Oceanographer Tonya Clayton will speak about rising sea levels, at the meeting of the Manatee-Sarasota  Sierra Club at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, at the Sarasota Garden Club, 1131 Boulevard of the Arts.

Clayton, who holds a doctorate degree in oceanography, is a local science editor/writer with an enthusiasm for non-formal, experiential education. She is a contributing author of Sea Level Rise in Florida (University Press of Florida, 2016) and the author of How to Read a Florida Gulf Coast Beach (University of North Carolina Press, 2012). 

She is also a graduate of the Florida Master Naturalist Program and the Florida Natural Resources Leadership Institute. She serves as a member of the UF/IFAS Extension Pinellas County Overall Advisory Committee and as an instructor for the USF Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. In 2016, she received the Friends of FANREP (Florida Association of Natural Resources Extension Professionals) award.