Where are they now: Dana Myers

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“Where are they now” is a series on the California WaterBlog. The series will celebrate the many alumni who got their start at the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) and have now gone on to bigger and better things. Blog posts from the “Where are they now” series will be peppered throughout our regular blog line up, and they will highlight both former students and past employees of CWS. We hope you enjoy their stories in their own words!

Next up is Dana Myers, who was at CWS from 2017 – 2019.

I was just getting started in college as a bright-eyed college sophomore, ready to get hands-on experience in research, when I started working at CWS in January of 2017.

Dana Myers posing with a rainbow trout after participating in her first field work trip tagging these fish to track their migration throughout the Delta.

Working as an Undergraduate Researcher at the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS), I got up close and personal with juvenile Chinook Salmon, extracting their gut contents to understand what they’re really eating. My job included being a part of the Bug Lab, the unofficial name of the lab created by Dr. Rachel Johnson and Dr. Carson Jeffres (JJ Lab), placing me diligently behind a dissection microscope squeezing out gut contents of juvenile Chinook Salmon. This research was led by Dr. Anna Sturrock (now back in the UK) and supported by Mollie Ogaz (now at Cramer Fish Sciences). In the end, this work culminated into a published paper on floodplain foodscapes and their influence on Chinook Salmon sustainability in the Delta. In addition to this research, at the end of my senior year, I teamed up with another researcher, Miranda Bell Tilcock, to present isotope research at the 2019 Interagency Ecological Program’s Conference.

Throughout my time at CWS, I worked full time at CWS every summer, which also meant that I was biking miles in the wonderful 100+ degree weather. As a southern California native, this heat was way outside the normal for me and I felt it every time I stepped into the sunlight. Whenever I arrived at the lab, I would be drenched in sweat. Miranda and Mollie would take one look at me and send me to the walk-in freezer (where we kept our samples) to cool off. Honestly, I wish for every job I have to have a walk-in the freezer; it was a game-changer.

Dana Myers posing with her first lead author poster at the 2019 IEP Conference in Folsom, CA.

Now I am a PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, studying Physical Oceanography as a part of the Coastal Oceanography and Autonomous Systems (COAST) Lab. You can find me putting instruments out in marshes to measure water flow, flying drones over kelp forests to monitor their abundance, and teaching students about oceanography as both a teaching assistant at UCSB and as a naturalist for Santa Barbara youth through various outreach programs.

My current research takes me back to the Delta and close to my CWS family! I am a 2025 Delta Fellow, studying saltwater intrusion in the San Francisco Bay-Delta using satellite remote sensing technologies. The Delta is a crucial part of California’s water system, but it has been heavily modified. Dams now control much of the freshwater release in the Delta to counter the saltier ocean water that enters the system from the San Francisco Bay. This balance of fresh and saltwater mixing influences water quality, habitat suitability, and freshwater management, yet comprehensive observations of its dynamics remains limited. This project uses a novel approach to bridge this gap in knowledge: examining satellite photos to track where fresh river and salty ocean waters meet. In particular, I’m focused on a zone known as the “estuarine turbidity maximum,” a cloudy band of muddy river water mixed with salty ocean water that is visible to modern satellites. This turbidity signature also tends to align with the “low salinity zone” used by regulatory agencies to mark the extent of saltwater intrusion. By relating turbidity and salinity in the Delta, I can assess whether the estuarine turbidity maximum can be used to indicate the extent of saltwater intrusion, offering a new tool for assessing freshwater outflow requirements from dam releases and ecological habitat extent under changing climate and water operations

Dana Myers and fellow 2025 Delta Science Fellow recipients at the Delta Early Career Workshop in Sacramento, CA. From left to right: Nishar Chhatiawala (RAND School of Public Policy), Sebastian Gonzales (UC Davis), Rebecca VanArnam (UC Davis), Shahin Islam (UC Davis), Dana Myers (UC Santa Barbara), Abhinav Sharma (UC Santa Cruz)

CWS was vital in getting me to where I am today. My first time in a research lab was at CWS, and I have held every subsequent research position I have had since to the standards that CWS set. I want a work place that is a fun place to walk into every day, fosters a friendly environment where coworkers are uplifting about your work and interested in your well-being, all the while being dedicated to performing meaningful research.

I still use Rachel and Carson as my job references, and I think it’s an attestament to their investment in my career (professional, as well as, personal) that they can still speak on my character and work ethic even 6 years later.

About the Author

Dana Myers and fellow researcher Jordan Snyder (UC Santa Barbara) hand launching a large drone off the coast of Santa Barbara to study giant kelp abundance.

Dana Myers grew up in Long Beach, California and completed her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Management with a minor in Geographic Information Systems at the University of California, Davis. On top of working for the CWS, she also interned for Dr. Amelia Munson at the Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture studying fish metabolisms; Dr. Lauren Yamane in the Department of Ecology researching red urchin fishing pressures; and Dr. Sarah Yarnell at CWS demonstrating the benefits of beaver dams for carbon sequestration in meadows. She rounded off her time at UC Davis by studying abroad at the University of Queensland, St. Lucia in Brisbane, Australia taking terrestrial ecology and marine biology courses. This sparked her passion for marine science and she has since gone on to work for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in their Marine Division, obtained a summer fellowship with the NASA DEVELOP program researching wetland inundation, and most recently, works as a Marine Science Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. When she is not diligently working on her dissertation, you can find her teaching children about marine science as an instructor at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum or strolling through thrift stores and yard sales around Goleta, CA, or improving her art skills outside of cafes in the area.

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If this story resonated with you, consider making a gift to the Center to help us create more meaningful opportunities for students across our programs. Want to support the specific experience featured here? You can do that too, by supporting CWS Fishes, Floodplains, and Springs Research.