Jacqueline is a seagrass scientist and has worked on seagrass ecosystems for over 20 years. She is based at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Mombasa and is currently the National Coordinator for Marine Spatial Planning in Kenya.
Nationally, she has contributed to the development of the National Environmental Policy as a member of the National Steering Committee. She has served as a technical member of the National Blue Economy Technical Committee for Kenya. She has been the Co-chair of the Editorial Board of the 2nd Edition of the Global Ocean Science Report. She is the immediate former President of the WIOMSA. Jacqueline is a lead expert on the Ocean Panel Expert Group serving the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research (SCOR).
She is currently the Chair of the African Ocean Decade Taskforce and is a member of the Group of Experts for Ocean Literacy under IOC-UNESCO. Jacqueline is also the recipient of the 2019 NK Panniker Award for capacity building from the IOC-UNESCO General Assembly.