Research Team
The Birds of the Grenadines Research Team is a partnership between independent researchers with the same mission: to promote, protect and preserve the unique natural and cultural heritage of the Grenadines archipelago, with a focus on biodiversity and sustainable local livelihoods.
Juliana Coffey
Juliana is a marine and terrestrial biologist, anthropologist, divemaster and ocean explorer from Newfoundland, Canada. Specializing in seabirds, marine mammals, maritime cultures and participatory co-management, she has been adventuring on the ocean for over 20 years to more than 40 countries, and has worked on fishing boats, sailing boats, research vessels and cruise ships from the Southern to Arctic Ocean, occasionally living in remote field camps for months at a time.
Juliana has been living in and conducting research throughout the Grenadines on and off since 2011, and now divides her time between Carriacou (Grenada) and Newfoundland (Canada). Her earlier projects in the Grenadines included overseeing the Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC) and coordinating marine multi-use zoning workshops on behalf of the Sustainable Grenadines Inc., as well as documenting local ecological knowledge (LEK) on birds from residents in the Grenadines. In 2020 she compiled the "Grenadines' Seabirds Community-based Conservation Management Plan" for both SVG and Grenada. Juliana also coordinates the "Grenadines Seabird Guardians" citizen scientist group and formed the Transboundary Seabird Stakeholder Working Group on behalf of Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC). Since 2016 she has been recruiting, training, and mentoring Grenadines-based citizen-scientists, with a particular emphasis on fisherfolk, and has more recently undertaken projects on invasive species, marine litter, island biodiversity and unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) technologies.
Juliana holds a BA in Physical Anthropology/Archaeology from Memorial University (Newfoundland, Canada), a Masters of Resource and Environmental Management (MREM) from Dalhousie (Nova Scotia, Canada), and conducted graduate research on tropical seabird satellite telemetry and marine plastic pollution in the Indian Ocean at Monash (Melbourne, Australia). She conducts freelance research and outreach as a consultant biologist and tour advisor with Archipelagics and cruises globally as an Environmental Officer with Carnival Corporation (Seabourn and Holland America).
Alison Ollivierre
Aly is an award-winning cartographer, certified GIS professional (GISP), and participatory mapping advocate from Vermont, USA. She’s been recognized as one of Geospatial World’s 50 Rising Stars and xyHt Magazine’s 40 Under 40 Remarkable Geospatial Professionals, has traveled to more than 20 counties, and has studied 11 languages. Her passion for birds started in elementary school and reignited in the Grenadines.
Aly lived on Union Island (SVG) from 2011–12, has lived on Mayreau (SVG) on and off since 2012, and currently lives in Colorado (USA). Aly’s earlier work in the Grenadines included assisting with a collaborative marine multi-use zoning plan to increase capacity to protect, manage, and sustainably use the resources of the Grenada Bank and facilitating a transboundary participatory mapping project to develop a comprehensive local knowledge geographic information system (GIS) database of important heritage sites for use in the countries’ application for designation as a mixed marine transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site. She currently serves on the We Are Mayreau, Inc. Board of Directors.
Aly holds a MSc degree from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine (Trinidad) in Geoinformatics and a BA degree from Middlebury College (Vermont, USA) in Geography. She wrote her MSc thesis on participatory mapping in Caribbean small island developing states and how it can be utilized to address climate change, and she earned a certificate from the GIslands (GIS + Islands) Advanced International School (Azores, Portugal) on the use and development of geotechnologies for the support and facilitation of planning and management for climate change adaptation in coastal and island environments.
Aly currently works full-time as a Senior Cartographer at National Geographic Maps, part-time conducting freelance work as Tombolo Maps & Design, and part-time as BirdsCaribbean’s Senior Cartographer, Caribbean Birding Trail Project Coordinator, and Operations Officer.