Born in Mexico City and raised in San Diego, Paula Ezcurra is the Climate Science Alliance’s Operations and Grants Manager. Previously the Science Program Manager, Paula left in 2022 to enjoy an extended leave to care for her firstborn, Isabel. Paula is now back with the Climate Science Alliance, helping manage the organization’s back-end needs as it continues to grow. Paula has studied climate change and its impacts from a variety of angles. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Barbara she began studying the carbon sequestration potential of Mexico’s mangrove ecosystems. Then, as a graduate student in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Climate Science & Policy program, Paula completed a capstone project on the threat that climate change impacts, particularly rising seas, pose to coastal cultural heritage sites in Puerto Rico. Also at Scripps, Paula has previously worked as a research and communications associate for the Dr. Octavio Aburto, where her work has included distilling research on mangroves and conservation into policy and outreach materials intended for a non-scientific audience. Before joining the Alliance, she also served as a project coordinator to the California Collaborative for Climate Change Solutions under Dr. Ram Ramanathan. Paula has also been a research diver, and volunteer interpreter at an immigration nonprofit, and a college-access mentor for underserved high-school students in San Diego.