Kristin Kleisner

Lead Senior Scientist and the Senior Director for Oceans Science (EDF)

Kristin Kleisner, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist and the Senior Director for Oceans Science at EDF. Her work is focused on understanding the multiple benefits generated by fisheries systems, including food, climate and biodiversity outcomes. Specifically, she is leading research to investigate the impacts of climate change on the distribution and productivity of fish stocks and understand the implications of these changes for fisheries management systems around the world. Kristin has also worked extensively to elevate the role of aquatic foods in the global food policy dialogue and to help value aquatic foods for their nutritional content. Currently she is leading a team of scientists investigating the potential of various blue carbon natural climate solutions to deliver a suite of benefits to people and nature while minimizing adverse outcomes and risks. Kristin worked previously as a joint research scientist for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole and The Nature Conservancy on the development of ecosystem-based models to explore the effect of climate change on fish stock distributions in New England. She also led research on the development of fisheries, food security, and ecosystem status indicators with IndiSeas (www.indiseas.org), FAO, UNESCO, and the Sea Around Us project. She was a co-PI on the Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) Working Group on Climate Resilient Fisheries and is a co-lead on the UN Ocean Decade FishSCORE 2030 programme. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed studies in the fisheries and oceanographic literature and holds a PhD in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami.