Meet The Team
Kayla Feairheller
Founder & President
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PADI Divemaster
PADI Sidemount Diver
NAUI Scientific Diver with Kelp Forest Reef Check
AIDA 3 Free Diver
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Kayla is a Divemaster, a scientific diver, and a freelance conservationist who has pursued ocean exploration and science in every aspect of her life since she began her ocean journey when she moved to California in 2021.
Kayla’s career as a software engineer is centered around ocean technology. She joined Coral Gardeners in June, 2023 and works alongside engineers and scientists on the CG Labs team to build a Reef Observation System. She has experience in projects processing bathymetric seafloor data and automating coral reef heath models. She volunteers her time to restoring coral reefs, studying whale sharks, and monitoring kelp forests all over the world. She’s passionate about keeping our oceans clean and she hosts beach cleanups as often as she can.
When she’s not underwater, Kayla loves hiking, camping, and backpacking in the mountains. She loves long road trips, reading books about explorers, and she cherishes quality time with her loved ones. Most of the time, though, you’ll find her with her toes in the sand and her hair salty from the sea.
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Jessy Shelton
VP & Secretary
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PADI Scuba Instructor
PADI Sidemount Diver
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Jessy is a Scuba Instructor who was born and raised in Southern California waters. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science and Resource Management with an emphasis in Marine Sciences from CSU Channel Islands. Her research ranged from coastal and fluvial geomorphology to micro plastics to coastal access!
Climate change, beach erosion and effectively communicating science are what set her heart on fire!
She has a background in education as well, working as an outdoor educational guide across the Channel Islands for middle schoolers in her college days. She loves the outdoors but she especially loves being in the water! She’s been surfing her whole life, has over 1,000 dives under her belt (both recreational and technical), loves freediving and paddle boarding, and you can always find her enjoying the beach!
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Olivia Hughes
Treasurer
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PADI Open Water Diver
MOCC Class Certified
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Olivia's love for the ocean and the environment began at a young age. During her time in college, she received a degree in Biology, became a certified diver, and spent a semester on the Chesapeake Bay studying the ecosystems in depth, analyzing solutions to environmental problems, and exploring the nexus between science, policy, and people’s everyday life. Olivia went on to research sea turtle energetics in Hawai’i where she spent a field season in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands monitoring nesting Green turtles.
Olivia is an outdoor enthusiast and an avid backpacker who thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. She loves to spend her time traveling to new places where she goes hiking and diving to see the natural wonders of the world.
Professionally, Olivia expanded upon her science background and pursued the geospatial sciences. She has worked with datasets collected by drones and autonomous underwater vehicles and she currently serves as a Geospatial Application Developer for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources where she helps sustain and protect Washington's natural resources.
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Nico Becerra
Content & Marketing Intern
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PADI Advanced Open Water Diver
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Nico started his ocean journey before he can even remember. At the young age of four years old, he was already snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean along the coast of his hometown, San Diego. He received his Junior Open Water certification from PADI when he was 10 years old and developed a passion for scuba diving at an early age.
Most of Nico’s dive experience is centered around shark research and conservation. He volunteered with Broadreach, a program that allows high school students to immerse themselves in a new culture while researching unique species. During this program, Nico had the opportunity to dive with tiger sharks, bull sharks and nurse sharks in order to monitor their behavior for interesting patterns and write papers about his findings.
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Nico is one of our Content and Marketing Interns and his work focuses on writing a series of blogs about our conservation partners. As he writes to educate our community about our work with each partner, Nico shares stories from his own personal experiences in the underwater world. Each blog is an informative and inspiring piece and you can check them out by visiting our Collaborative page!