Meet Our Educators
Audra Barrios
Founder and Executive Director of Things That Creep, Audra has worked as a biologist and educator for over 17 years at various institutions across the San Francisco Bay area. They have worked with a huge variety of animals from chimpanzees and baboons to penguins and jellyfish, including 8 years as a biologist at the California Academy of Sciences.
Seeing a need for a conservation organization focused on underrepresented animals such as reptiles and amphibians, Things That Creep was started as a way to bring these animals out into the world to create empathy and an understanding for why they are important with the ultimate goal of conservation of these incredible creatures in our shared ecosystem.
They hold a B.S. in Marine Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Vicky Vásquez
Vicky was raised in San Diego by a Mexican-American mom and a Venezuelan dad, which meant family reunions allowed her to explore different oceans and even remote locations growing up. Her passion to explore the unknown led her to pursue a B.S. in Evolution & Ecology with two minors, in Psychology and in Arts from the University of California, Davis where she also studied for a semester at their Bodega Bay Marine Lab. Following her undergraduate degree, Vicky worked with a number of nonprofits focused on marine science education such as the Marine Science Institute, Ocean Discovery Institute, and the San Diego Floating Lab. She also has a Masters in Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories through her research with the Pacific Shark Research Center. Vicky’s research career with deep sea sharks has achieved exciting scientific firsts such as the discovery of the Ninja Lanternshark (Etmopterus benchleyi) and tagging Goblin Sharks (Mitsukurina owstoni). Vicky also dedicates a significant portion of her time to science communication through both in-person and online outreach. Directly, she most often works with students from low-socioeconomic neighborhoods and Spanish speakers. As a Shark Week alum, you may recognize Vicky from Alien Sharks: Stranger Fins, Rogue Tiger Shark: Hunt for Lagertha, Island of the Walking Shark, Shark After Dark, and as a commentator for additional Shark Week content and episodes. She’s also been featured on CBS’s Mission Unstoppable, several documentaries, YouTube series and podcasts.
