Alisa Schulman-Janiger

ALISA SCHULMAN-JANIGER is a marine biologist and the Census Director for the American Cetacean Society (ACS) Los Angeles Chapter’s ‘Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project’, now in its 34th year. She is well known as a transient killer whale researcher and is actively involved in humpback whale identification. She also teaches a naturalist class for the LA Chapter of ACS.

Alisa was born in Maywood, CA and grew up mostly in Long Beach, CA. She became interested in the oceans at age five when she saw her first grunion. Her kindergarten teacher brought an octopus to class in a glass jar and couldn’t answer a question Alisa put to her. That defining moment lead Alisa to decide to become an educator.

A marine biologist with a teaching credential, Alisa taught on boats for ten years, worked for the California Department of Fish and Game doing environmental reports, worked back east for 2 years studying humpback and right whales, and has been a naturalist for the past 30 years.

Simultaneously with her work on the gray whale census, Alisa spent 20 years teaching marine science in the high school classroom for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She retired as soon as she could to follow her passion spending time with whales and conducting whale research.