Apryl DeLancey

A Los Angeles native, Apryl’s undergraduate degree is in chemistry and marine science. She received it with honors from the University of Tampa and worked with Clearwater Marine Aquarium during her entire undergraduate years. An Honors Research Fellow, she presented her work to the American Chemical Society. The research in isomer reactions resulted in a scientific publication. After completing summer research in marine chemistry with NOAA when graduating, she went on to the Medical University of South Carolina and received her MS in Biomedical Science. Apryl did her thesis in the Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Epidemiology and volunteered at the South Carolina Aquarium. Her research in the affects of trichloroethylene on metabolism also resulted in a scientific publication. Upon graduation she came back home to L.A. and worked as a statistician for a political research firm. She “got stuck” in the marketing analytics world after that working for companies like Warner Home Video and TBWA\Chiat\Day. She left the security of the big corporations to start her own digital marketing agency, Social Age Media, and drew in large clients like Marriott, the Tourism Office of Spain, and Byron Katie. During this time she surfed nearly every day and was involved in volunteer work with Heal the Bay’s Pier Aquarium, Surfrider Foundation, and had a stint with the California Science Center’s Animal Husbandry team. Finally, she realized that 10 year old Apryl would be very disappointed that she had all of the education and experience to be a marine researcher but was doing marketing analytics and strategy instead. After taking an 11 week course in Data Science at General Assembly in the summer of 2015, she was inspired to take the El Porto Shark pet project she started in 2013 and make it into a real business. You can find her feeding the tanks and talking about the ocean at the Roundhouse Aquarium as a volunteer or surfing dawn patrol at El Porto.