Samantha Clark is a marine conservation professional and licensed veterinary technician whose career has centered on sea turtle health, rehabilitation, and research. She is the Co-Founder and Director of Clinical Operations at Sea Turtle Specialists in South Florida, where she oversees the medical care and rehabilitation of sick and injured sea turtles and leads clinical research and scientific collaborations.
Sam earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Sweet Briar College and began working with sea turtles while monitoring nesting beaches during high school and college. After graduation, she spent eighteen months with the School for Field Studies in Baja California Sur, Mexico, conducting fieldwork that included population studies of sea turtles and gray whales. She later completed an AmeriCorps position at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center before becoming a licensed veterinary technician.
Over her career, Sam has worked across sea turtle rehabilitation, wildlife and zoological medicine, field and clinical research, and laboratory diagnostics. Her research interests include the impacts of marine debris on wildlife, and she is a published coauthor of research examining the composition and size distribution of plastics ingested by post-hatchling sea turtles.
Through eXXpedition, Sam is excited to take her interest in marine plastics from the subtropical waters where she has spent much of her career to Antarctic waters, contributing her perspective in wildlife health and marine conservation while exploring how plastic pollution connects marine ecosystems across the globe.
