Waitt Institute Welcomes Lorea Dandoy

Lorea Dandoy has joined the Waitt Institute as a Creative Communications Manager. In this role, she will support creative projects and media development across the Institute’s programs. Combining storytelling, strategy and design, she will work to develop communication assets that bring to life program milestones and messages.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Lorea has had an evolving relationship with the ocean. She witnessed the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which opened her eyes to how connected our environments are on land and underwater. Since then, her travels have led her to have life-changing marine life encounters and interactions with coastal communities around the world that have only strengthened her curiosity and respect for the ocean.

She previously worked as a creative strategist at an experiential marketing agency, developing multimedia experiences for tech clients like IBM. She has created stories across a myriad of mediums, including film, video animations, gallery exhibits, an escape room, augmented reality and virtual reality. She loves to dream up creative ways to bring to life often complex or abstract subject matter to engage audiences.

While her agency career shaped much of her communications expertise, Lorea was committed to redirecting her path to one that involved ocean conservation. She holds a master’s degree in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. For her capstone project, she filmed and created a 5-part video series that explores stories of shark-human coexistence in the Maldives, featuring island community members that have been impacted by the rising shark tourism industry.

As a left- and right-brained hybrid creative, Lorea brings a strong understanding of both the art and science of effective communications and will support the organization’s content production efforts.