Nicole Fogarty graduated with a Bachelors degree from Wittenberg University in 1998. She then worked in a variety of different teaching, outreach, and research positions at the Newfound Harbor Marine Institute, The Nature Conservancy, the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and the NOAA Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research. Currently, she is a PhD student working with Dr. Don Levitan at Florida State University. Nicole is interested in the ecology and evolution of hybridization in a threatened Caribbean coral genus, Acropora. This study examines: (1) why hybrid abundance varies geographically, (2) what is the reproductive potential of hybrids, (3) the genetic diversity within hybrid populations, (4) the vigor of hybrids relative to the parent species, and (5) the clade(s) of zooxanthellae within the hybrid corals. This research will be addressed along the continuum of abundance at the following sites: the Florida Keys, Bahamas Curacao, Belize, Puerto Rico, and Antigua.