Zabrina is the Senior Director of Strategic Development at General Atomics. A graduate of Santa Clara University, where she studied physics and chemistry, she was recruited into the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Program, founded by Admiral Hyman Rickover, and served on the USS Carl Vinson as the nuclear propulsion officer. After completing her naval service, she joined the Nuclear Program at General Atomics as part of a team tasked with designing a new cost-effective nuclear reactor, among other challenges. In the years since, Zabrina has become a global leader in developing and delivering innovative solutions in the arenas of defense, energy, and the environment. In this capacity, she leads and manages high-impact projects and initiatives for military and commercial customers in nuclear energy, operations, advanced materials, robotics, additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and other leading-edge technologies. Zabrina holds master’s degrees from Old Dominion University and the University of San Diego and serves on multiple industry and academic boards.

Matthew Edwards is a coastal marine ecologist who specializes in rocky reef ecosystems throughout the Northeast Pacific Ocean. He received a BA in Aquatic Biology from UC Santa Barbara in 1990 and a MS in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in 1996. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of California Santa Cruz in 2001 where he studied spatial scales of community organization in kelp forest ecosystems. He joined the faculty at San Diego State University in 2002 where he is now a Full Professor who teaches courses in Marine Biology, Biostatistics, and General Ecology. He has served as the Vice Chair of the Biology department and as the Director of Undergraduate Advising at SDSU, and currently serves as the Marine Biology Emphasis coordinator. He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed papers from his research. His current research focuses on benthic ecology and aquaculture, with special attention to how to restore diminished kelp forests following their widespread losses, and how to enhance seaweed aquaculture along the US west coast.

Paula Sylvia is the Program Director of the Aquaculture and Blue Technology Program at the Port of San Diego, a program that was created in 2015. She oversees a variety of planning and pre-development initiatives aimed at developing environmental and economic opportunities for aquaculture, blue technology, and other nature-based solution businesses in and around San Diego Bay. She also manages the Port’s Blue Economy Incubator, a platform to support entrepreneurship and innovation partnerships to facilitate and scale pilot projects and build a portfolio of nature-based solutions and new businesses that can deliver multiple social, environmental, and economic benefits to the region.

Before coming to the Port, Paula worked as a Research Biologist for NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service, Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California for 2.5 years. Prior to her NOAA position, she worked as the Offshore Aquaculture Program Manager at Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute in San Diego, California for 13 years. In these roles, Paula was responsible for planning, permitting and implementing offshore aquaculture projects in the southern California region and northern Baja California, Mexico for fisheries replenishment, restoration and food production purposes.

‍

Matthew Suhay has been a software engineer for over 15 years. During his career, he has led teams of engineers from 1 to 20 members, played a role in a $1.3B acquisition, run multimillion-dollar recruitment campaigns for large state universities, and even run not-so-large marketing sites for online brands you’ve probably never heard of.

In his most recent adventure, he has turned from engineer to Founder, where he and his scrappy band of environmental technologists seek ways to provide hope for people suffering from climate anxiety through their sustainability platform, ZeroIn.