The first Science Cafe of the season debuts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the Paradise Restaurant with speaker Melissa Williams, executive director of the Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles.

The title of her talk is, “The Other 95 Percent: Science Learning in Out-of-School Time.”

Williams began this May as the first executive director of Feiro Marine Life Center, overseeing the next phase in its growth and expansion.

She comes to Port Angeles from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Ill., where she held positions of progressive responsibility for over seven years, most recently as the vice president for learning. Her undergraduate degree was in psychology, focusing on animal behavior and cognition, and she has a master’s degree in instructional leadership.

An avid hiker, backpacker and nature enthusiast, Williams said she was attracted to the North Olympic Peninsula for its outdoor recreation opportunities, and to Feiro Marine Life Center in particular for the high degree of community engagement and participation with the center since its founding in 1982.

Upcoming Science Cafe presenters include: Oct. 14, Scott Chitwood, natural resources director from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe on “What does a train ride through Canada have to do with Fisheries Management?”; Nov. 11, Steven Mitchell from Weyerhaeuser on the Western Regeneration Program based in Sequim; and Dec. 9, Randy Johnson, habitat program manager from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe on “Drift Babies.”

The Science Café is a community service of Sequim Education Foundation. Programs present expert speakers for adult and young adult audiences interested in current developments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Science Café events are held on the second Tuesday of the month at the Paradise Restaurant. Admission is free and food and beverages are available.

For more information about the Sequim Education Foundation, visit www.sequimed.org.