Paloma Herrera-Thomas

Paloma Herrera-Thomas portrait

Position Title
Junior Specialist

Bio

Paloma is a Junior Specialist working with the CWS Johnson-Jeffres group. Paloma has a B.S. in Environmental Science & Management from UC Davis. Focusing on salmonid otoliths and eye lenses, she uncovers spatial, ecological, and dietary patterns in the salmonid life cycle. With a childhood along Northern California watersheds, Paloma is driven by a passion for conserving, reintroducing, and studying salmonid populations, through the employment of stable isotope analysis, modern conservation techniques, and traditional ecological knowledge.

This approach integrates science and traditional ecological knowledge to safeguard watersheds facing climate change and anthropogenic pressures. Paloma actively contributes to scientific education through the Salmon in the Classroom project, while her responsibilities at the lab include field work, processing biological samples for stable isotope analysis, conducting morphometric research, and creating georeferenced maps for publication using geographic information systems.