T’Noya Thompson Being born and raised in the Bahamas fostered a deep connection to the ocean that inspired a career path at an early age for T’Noya. She began her career at Moody Gardens in the animal care department, where she served several roles, including connecting with communities in various capacities for twelve years. After Moody Gardens, she worked at Galveston Bay Foundation for two and a half years as the Advocacy Programs Manager. There she educated and encouraged action to improve the overall health of Galveston Bay, Texas’ largest estuary. T’Noya joined NAAEE as the EE Specialist in 2019 and then became the Manager of Research, Evaluation, and eeBLUE in 2021. She worked with various partners on eeBLUE, eeWORKS, eeRESEARCH, and developing eeVAL, an evaluation portal with Duke University. Currently, T’Noya serves as a consultant for NAAEE.

Additionally, she serves as a Community Learning Leader for Miami University’s Project Dragonfly’s Global Field Program, the Board Chair for the Vermilion Sea Institute, and a Board Member for Ecology Project International. She is a graduate of Class Eight of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders Program. T’Noya is also a member of the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation governing council, Science Committee, serves on the Advisory Council for A Rocha USA, and is an AZA Conservation Education Committee advisor. In the fall of 2021, she was the recipient of Conservation Nation’s Established Conservationist Grant and will be collaborating with Bahamian scientists on a dream project!

T’Noya holds a B.S. in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University at Galveston and an M.A. in Biology from Miami University through Project Dragonfly’s Global Field Program. This August, she began her Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership at Southeastern University. She is passionate about wildlife, environmental education, and supporting conservation and equity through community engagement. She enjoys growing in her faith, spending time with her wonderful family, meeting new people, and exploring when traveling in her spare time.