Dr. Laura Fandino is the Assistant Dean of Professional and Continuing Education at UC San Diego Extension, where she also directs the university's public-facing Science & Sustainability programs. She is both a scientist and lawyer by training, and received her Ph.D. in Marine Biology from UC San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law. Laura's scientific research primarily focused on the molecular ecology of bacteria associated with marine phytoplankton blooms and she is published in the field of microbial ecology.