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Originally from northern Virginia, Alec Hutchinson studied Political Science and International Relations, with an emphasis on Environmental Studies at Virginia Tech. He studied abroad in Spain and Ecuador, strengthening his passion for environmental conservation during expeditions to the Amazon region and the Galapagos Islands.
Following graduation, Alec began work on Conservation International’s Sea Turtle Flagship Program (CI-STFP), working simultaneously with the IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG). There, he was responsible for gathering and organizing data for the State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWOT) Report, an internationally recognized publication on global sea turtle populations and conservation status. During his tenure at CI, Alec also worked on the Great Turtle Race, a widely-successful internet-based event to raise awareness about the plight of the Pacific leatherback turtle, amongst other awareness campaigns and training workshops.
After leaving CI, Alec took the position of Director of Nesting Beach Projects for Pretoma, a small, Costa Rican-based marine conservation organization focused on the conservation of sea turtles, sharks and fisheries in the eastern Pacific. There he managed several sea turtle nesting beach conservation projects in small communities along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Currently, he is developing proposals for an at-sea research project to study the population dynamics of hawksbill and green turtles in Pacific Costa Rica.