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Staff

Andrew W. David, Research Fishery Biologist

Andrew David began working at the Panama City laboratory in the fall of 1990. Previously, he worked for the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg, FL. He earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Biology from Stetson University in 1986 and a Master’s of Science in Marine Science from the University of South Florida in 1993. He is currently the team leader for the Marine Protected Area team and as such his primary research interests are studying reef fish assemblages and habitat associations within protected areas in the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. South Atlantic. Concomitant to this biological research is high resolution multibeam mapping of the outer continental shelf of west Florida and throughout the south Atlantic. He has several peer reviewed publications as well as numerous reports to fishery management councils and presentations at regional, national and international scientific meetings. In addition to his research responsibilities, Mr. David is the Line Office Diving Officer for NOAA Fisheries.

Click here to contact Andrew David.

Stacey L. Harter, Research Ecologist

Stacey got her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Florida State University in 1999. She then went on to receive her Master’s of Science in Marine Science from the University of South Alabama in 2002. While attending FSU, Stacey spent two summers as an intern at the NOAA Fisheries Laboratory. Upon completion of her Masters, Stacey obtained a full-time job at the lab in 2002. She is currently a co-principal investigator for projects examining protected deep sea coral and mesophotic ecosystems as well as recruitment of juvenile reef fish into St. Andrew Bay. Stacey has multiple peer reviewed publications as well as numerous reports to fishery management councils and presentations at regional, national and international scientific meetings.

Click here to contact Stacey Harter.

Leigh Hedgepeth, LTJG, NOAA Corps Officer

 LTjg Leigh Hedgepeth grew up in Norfolk, Virginia on the eastern branch of the Elizabeth River. After developing an interest in the environment at an early age, she received a dual degree in Environmental Policy and Planning and Applied Geography with a certification in Geographic Information Systems from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.  During college she interned with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Eastern Virginia Regulatory Branch in Norfolk. Upon graduation she worked for the New Hanover County Planning Department in North Carolina as a GIS intern.

LTjg Hedgepeth served her first sea tour aboard the NOAA Ship Fairweather, a 231' hydrography vessel that works mainly in Alaskan waters and the Pacific Northwest coast.  She served as a deck officer, ship's diver and as the features management officer by helping both survey technicians and her fellow junior officers address both charted and uncharted shoreline features in their survey areas, along with numerous collateral duties. 

LTjg Hedgepeth serves as part of the dive team and as a GIS technician for habitat assessment with the Marine Protected Area team at the National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory in Panama City, FL as her first land assignment. She looks forward to learning how to apply her current hydrographic and GIS experience to fisheries.

Click here to contact Leigh Hedgepeth.

Marta M. Ribera, Biology Technician / GIS Specialist

Marta earned her Bachelors degree in Biology at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in Spain, following her studies with a Post-Graduate degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Marta started to work at the NOAA Fisheries laboratory in 2004 as an intern, becoming a full-time employee six-months later. Nowadays, she is pursuing her PhD in GIS at Boston University while still working part time as the lab’s GIS specialist and a fisheries biologist for the MPA team. At the moment, her main focus is the survey of MPAs, spatial analysis of fisheries data, mapping and habitat classification of the sea bottom.

Click here to contact Marta Ribera.