Katy is the Coordinator for the Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science based in Fiji, a position she took up in January 2021. Before joining SPC, Katy was at the University of the South Pacific (USP) holding a range of positions including as a Lecturer at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences and a Manager of the Pacific Natural Products Research Centre. She grew up on the island of Rendova, in the Solomon Islands. Dr. Soapi completed a bachelor’s degree at the USP, a master’s at the University of Sydney in Australia and a PhD at the University of East Anglia in the UK. She has a keen interest in science capacity development and is passionate about working at the community level on natural resource management.  

Jerome is the Head of the Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science based in Noumea, a position he took up in February 2021. Jerome is a physical oceanographer and have been working in the Pacific for over 20 years mostly at the French Institute of Research for the Development (IRD) and the University of Hawaii Sea Level Centre. He contributed to many scientific campaigns at sea deploying instruments and automatic measurement systems. Jerome believes that Pacific regionalism is crucial to address transboundary ocean issues and invests is Pacific people to deliver the best available science to inform local decisions.