Sylvia Yang is New Director for WWU’s SEA Discovery Center in Poulsbo

Western Washington University marine scientist Sylvia Yang has been named director at Western’s SEA Discovery Center in Poulsbo.

The SEA Discovery Center, located on the Liberty Bay waterfront in downtown Poulsbo, includes a tide pool touch tank, theater and aquariums as well as over 100 species of marine plants and animals found in Puget Sound. It offers a range of educational programs and events for the public and school groups.

Yang currently is a marine scientist at Western’s Shannon Point Marine Center in Anacortes and an instructor in Western’s Department of Environmental Sciences.  She will be winding up her work at Shannon Point Marine Center, splitting her time between Anacortes and Poulsbo, then will take up her SEA duties full time early in 2017.

“Dr. Yang is a perfect fit for the SEA Discovery Center. An accomplished research scientist, she has the ability to make science accessible for students of all ages, as well as for the public at-large,” said Earl Gibbons, vice provost for Extended Education at Western. “With her in the lead, Western will not only be able to continue the Center’s important work with elementary school students from the region's school districts, we will be able to expand those academic partnerships to involve older children all the way up through high school. I know Dr. Yang already has a number of ideas for extending the Center’s operating hours and improving community access and engagement.”

Yang has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Harvard University and a doctorate in Biology from the University of Washington. She was a postdoctoral fellow for the University of California as well as a National Science Foundation GK-12 Program fellow, in which she developed investigative science curriculum and taught high school. Her research interests have included seagrass ecology, ecosystem function and ecosystem services.

“When scientific research, education and people join together, we have the capacity to accomplish much more than one researcher or one teacher working alone. I’m excited to join the Poulsbo community and facilitate lifelong learning for all ages at the SEA Discovery Center,” Yang said. “It’s a humbling privilege to have the opportunity to serve society in this way – through building strong relationships amongst people, providing access to learning, and working collectively to contribute to our scientific understanding of the environment we live in.”

As director of the SEA Discovery Center, Yang will be responsible for the overall direction, development, and integration of community, academic, and scientific programs at the Center. The director is foremost a scientist engaged in research relevant to the region's citizens, community organizations, and businesses, and able to convey to the public the process of research science, scientific information and appreciation of aquatic ecosystems, through outreach activities, educational programs and aquarium exhibits.

The SEA Discovery Center is part of the WWU Extended Education’s Western on the Peninsulas Program.