Jamie Testa, Project Coordinator of Chesapeake DolphinWatch
Jamie Testa is the Project Coordinator for Chesapeake DolphinWatch. Jamie earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Her work with marine mammals began in 2009 when she served as the Sea Turtle & Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for Maryland Department of Natural Resources. She began working on Chesapeake DolphinWatch in 2017, shortly after the project launched. Jamie has also worked as an analyst on the TailWinds project analyzing data from the real-time whale buoy off of Ocean City, Maryland. Recently she lived & worked in Denmark alongside researchers at Aarhus University as a science communicator on projects focused around harbor porpoises. She has been living and working around Chesapeake Bay since 2005 and recently became a certified Maryland Master Naturalist.
Danielle Deville, Research Assistant
Danielle Deville joined the DolphinWatch team in 2023 as a part time research assistant. Danielle earned her Associate’s Degree from College of Southern Maryland. Danielle spearheads DolphinWatch’s social media outreach, participates in outreach events, maintains DW’s photo library, and takes care of sighting verification for the app. In her free time, Danielle enjoys exploring nature, engaging with marine life, and sharing her passion for conservation.
Helen Bailey, Founder of Chesapeake DolphinWatch
Photo by Cheryl Nemazie
Helen Bailey, a prominent researcher studying the spatial and movement ecology of marine mammals and sea turtles, is the founder and External Advisor to Chesapeake DolphinWatch. She is also interested in the impact of pollution on the environment and marine species. She began the Chesapeake DolphinWatch project in 2017 to understand the distribution and movements of bottlenose dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay.
Tom Miller
Tom Miller is a professor of fisheries science at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Maryland. He was the co-investigator on the first award DolphinWatch received from Chesapeake Bay Trust. Tom has been a champion for DolphinWatch since its inception and now leads the project.
Kirsten Silva, Research Assistant
Kirsten Silva began as a volunteer at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory after she moved here from Minnesota in 2017. In 2018 she began working on projects analyzing dolphin sounds from audio recordings from offshore Ocean City, Maryland and Chesapeake Bay. She became a research assistant in 2019 and continues to contribute to the team through various projects.
Lauren Rodriguez
Lauren Rodriguez first came to the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory as a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) fellow to work on the Chesapeake DolphinWatch project during the summer of 2019. After graduating from Michigan State University, where she had continued working remotely on this project, she completed her Master’s degree at UMCES researching prey of bottlenose dolphins in the Bay. Lauren now works on eWhale project completing her PhD at the Universität Innsbruck.
Alumni Research Assistants
Thank you to Leila Fouda, Aran Garrod, Jessica Wingfield, Bill Fletcher, and Amber Fandel.