JUNE 26, 2015--Kimberly Page Albins joined NOAA’s Marine Debris Division as the Marine Debris Regional Coordinator for the Gulf of Mexico in April of 2013.

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Kim eagerly returned home to apply over 10 years of Marine Science experience to the Gulf of Mexico’s marine debris issues.

Fun fact: Her office at NOAA’s Disaster Response Center is less than five miles from the house she grew up in.

From 2006 to 2012, Kim led the planning and implementation of the near­shore oceanography program for the Partnership for the Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO), a large marine research consortium. As PISCO’s Chief Scientist aboard the R/V Elakha, Kim managed a team of research assistants deploying and maintaining oceanographic instrument moorings off the Oregon coast. Prior to joining PISCO, Kim experienced the destructive impacts marine debris has on delicate coral ­reef ecosystems while participating in marine debris removal cruises for NOAA’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division in Hawai`i. She also participated in numerous research cruises aboard NOAA Ships (Townsend Cromwell and Oscar Elton Sette) throughout the Pacific gaining an enthusiastic appreciation for marine life and research. During the course of this work, she logged thousands of hours at sea and hundreds of NOAA scientific and working SCUBA dives in the Pacific. Kim graduated with a Master of Science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Marine Botany, and a Bachelor of Arts from University of Hawaii at Hilo in Marine Science. In addition to her institutional and research knowledge, Kim taught a wide range of experience levels in various settings, authored peer ­reviewed scientific papers, and has a wealth of operational and managerial experience. She believes passionately in our collective responsibility to have a clean ocean and is working to facilitate the prevention and reduction of marine debris in the Gulf of Mexico by supporting research, education, and removal efforts.

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