As chief operating officer at Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California, Cynthia Vernon leads the education, exhibitions, facilities, husbandry, guest experience and visitor research teams, as well as serving on the executive committee of the aquarium.
Monterey Bay Aquarium is a nonprofit aquarium located on the central coast of California, with the mission to inspire conservation of the ocean. In her leadership role at this popular attraction, which has been open to the public since 1984, Vernon builds on over three decades of experience in informal science and conservation education at aquariums and zoos.
Before she moved to California in 2001 to take up the role of vice president of education and guest programs and Monterey Bay Aquarium, a position she held until becoming COO in 2015, Vernon also held key management positions at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo and at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo in Indiana.
In addition, she is an active and involved member of AZA (the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and has served on its national Board of Directors, its Ethics Board and several other committees. Vernon is also the past chair of the AZA Professional Development Committee. She is a longtime Girl Scout volunteer and serves on the Point Lobos Foundation Board of Directors.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology from DePauw University and a Master of Science degree in biology (animal behaviour) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
During her career, Vernon has overseen a number of large visitor research studies to investigate how visits to aquariums and zoos foster conservation behaviour. She’s also involved in a national coalition to encourage more effective interpretation and action about climate change.
In 2022, Monterey Bay transformed its gift shop to be completely free of single-use plastic packaging. The extensive process involved identifying which products included single-use packaging, and planning how to replace those items.