Kirsten Larsen joined NOAA’s National Centers of Environmental Information (NCEI) in 2016 as the Coastal Data Science Advisor. She manages the NCEI coastal science portfolio, which includes developing and maintaining data products such as the Gulf of Mexico Data Atlas, HypoxiaWatch, Gulf HABS Observing System, as well as working with coastal data providers both within and external to NOAA to help archive their data at NCEI. Previously she worked at NOAA Headquarters in several positions.

Larsen led a national habitat science team for NOAA Fisheries in the Office of Science & Technology, and prior to that she was the assistant to the NOAA Fisheries Chief Scientist. Kirsten was a Sea Grant Knauss Fellow from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) where she earned her M.S. in Biology and Fisheries. She worked as a research fisheries biologist at USM’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and with the NOAA Fisheries Pascagoula Laboratory where she spent much of her time in the marsh and out at sea. Kirsten is married to another NOAA employee, and they have three young children plus his two adult daughters.