Maddalena Bearzi is President and co-founder of Ocean Conservation Society, Marina del Rey, California. She received a Ph.D. in Biology and a Postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. Maddalena has been actively involved in studying the ecology of marine mammals with a strong conservation bias since 1990. Her research work on dolphins, whales and pinnipeds off Southern California has been ongoing for almost 30 years. She has published several scientific peer-reviewed papers, she is co-author of the book Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins (Harvard University Press, 2008), author of Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist (University of Chicago Press, 2012), Stranded: Finding Nature in Uncertain Time (Heyday, 2023), and the children’s book The Secret Life of a Sea Turtle (MacMillan, 2025). Her new book The Secret Life of a Dolphin is forthcoming. Her scientific research and books have been covered, among others, by CNN, NPR, KPCC, PRI, Take Part Live, the Los Angeles Times, the New Scientist, American Scientist, and the Huffington Post. She has worked as a photojournalist and a blogger for National Geographic, and she continues to write essays and op-eds on current environmental issues and wilderness for various media outlets. Further information on her writing, research, conservation, and outreach efforts can be found at oceanconservation.org or at her author page.