Meet Ayana Elizabeth
Johnson, the
marine biologist behind
Senator Elizabeth
Warren’s Blue
New Deal, whose
policy-making,
nonprofit-advising life
is all about the
healing power of water
By CADY DRELL
For Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, saving the ocean is a true labor of love. The woman who
has been called the most influential marine biologist of our time can pinpoint the exact
moment she became enamored with the sea. The Brooklyn native was five years old, on
a family vacation to Key West, Florida, when she got to hold one of the sea urchins at an
aquarium. “They were like these little benevolent aliens that I wanted to befriend and
hang out with and learn about,” she says. Johnson, 39, recalls asking her mom what job
would let her do that. “Marine biologist” was the answer—and she was off.
She studied environmental science and public policy at Harvard, graduating in 2002.
She completed her PhD in marine biology in 2011 and has since been vital to a long list
of ocean-conservation measures. Most recently, she advised Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) on the Blue New Deal, a policy directive meant to expand the emissions-
tackling Green New Deal championed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(D-N.Y.) and Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.). The Blue New Deal outlines how the
U.S.’s coastal waters could help fight the climate crisis while also creating renewable-
energy opportunities and clean jobs. “The ocean has absorbed 93 percent of the heat
that’s been trapped by burning fossil fuels,” says Johnson. “If it hadn’t done that, our
planet would be 65 degrees Fahrenheit hotter right now.”
Working with the activist think tank Data for Progress and GreenWave, a grassroots
conservation group of ocean-based farmers, Johnson came up with the ambitious plan.
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