislation and regulations, as well as keeping the board members informed of their legal responsibilities.

Krystal has always had a keen interest in environmental conservation and chose environmental law and environmental studies while completing a Bachelor of Laws degree at James Cook University (Australia). Becoming a PADI certified open water diver in 2008, Krystal hopes to further her scuba diving skills by getting more dives under her belt and completing the PADI Advanced Open Water and Rescue Diver courses before joining the Reef Check Australia training course so that she can become more actively involved in helping monitor the reef.

Meet our Dedicated Team Volunteers

Paul Markey, Project Officer

Seasoned survey veteran, Paul can still be found regularly leading North Queensland surveys. Paul graduated from Colorado State University with a BSc in wildlife biology. When free from study he logged hours diving in the Denver aquarium whilst cleaning, feeding, and performing dive shows.  In 2007 Paul was involved in coral monitoring projects in the Seychelles collecting coral and invert data for the local MPA. Paul's last position in the dive industry was working as a DM on Ningaloo reef and volunteering his spare time to help out with manta research. Paul has been with us for two survey seasons now and says he really enjoys the opportunity to collaborate with RCA's elite volunteers and work as part of the Reef Check Australia team.

Daniel and Robbie Wisdom, Townsville Office Volunteers

Daniel is helping us with our photos database. He uses Lightroom to organize and improve survey photos so we can use this huge ressource more efficiently. While Robbie is of invaluable help by identifying which grants we can apply for.

Dave Henry,  Townsville Office Volunteer

Dave is a long-term recreational diver who retired to sunny Townsville some years ago.  He helps out in the office a day or so most weeks and occasionally gets involved in the local surveys.  You can catch him most days somewhere along the Strand or down at the Coast Guard - his other big interest. Dave's main task is to maintain the contact database and the volunteer certification database but he is also helping with many other tasks.

Louise Yates, Townsville Office Volunteer

Louise tracks lost members from the contact database for us. She also helps with Reef Check data quality control.