Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Ella is a graduate from the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. Her doctoral research focused on the role of knowledge co-production in the development and application of coastal-marine indicators, the co-development of qualitative and visual scenarios of sea otter return, and the implications for ecosystem-based management and governance.

Her M.Sc. research examined the rezoning of Africa’s oldest Marine Protected Area (MPA), the Tsitsikamma National Park (TNP) MPA, and the implications for coastal communities in terms of their customary access and livelihoods. She has served as a consultant for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including a recent project on integrating social sciences into Canada’s Oceans Act MPAs, and she has taught and written widely on issues of coastal governance, marine conservation, knowledge co-production and fisheries issues in South Africa and Canada. She will be devoting much of her time to support ongoing regional synthesis efforts in collaboration with V2V Africa country teams, while also leading and collaborating on opportunities for synthesis across the V2V Global Partnership.