Global Field Program (GFP) graduate student Ali Patton of Playa del Rey, California, was featured in Playa Vista magazine (pages 10-12), a publication that highlights the news, events, and people in the Play Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The article is about her journey in the GFP master's degree, work as volunteer coordinator for the Aquarium of the Pacific's Mammal-Bird Husbandry Department, and her 2023 Earth Expeditions course in Mongolia. “Vast” is how Patton described the great steppes of Mongolia. In Mongolia she and her classmates learned about the conservation story of two key steppe species: Pallas’ cats and Przewalski’s horse. Patton's international fieldwork with Project Dragonfly has also included studying coral reefs, manatees, howler monkeys, and jaguars in Belize and cheetah conservation in Namibia.

Patton is earning a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Biology from Miami through Project Dragonfly‘s GFP while working as an outreach coordinator at the Aquarium of the Pacific.