Courtney Cox

Dr. Cox is a research scientist/program coordinator with the Smithsonian Institute’s Marine Conservation Program. She received her PhD through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Broadly, Dr. Cox’s research centers on evaluating the effectiveness of conservation strategies for restoring parrotfish populations and using molecular techniques to develop and improve coral reef conservation and management strategies. Much of her work is conducted in Belize and across the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. She is focused on assessing population connectivity and larval dispersal of parrotfish across the Caribbean using population genetics and incorporating this information into management plans. She is also using genetic barcoding to identify fish and shark species used in local markets across the Caribbean. Dr. Cox is presently involved in ongoing research in conjunction with CCMI and the Cayman Islands Department of Environment, studying herbivorous fish populations and behavior in a project supported by the Darwin Initiative.

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