Oceans Advocate, Pacific Oceans Initiative, Oceans Division, Nature Program Natural Resources Defense Council
Sandy Aylesworth advocates for policies that protect and restore our oceans. At NRDC, she focuses on preventing illegal seafood from entering the United States, preventing offshore drilling, and responsible siting of offshore wind. Prior to joining NRDC, she worked on climate change mitigation through the Montreal Protocol at the U.S. Department of State and was a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at NOAA’s Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. Over the course of her nine-year career as a captain and mate, she became intimately familiar with the oceans on voyages in French Polynesia, Mexico, the United States, and the Caribbean. Aylesworth also served in the U.S. Antarctic Program on seven oceanographic cruises. She holds a master's of environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a 500 Ton Ocean Master license. She is based in San Francisco.
