Misty Nelson was recently hired as the Lead Scientist and supervisor of the CNDDB program. She brings nearly two decades of experience to the position, including a B.A. in Environmental Biology from the University of Montana, and an M.S. in Marine Science from the University of South Florida, where she studied the acoustic behavior of red grouper from marine reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. She has worked in a wide range of natural resource science and data management positions, with projects spanning an array of taxa and subjects, including freshwater and marine fisheries, small mammal ecology, aquatic invasive weed surveys, large whale research, and noise and light pollution. Most recently, she worked with the CDFW Wildlife Branch, where she coordinated a large-scale terrestrial biodiversity monitoring effort at hundreds of locations in the Mojave Desert and Central Valley of California.