Women in North American Aquaculture

Lauren Enz describes Searenity Seafoods as her passion project. Having worked in different parts of the seafood industry including sales, purchasing and product development, she saw a need for a consulting network to help farmers, producers, and harvesters connect with corporate buyers in the North American market, hence the birth of Searenity Seafoods.

The Caribbean Aquaculture Education & Innovation Hub is a project that brings together science, technology, business, entrepreneurship, and policy to address the need for the improvement of aquaculture in the Caribbean. Aquaculture scientist, Juli-Anne Russo founded this education hub to help with education and information sharing.The website with social media linkshttps://www.caribbeanaquaculturehub.com/ Subscribe and join the networkhttps://caribbeanaquaculture876.substack.com/ Donation pagehttps://www.caribbeanaquaculturehub.com/donate

As a social media content creator, Emily De Sousa's mission is to change the way people think about global food systems and spread the message that the future of food is 'blue' through her influencer's brand, Seaside with Emily. In this episode, De Sousa discusses the insights of a content creator's life. Combining her scientific background in fisheries with her expertise in social marketing and digital communication, she explains what it takes to educate the public about aquaculture and sustainable seafood.

In her current role as manager of communications, partnerships and community for the BC Salmon Farmers Association, Michelle Franze has used her expertise to effectively communicate the benefits and importance of aquaculture to a wide audience. In this episode, Franze tells us about the Young Salmon Farmers in BC, a group she co-founded that aims to be an inclusive body to sustains a positive dialogue about ocean-based salmon farming in rural coastal Vancouver Island communities.

Genome editing is a technology that faces several challenges. Debbie Plouffe, co-founder and associate vice-president of business development for the Center for Aquaculture Technologies (CAT), discusses in this episode these challenges, and to how raise awareness about the potential of this technology for increasing food production.

Developing leadership skills and creating positive change in the future of women’s leadership is definitely something that requires collective effort in the aquaculture industry. In this episode, Sylvia Wulf, president and chief executive officer of AquaBounty Technologies, talks about challenges to bridging that gap, and what has helped her advance leadership positions and senior roles throughout her career.

Jeanne McKnight has more than 30 years of experience in communications and marketing within the aquaculture industry. She is the executive director of Northwest Aquaculture Alliance, and she is also president and chairman of her own communications firm, McKnight Group. In this episode, we meet up with Jeanne in person at Aquaculture 2022 in San Diego to share her thoughts on how the industry has changed over the years.

In 2020, Imani Black was on a search for role models and fellow colleagues who could share in her experience as a black woman in the aquaculture industry. And so, in the middle of a pandemic, she decided to found her own non-profit organization, Minorities in Aquaculture (MIA). In this episode, we explore the importance of diversity and inclusion in the sector, and creating more opportunities to engage with fish farmers of color.

With a short 12 years of industry experience under her belt, Jill Voorhees has already accomplished so much as a biologist South Dakota’s McNenny Fish Hatchery. In this episode, Jill shares how she fell into the world of fisheries and aquaculture, and has gone on to become an accomplished thought leader in the industry. The best advice she was ever given was don’t hold back! Work/life balance is possible with the right support systems.For transcript highlights, links, photos and more extras, you can them out at aquaculturenorthamerica.com/women.