Biography, Education and Training

I am an interdisciplinary marine scientist working to inform effective and equitable management and conservation of marine resources. I work with diverse teams to design and conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses of fisheries as social-ecological systems, addressing questions of climate resilience, nutritional security, species distributions relative to social and oceanographic conditions, and community-based management of marine resources. I have developed predictive models (e.g. of California salmon returns and global distributions of live coral cover), as well as descriptive models (e.g. pathways of accessing local marine resources in small island developing states, pathways of resilience across globally distributed fisheries, networks of relationships); as appropriate to inform conservation and management. I have worked in and with multiple social-ecological systems, from coral reef fisheries and social-ecological systems, to the dynamics of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem, to the social and cognitive complexity of wild bottlenose dolphins. I have been a team member and a team leader, designed and conducted studies, and have accumulated over 400 days-at-sea studying marine ecosystems. I earned my PhD in 2017 at UC San Diego.

As we confront a future of increased environmental variability, climate change, and increasing global populations, successful management and conservation of our marine and coastal ecosystems will be one of our most important priorities for promoting resilient ecosystems and healthy communities. I am committed to building out the science, practices, and community resources necessary to create a sustainable and just future.

Honors, Awards and Grants

TNC NatureNet Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2018-2021
Annette Merle-Smith Graduate Fellowship in Anthropogeny, 2014 - 2016
National Geographic Committee for Research & Exploration Grant, 2013
Dean of Social Science Fellowship, UC San Diego, 2011, 2012
Graduate Excellence Award, UC San Diego, 2011
Robert J. Glushko and Pamela Samuelson Graduate Fellowship, 2011
Cognitive Science Fellowship, UC San Diego, 2010, 2011

Selected Publications

Georgina G Gurney, Emily S Darling, Gabby N Ahmadia, Vera N Agostini, Natalie C Ban, Jessica Blythe, Joachim Claudet, Graham Epstein, Amber Himes-Cornell, Harry D Jonas, Derek Armitage, Stuart J Campbell, Courtney Cox, Whitney R. Friedman, David Gill, Peni Lestari, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Elizabeth McLeod, Nyawira A Muthiga, Josheena Naggea, Ravaka Ranaivoson, Amelia Wenger, Irfan Yulianto, Stacy D Jupiter. 2021. Biodiversity needs every tool in the box: use OECMs. Nature 595 (7869), 646-649. http://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02041-4

Julia G. Mason, Jacob G. Eurich, Jacqueline D. Lau, Willow Battista, Christopher M. Free, Katherine E. Mills, Kanae Tokunaga, Lily Z. Zhao, Mark Dickey-Collas, Mireia Valle, Gretta Pecl, Joshua Cinner, Tim McClanahan, Edward H. Allison, Whitney R. Friedman, Claudio Silva, Eleuterio Yáñez, María Á. Barbieri, Kristin M. Kleisner. 2021. Attributes of climate resilience in fisheries: from theory to practice. Fish and Fisheries. https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12630.

W. R. Friedman, B. S. Halpern, E. McLeod, M. W. Beck, C. M. Duarte, C. V. Kappel, A. Levine, R. D. Sluka, S. Adler, C. C. O'Hara, E. J. Sterling, S. Tapia-Lewis, I. J. Losada, T. R. McClanahan, L. Pendleton, M. Spring, J. P. Toomey, K. R. Weiss, H. P. Possingham, and J. R. Montambault. 2020. Research priorities for achieving healthy marine ecosystems and human communities in a changing climate. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, p.5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00005

Friedman, W.R., Martin, B.T., Wells, B.K, Michel, C., Warzybok, P., Danner, E.M., and S.T. Lindley. 2019. Composite effects of marine and freshwater processes on salmon population dynamics. Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2743

Friedman, W.R., Wells, B.K., Santora, J.A., Schroeder, I.D., Huff, D.D., Brodeur, R., and J.C. Field. 2018. Environmental and geographic relationships among salmon forage assemblages along the continental shelf of the California Current. Marine Ecology Progress Series. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12598

Emma Chereskin, Frants H. Jensen, Whitney R. Friedman, Richard C. Connor, Simon J. Allen, Michael Krützen, Pernille M. Sørensen and Stephanie L. King. 2022. Male dolphins ‘bond-at-a-distance’ by using vocal exchanges to maintain key social relationships. Current Biology, 32, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.019

Gerber, L., Connor, R.C., King, S.L., Allen, S.J., Wittwer, S., Bizzozzero, M.R., Friedman, W.R., Kalberer, S., Sherwin, W.B., Wild, S. and Willems, E.P., 2020. Affiliation history and age similarity predict alliance formation in adult male bottlenose dolphins. Behavioral Ecology, 31(2), pp.361-370. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arz195

Bizzozzero, M.R., Allen, S.J., Gerber, L., Wild, S., King, S.L., Connor, R.C., Friedman, W.R., Wittwer, S. and Krützen, M., 2019. Tool use and social homophily among male bottlenose dolphins. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286(1904), p.20190898. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0898

King, S.L, Friedman, W.R., Allen, S.J., Gerber, L., Jensen, F., Wittwer, S., Connor, R.C., and M. Krützen. 2018. Bottlenose dolphins retain individual vocal labels in multi-level alliances. Current Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.013