Dr Natalia Botero-Acosta has a Biology degree from the University of Antioquia and an M.A./PhD from the Brain and Behavior program from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM). She is an affiliated researcher with the Colombian Antarctic Program (PAC).  Currently, she is the General Director of Macuáticos Colombia Foundation, a non-profit organization from which Natalia has led a monitoring program with humpback whales in the Gulf of Tribugá, northern Colombian Pacific. Her research interests include behavioral ecology, habitat use, and social structure of humpback whales. She has a keen interest in employing molecular and acoustic techniques to study key aspects of cetacean life history. Natalia is working with UCSC to conduct ground-breaking research on humpback whale population dynamics and demographics from the Colombian Pacific and the Antarctic Peninsula.