Noa Lachyani Blumenfeld is a PhD candidate in the direct doctoral track at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, jointly supervised by the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. Her research focuses on best practices for managing marine protected areas and cultural heritage sites in multi-use nearshore marine spaces. As part of the direct track, she completed her master’s coursework in Urban and Regional Planning at the Technion, and holds a B.A. in Political Science and Geography from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She currently serves as a teaching assistant for the “Introduction to GIS (ArcGIS Pro)” course for architecture and planning students at the Technion, led by Dr. Idan Porat. Previously, she was a teaching assistant in the “Planning and Management of the Coastal and Marine Environment” course, taught by Prof. Michelle Portman. Her professional background includes positions in a government office and a private planning firm consulting for a public agency, with daily use of GIS. She was awarded the Zvi Keinan Memorial Scholarship for her master’s research by the Institute for Maritime Policy and Strategy, and the Blaban-Glass Fellowship in support of her doctoral research.