Live Q&A with Melissa the Blue Fund Finder

Melissa Walsh learned to scuba dive just before her 12th birthday, started a recycling club at school, and has spent the last 25 years making herself useful to the ocean in every way she can imagine, as a scientist, a conservationist, and now as Director of Blue Finance Innovation at the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA), where she's one of the world's leading experts in ocean finance. The problem Melissa kept running into was money. The scientists and communities doing incredible work to protect the ocean never had enough of it. So she invented a new kind of career for herself, a PhD in marine conservation finance that didn't exist yet, and taught herself to speak the languages of science, community, and capital all at once. Now she works to move $1 billion in private sector funding toward a healthier ocean, connecting fishing communities in Small Island Developing States with the largest financial institutions in the world. Melissa's Q&A will be fascinating window into a part of ocean advocacy most people never think about, and into what it looks like to invent your own path when the one you need doesn't exist yet.