The Team

Kelly Martin is the CEO of the Conservation Education Society, which was founded in March 2019. Kelly’s main focus and passion is education that teaches respect and appreciation for the natural world. Previous to this, Kelly managed a Primate Conservation Rehabilitation Centre, Colobus Conservation in Kenya. Kelly studied Zoology at Liverpool John Moore’s University, obtaining a BSc with honours in 2010. Kelly later obtained a MSc in Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes University in 2015. Kelly has travelled and worked in several African countries and Indonesia on a variety of conservation projects, relocating to Diani, Kenya in 2015.

Fatma Manyenze joined Conservation Education Society in June 2019. Previously, Fatma worked as an intern for the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute. She obtained a BSc at the University of Nairobi in 2013 and her MSc at Pwani University in Fisheries in 2019. In July of 2019, Fatma attended the 11th WIOMSA symposium in Mauritius. Fatma’s MSc thesis contributed to a regional project Estuarize-WIO entitled “Characterization of the fisheries resources of the Tana Delta ecosystem, north Coast of Kenya”. Her general interest is in the biodiversity that lies within the coastal and marine ecosystems.

Jenni has been involved since the Society’s origins and her main focus has been to use both education and research to help conserve the marine environment. She has a BSc with honours in Biology from Newcastle University, UK, has worked in several countries, and moved to Kenya in 2018. She has been an avid scuba diver since2012 and believes that we can all make a difference every day for the benefit of our oceans.

Harveen has been a volunteer with us since May 2020 and since then has been actively involved in several of our projects such as the Marine Club and Global Giving campaigns. Although new to the conservation sector, she has shown enthusiasm to grow in this area and achieve her goal of promoting ocean conservation and sustainability through our Society.

Joana Hancock was the Sea Turtle Biologist for the Olive Ridley Project in Kenya from November 2018. Since November 2019 Joana is the Project Manager and will be focusing on furthering sea turtle research in Kenya. Joana started working as a sea turtle biologist in 2002 and has since been based in Greece, Costa Rica, and Panamá on projects with leatherback, green, and hawksbill turtles. She completed her MSc thesis in Cape Verde in 2011 and most recently her PhD in São Tomé and the Príncipe Islands. Joana is also a member of Central Africa’s sea turtle conservation network (RASTOMA), collaborating with projects throughout Africa.

Leah Mainye joined the marine team in December 2019. Prior to this, she worked as an intern at several conservation organisations; namely, A Rocha Kenya and the REEFolution Foundation. She obtained her BSc in Marine Biology from the University of San Carlos, Philippines, where her enthusiasm for marine conservation led her to focus on by-catch species in crab fisheries as part of her undergraduate thesis project, which she successfully completed in 2018. As a sea turtle monitoring assistant, she dives almost daily to monitor the sea turtle population via a photographic identification project along Diani’s coastline.