Dr. Margarita N. Lavides is a higher education and non-profit professional for marine environmental conservation, science & policy who consistently obtains successful teaching, research, policy, and practice outcomes in Southeast Asia and the US. Have effectively taught courses from introductory environmental and biological subjects to higher major graduate courses in leading universities in the Philippines and in the US. Dr. Lavides earned her PhD in Marine Science from Newcastle University, United Kingdom; with an MS in Adolescent Science Education from Pace University, NYC, and an MS and BS in Biology from the Philippines. She is a marine scientist and practitioner, who has directed & conducted externally-funded and international collaborative marine conservation research & initiatives, in Southeast Asia, including a national network of marine protected areas & on reef fish local extinction incorporating big data approaches to address these topics and which intersect with climate change. Dr. Lavides is a former independent Research Fellow who supported the knowledge base of Rights of Nature for Earth Law Center, a New York City non-profit that operates around the globe. Also, an External Expert Reviewer and Contributor for the Inter-governmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). She is currently an Adjunct Faculty of Environmental Studies/Science at Manhattan College, NYC; of Climate Change Biology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ, and; of Invertebrate Zoology at Bergen Community College, NJ. Dr. Lavides is also doing collaborative research on reef fish extinction intersecting with climate change and other socio-ecological variables using big data and indigenous/fishers’ knowledge and Bayesian Network Modelling.