Melanie McField is the founder and Director of the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative (HRI), a multi-institutional effort that has grown to include >70 partner organizations working to better understand and conserve the Mesoamerican Reef. The program has been underway in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico for two decades, producing eight Mesoamerican Reef Report Cards that track the health of the reef and four Eco-Audits that evaluate each country’s reef management effort. The collaborative, evidence based adaptive management cycle includes strategic communications aimed at supporting needed policy interventions and testing novel science-based solutions and restoration interventions. Melanie began her work in Belize in 1990 as a Peace Corps volunteer/field biologist with the Hol Chan marine reserve. In 2001 she earned a PhD in Marine Science from the University of South Florida, based on evaluation of the influence of disturbance and management on reef community structure in Belize. In 2001, she worked as the reef scientist for the World Wildlife Fund’s new Mesoamerican Reef Program, which included the development of the Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI). In 2006 she joined  the Smithsonian Institution to further develop and grow HRI and produce the Guide to Indicators of Reef Health and Social Well-being (2007). In 2024 she became the Executive Director of the newly formed Healthy Reefs for Healthy People NGO which will continue and expand the conservation opportunities. Melanie has 50 peer reviewed research papers, numerous book chapters, technical and public-interest publications and has mentored 14 graduate students. She has received several awards, including the 2021 Conservation Award from the International Coral Reef Society and participated in numerous television news broadcasts and nature-based documentaries to broaden support for reef conservation awareness.