Dr. Gabriella Kitch is a Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture (YCNCC), where she directs coastal carbon removal projects like the Blue Carbon Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement program, supported by the Fund for Science and Technology. The program links mangrove restoration with durable carbon removal and works directly with restoration developers on field implementation. She is also a technical advisor for the NFWF Collaborative Peer Learning Program on Nature-based Solutions for Coastal Resilience, which connects NOAA Coastal Resilience Regional Challenge grantees with National Coastal Resilience Fund grantees to share practical experience and strengthen nature-based coastal resilience projects. She serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Standing Committee, where she led the State of Marine CDR, 2026 module, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Coastal States Stewardship Foundation. As a 2025 Navigation Fund Fellow, she led a roadmap for integrating carbon removal into coastal resilience projects across the United States, built from interviews with more than 40 practitioners. Previously, she led the marine carbon dioxide removal portfolio at NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program, directing $24.3M in research across 17 partners, and served as a Research Theme Lead for the National Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Research Strategy. She was also an International Policy Fellow through the John A. Knauss Fellowship and holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Northwestern University.
