Conservation is key to preserving many of the world's natural beauty spots, so do your best to help by keeping to designated footpaths and being a discerning souvenir collector

- Sheherazade Goldsmith

Kiley is the current manager of the Bay Islands Reef Restoration (BIRR) program. She is responsible for all facets of the restoration process, which primarily includes managing the offshore coral nurseries and coral outplanting. Other duties include nursery construction, which includes developing and implementing new nursery methods; nursery and outplant monitoring; and teaching divemaster interns, coral interns and visiting divers about the coral restoration process.

Prior to managing the restoration program, Kiley completed her PADI Divemaster and Instructor training through Roatan Dive Academy and worked alongside Peter and Tripp in the restoration process. She is also the lead instructor at Subway Watersports and manages the divemaster and coral internship programs through Roatan Dive Academy and Subway Watersports.

Before moving to Roatan, Kiley received her B.S. in Computational Biology from the University of Texas at Austin while working as a research assistant studying mitonuclear coevolution in mammals. After completing her B.S., she worked as a research assistant studying the behavior and population dynamics of Bottlenose Dolphins before making her way to Roatan.

Previous Team Members

Tripp Funderburk was the first Manager of the Bay Islands Reef Restoration program (BIRR). Tripp was vital in making the program what it is today. During his time as manager, he constructed and managed four different nursery sites utilizing 40 coral "trees" as the primary, but not only, nursery method. He was also responsible for the program's first 2000 outplanted corals which were outplanted at eight different dive sites.

Prior to his time at BIRR, he worked at Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) and Coral Restoration Foundation International (CRFI) in Key Largo, FL. Before working in the coral restoration field, Tripp worked in public policy in Washington D.C.

Tripp is now spreading his abundance of knowledge and experience at Reef Renewal Curacao.

Peter worked as a Restoration Associate at BIRR for three years, while also working as an instructor of Roatan Dive Academy. During this time, he assisted Tripp with nursery maintenance and coral outplanting, while also working on a few projects of his own.

Peter spearheaded the construction of two nursery tables to experiment with other nursery methods for our Staghorn and Elkhorn coral. One of these tables was built as a mini-rope nursery table for Staghorn coral, while the other was a table utilizing cement "cookies" as a base for the Elkhorn coral to grow from, similar to how it would grow on the reef.

Conservation is key to preserving many of the world's natural beauty spots, so do your best to help by keeping to designated footpaths and being a discerning souvenir collector

- Sheherazade Goldsmith

Meet our team

Kiley Thueson

Previous Team Members

Tripp Funderburk

Prior to his time at BIRR, he worked at Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) and Coral Restoration Foundation International (CRFI) in Key Largo, FL. Before working in the coral restoration field, Tripp worked in public policy in Washington D.C.

Tripp is now spreading his abundance of knowledge and experience at Reef Renewal Curacao.

Peter worked as a Restoration Associate at BIRR for three years, while also working as an instructor of Roatan Dive Academy. During this time, he assisted Tripp with nursery maintenance and coral outplanting, while also working on a few projects of his own.

Peter Kockisch