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Your Life-Saving Gift Will Be Matched

Found with his flippers tucked tightly against his body, California sea lion Pockets looked like a sick child with a bellyache.

Pockets was battling a potentially fatal bacterial disease, leptospirosis. We've rescued nearly 500 sea lions affected by this year's intense outbreak.

With your matched gift, you’ll not only help provide the meals and advanced medical care needed to help a sea lion like Pockets recover, but also support our researchers in learning more about this disease.

Match my life-saving gift
California sea lion
Joelle Vallejo

Joelle Vallejo

High School Programs Manager

Joelle leads all of the Center’s high school youth programs, including Youth Crew, Ocean Advocacy Collective and Stewardship Saturdays, and is focused on developing strategy and resources to engage our youth alumni. 

As a child of two teachers, Joelle has been involved in education for most of her life, which inspired her to major in mathematics teaching at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) and get her teaching credential at California State University Monterey Bay. She explored her passion for the environment as a science camp teacher after graduating from Cal Poly, and has worked with students in a formal math classroom setting the past three years. 

Joelle loves sharing her passion for the environment in all of her roles. When she is not teaching, she can usually be found on a hiking trail, ready to read a book at the top of the mountain!

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