Dr Amanda Ford completed her MSc at the University of Amsterdam, then moved to the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen to pursue a PhD within the REPICORE project (Resilience of Pacific Island coral reef social-ecological systems in times of global change). She submitted her PhD dissertation in June 2017, entitled “Influences of Pacific Island human communities on benthic coral reef functioning and resilience”. After her PhD, Amanda was employed as a postdoctoral researcher, first at ZMT and then at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. In 2020, she assumed a role as a Lecturer at The University of the South Pacific, where she is based at the Laucala Campus in Fiji. She has expertise in coral reef ecology, social-ecological systems, marine management and marine pollution.