On an undergraduate field trip to the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, Annie Pollard remembers being struck by tide pools filled with a diverse ecosystem of marine life. As the ocean waves swayed back and forth, the scene of the Oregon coast inspired Pollard to change her academic journey and her future career path.
After an immersive education experience on the coast, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) alum Pollard BS ’03 (biology), MS ’05 (marine biology) shifted from wanting to become a veterinarian to wanting to become a marine biologist.
“I fell in love,” Pollard said. “We were just elbow to elbow, getting excited about marine biology. It was full immersion and just all about the science.”
Finding her passion in marine biology
When Pollard first arrived at the University of Oregon, she planned to study biology with a pre-veterinary emphasis. Arriving at the coast as part of her general biology course series, still with her plans of becoming a veterinarian, she found herself amazed by the marine ecosystems, including snails, sea urchins, anemones and birds.
“Marine organisms sell themselves to anyone paying attention,” Pollard said. “We were excited to be out there. Group after group of undergrads. And faculty were pumped to share how cool marine organisms are.”
As a biology student, Pollard was experienced with lower division courses offered in large lecture halls. But on the Oregon coast, she found community in the intimate courses offered at OIMB, where she built relationships with classmates and professors, and the wider Coos Bay area. Each day, she and her classmates would have one class, which would include lectures, lab work and field trips for field research.
“We couldn’t get enough,” Pollard said. “I knew instantly I wanted to do marine biology as a career. Being a veterinarian seemed like a good job, but it wasn’t the passion.”
Finding home again
Years after graduating with two degrees from CAS and then working as a marine biologist in settings that ranged from the Oregon coast to Antarctica, Pollard changed careers. She started a brewery in Coos Bay, Oregon, with her husband, Carmen Matthews.
Tired of spending half the year on the other side of the world, Pollard turned her passion for home-brewed beer — a hobby she picked up as a student at the UO — into a profession. Pollard and Matthews decided to settle down in Coos Bay and opened 7 Devils Brewery, a gathering space for the community that hosts live music, events, a full restaurant menu and locally brewed beer.
Since 2013, the two have been running the brewery around the corner from OIMB.
It’s a big shift going from science field work to running a brewery business. But she still finds what she learned as a CAS undergrad and grad student relevant to her day-to-day work as an entrepreneur.
What has remained useful for Pollard as a CAS alum is what she learned about data analysis in her undergraduate and graduate degrees. From sales to beer recipes, Pollard uses those tools to understand how her business is performing and which beer recipes could lead to the best results.
“A lot of business owners have never been trained in data analysis,” Pollard said. “That was the number-one-most-helpful skill I gained from my graduate work: a training in how to think analytically.”
And Pollard remains connected with marine science through the brewery. They regularly host talks that feature OIMB researchers, which also bring in graduate and undergraduate students.
Despite her career change, Pollard would still have gone to OIMB if she were an undergraduate again today. She said she would also pursue marine biology again.
“The complete immersion is well worth it,” she said. “Each group of students is unique and has the opportunity to create their own culture.”
—By Bailey Meyers and Henry Houston, College of Arts and Sciences