Tessa M. Hill

Tessa M. Hill is the Associate Vice Provost for Academic Programs in Public Scholarship & Engagement at UC Davis. She is also a Professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences and Bodega Marine Laboratory. She previously held positions as Associate Director of Academic Programs and Associate Director of Public Engagement for the UC Davis Coastal & Marine Sciences Institute. She is the coauthor, with Eric Simons, of the book At Every Depth, about how communities of people are coming together to protect the ocean environment through a time period of great change.

Hill graduated with a BS in Marine Science from Eckerd College (1999) and a PhD in Marine Science from UC Santa Barbara (2004). She was then a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Davis, prior to starting a faculty position. Research interests include climate change, both past and present, and understanding the response of marine species to environmental perturbation. She is part of the Bodega Ocean Acidification Research (BOAR) group at Bodega Marine Laboratory, which aims to understand the impact of ocean acidification on marine species and West Coast communities. Hill leads an industry-academic partnership to understand the consequences of ocean acidification on shellfish farmers on the Northern California coast, and formerly a partnership with the UC Davis CalTeach MAST program to develop ocean-themed curriculum for middle schoolers. Hill’s work has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including NPR, The New York Times, Al Jazeera America and Science Friday.

Hill joined the Society’s Board of Trustees in 2016.