Bernice Hyett

Bernie graduated from the University of Portsmouth in 2017 with an MSc in Aquatic Biology. Her first encounter with Operation Wallacea came as a student, when she spent four weeks in Indonesia feeding cuttlefish and gaining hands-on experience in marine research. After a brief career detour into the insurance sector, she returned to her passion for conservation and joined Operation Wallacea in 2019.

Between 2019 and 2021, Bernie served as Country Manager for Croatia, overseeing the delivery of field courses and biodiversity research programmes. In 2022, she took on the management of the Dominica project before moving to the South Africa site in 2023, where she now leads the country programme. In the same year, she also became Head of Sales & Marketing for Operation Wallacea, combining her field experience with strategic leadership to expand global engagement with Opwall’s conservation and research initiatives.

With her dual role, Bernie bridges the gap between field operations and outreach, ensuring that students and researchers alike can benefit from meaningful, well-supported opportunities to contribute to biodiversity science.