Lily Tsukayama earned a Master of Environmental Science and Management with specializations in coastal marine resources management and economics and politics of the environment from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2016. Her group thesis work evaluated vessel speed reduction, whale strikes, and air pollution tradeoffs in the Santa Barbara Channel Region.
Tsukayama worked with the Port's planning team and various stakeholders on ocean planning efforts off the coast of San Diego.