Loriel Keaton

Director Animal Care & Training

Instructor - PD003 Advanced Behavior Modification & Training; PD007 Maternity Care for Marine Mammals; PD011 Building Relationships & Training with California Sea Lions  

Loriel is the Director of Animal Care & Training at Dolphin Research Center in addition to being a DRCTI instructor.  Loriel first visited DRC in August 2001 when she participated in both Basic and Advanced DolphinLab. Those two weeks changed her life and from that point on Loriel knew she wanted to be a part of the DRC family.

Loriel has always had a deep love for animals, and a lifelong dream of working with marine mammals. She attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where she earned a B.S. in Marine Biology. While in college Loriel worked with animals in a number of capacities, including training service dogs. Loriel was thrilled to join DRC’s Animal Care and Training Department in 2002, where she was named director in 2013, and lives her dream each day alongside not only the dolphins and sea lions, but some truly incredible people as well.