Rayna Bell

Rayna Bell, PhD, is an Assistant Curator of Herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences, part of the Institute for Biodiversity Science + Sustainability. Her research focuses on the evolution, ecology, and conservation of amphibians and reptiles, particularly frogs in tropical regions. She holds a PhD in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and conducted postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley and the Smithsonian Institution before joining the Academy in 2019.

• Specializes in amphibian visual systems and their adaptation to ecological niches
• Leads projects on hybridization in São Tomé reed frogs and conservation strategies for Puerto Rican coqui frogs
• Collaborates internationally on NSF-funded studies of frog visual evolution

Her work integrates genomic techniques with field studies, emphasizing biodiversity discovery and capacity-building in research communities.