Please join California Naturalist in extending a warm welcome to our newest team member, Eliot Freutel! Eliot joined us last month as the new Community Education Specialist in Southern California. He is based at UCCE Los Angeles County in Alhambra. Eliot received his B.A. in Translation and Interpretation for Spanish and English at Cal State University Long Beach. He worked on Catalina Island with the Long Beach Marine Institute for over 10 years as an outdoor education instructor teaching students about the ecology of the Island. He joins us after working as an educator and climate resilience coordinator at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. In that capacity, Eliot developed two community outreach programs focused on bringing climate resilience strategies to underserved community members throughout the city. He is multilingual (Spanish, Portuguese, and English), a shark and marine ecology expert, and happiest when he is outside or underwater.