GLOBAL OCEAN REFUGE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Development
- Director of Development ( Glen Ellen
Angela's great passion is the natural world. She brings her enthusiasm and expertise in working with diverse groups of people to our organization and guides our development team engaging donors and supporters to advance ocean protection. She studied at San Francisco State University, Sonoma State University, and U.C. Berkeley and has a graduate degree in Restoration and Historical Ecology. Angela was a faculty member in the Environmental Studies Department at Sonoma State University and College of Marin. She is the first woman in Sonoma county to receive the Switzer Environmental Fellowship and went on to become the recipient of a Switzer leadership grant to establish the first watershed station in the Sonoma Valley protecting and restoring local streams and watersheds. She has worked for various organizations including Greenpeace, American Friends Service Committee, Marine Mammal Center, Russian Riverkeeper and Audubon Canyon Ranch. While at the Marine Mammal Center caring for two rare, juvenile beaked whales she had a personal encounter that ignited her interest and passion for ocean protection. She was recently appointed to Sonoma County's leadership task force and when she is not working you can find her cooking for her family, traversing the hills of Sonoma, biodynamic gardening or singing with her beloved choir.
Job Titles:
- Communications & Development Assistant
Ashley is a recent graduate from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, earning a Masters in Public Health (MPH) concentrating in Environmental Health & Sustainability. She's always had a profound love for marine biology which led her to earn a B.S. in Biology and Marine Science at Virginia Wesleyan University. While studying coastal ecology and natural resource management in Zanzibar, Tanzania, she experienced firsthand how important marine conservation is for the environment and vulnerable coastal communities dependent on healthy oceans. She also conducted abundance research on cetacean species off the Tanzanian coast by measuring the time in which surfacing and diving behaviors are observed to determine ideal conditions for future conservation studies. Because of that time in Zanzibar, she decided to pursue her MPH, to advocate for the ocean and human health connection. Ashley has also worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on community outreach projects focusing on microplastic exposure to children and building climate change resiliency among our nation's youth. Today, she is helping to inspire the next generation to tackle our biggest environmental health and ocean conservation issues through the development of youth ambassador programs.
Job Titles:
- Director of Marine Protection Atlas
- Director of Marine Protection Atlas ( Massachusetts )
Beth Pike earned her Master of Environmental Management from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment with a certificate in geospatial analysis from the Duke Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab. Before that, she earned a B.S. in Biology from Long Island University/Southampton and researched right whales in the North Atlantic and humpback whales in the North Pacific. Beth has a 500-ton captain's license has worked as a captain, mate and naturalist throughout Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, South Pacific, Mexico, and Hawaii. Since joining Marine Conservation Institute in 2011, Beth has focused on strategic development, outreach, planning and data management for the Marine Protection Atlas (www.MPAtlas.org). Beth has led the Atlas team's effort to highlight areas that best protect and conserve the ecosystem through strong marine protection. As one of the co-authors of The MPA Guide, Beth has guided the integration of assessment criteria into the MPAtlas database and website. In her free time, Beth loves hiking, boating and spending time with her family.
Job Titles:
- Ambassador
- Intern
- Science
- Science Intern
Clément Pourtal is a documentary producer and project manager in the field of marine conservation. He has been passionate about the sea since a young age, having grown up next to the Mediterranean.
Whilst in Business School, Clément took the opportunity to live and work abroad in both Europe and Asia. During an internship in Malaysia in 2012, he discovered the underwater treasures of the tropical ocean as well as the dangers already threatening this incredible marine ecosystem and its biodiversity.
He kept his conservation focus while continuing his Master's thesis, which highlights the economic, social and environmental impacts of Marine Protected Areas.
Having graduated with a master's degree in Marketing and Communications, he joined a communication agency in Marseille, which promoted scuba diving brands. Eventually, with an overwhelming desire to return to the field and fulfill his passion for ocean conservation, Clément founded The Blue Quest, alongside his friend Benjamin Marais. The Blue Quest is a mission-driven non-profit organization.
The Blue Quest connects impactful marine conservation projects around the world to promote their important work and the people behind them. Clément's mission is to share their vital messages with the wider public and raise awareness of the critical issues affecting our oceans, and the solutions to them.
Job Titles:
- Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Australia
Brock has always been captivated by both the natural world and human behaviour. Growing up in rural Minnesota fostered a deep appreciation and passion for the wilderness, outdoors adventures, and environmental stewardship. This grounding shapes his research program, which seeks to understand and influence human behaviour to bolster the effectiveness of conservation programs. As a multidisciplinary scientist, Brock combines biological, ecological, and behavioural science disciplines to understand the nature and implications of human interactions with coral reef ecosystems. A central tenant of his approach is working with key end user groups to develop and deliver research programs that address key conservation priorities. As an environmental writer, Brock seeks to counter the deluge of negative public perceptions about the state and future of our planet, to showcase those working to conserve our planet, and to galvanise environmental action in today's youth. Brock's professional and educational experience is diverse, and spans a range of roles and institutions, including academic, industrial, and philanthropic sectors.
David Ainley received his BS degree from Dickinson College and PhD from Johns Hopkins University. He has made 30 trips to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, about half on oceanographic research vessels. Currently, he is involved in research on penguin demography, as well as studying the effects of penguin and cetacean foraging on penguin prey availability around Ross Island using an ocean glider and Remotely Operated Vehicles. He's also worked extensively in the California Current, including many cruises, as well as founding and then working at the PRBO marine research program on the Farallon Islands; he led the restoration of the islands, removing 100 yrs of debris as well as feral animals. He initiated efforts to designate the Ross Sea MPA, then followed up justifying its existence through papers, presentations and film; the effort was successful in part (www.lastocean.org). He's written 4 books, 12 monographs and 230 papers about the ecology of marine top predators: seabirds, mammals and sharks.
David Johns has been an advocate for large-scale conservation for many decades and is extremely embarrassed about the limited progress made by the conservation movement as a whole. As a member of the board of Marine Conservation Institute he advocates for the Blue Parks Initiative, an effective effort to create a global system of strictly protected marine refuges where life can recover. In the terrestrial sphere he has been involved in large-scale conservation projects in the Russian Far East, Australia, Europe, southern Africa and throughout the Americas.
David has written and spoken widely on the integration of science and advocacy and served on the board of governors of the Society for Conservation Biology and is a co-founder of the Conservation Biology Institute. He is author of A New Conservation Politics (Wiley 2009), a guide to how conservationists can become more effective at ensuring that science and conservation values influence policy. He has published in Conservation Biology, Environmental Ethics, Wild Earth, Science, Rewilding Institute.org, Biological Conservation among others and has authored op-ed pieces and news analyses. He is recipient of the Denver Zoological Foundation's Conservation Award, 2007. In 2019 he published Conservation Politics: The Last Anti-Colonial Battle about lifting the unjust burdens humans impose on the Earth and other species.
He has degrees in Political Science and Anthropology from Portland State University and in Political Science and Law from Columbia University where he was also an International Fellow, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and earned a Parker Certificate in Comparative Law. He has taught courses at the Institute for Policy Studies and at Oregon State University in addition to 39 years at Portland State University.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate in the Environment Department at the University
Dr Bethan O'Leary is a Research Associate in the Environment Department at the University of York, UK. Her research currently focuses on large-scale marine protected areas (MPAs) and MPAs in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). She is working to inform negotiations over a new implementing agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in ABNJ at the United Nations. She was previously a member of the scientific research team that developed proposals for the world's first network of high seas MPAs in the North-East Atlantic under the OSPAR Convention, which led to the designation of six high seas MPAs in 2010. Dr. O'Leary received her BSc degree from the University of Southampton and her MSc and PhD from the University of York.
Dr. Antonio Di Franco has worked on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Mediterranean Sea throughout his career, particularly focusing on 1) assessing MPA effectiveness for conservation of natural populations and management of exploited fish stocks, 2) estimating patterns of fish population connectivity to inform the design effective MPA networks, and 3) investigating MPAs, small scale fisheries and fishing resources as a socio-ecological system integrating both natural and human components. After his Master's degree in Marine Biological Resources at the University of Palermo (Italy), he completed a Ph.D. in "Fundamental Ecology" at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy). He is now a postdoctoral fellow at University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (France) where he works on multiple international projects in which he had the occasion to work in a large number of Mediterranean MPAs. Find more information and complete list of papers here https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Antonio_Di_Franco.
Dr. Barbara Horta e Costa has been working on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) her entire career. She studied Marine Biology and Fisheries at the University of the Algarve, and she completed a Master's thesis entitled: "Distribution and Abundance of commercial fish in and around the Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Punta Frances, Cuba" at the same institution. She then completed a PhD in MPA effectiveness entitled "The effect of conservation measures on the spatial and temporal variation of rocky fish assemblages in the Arrábida Marine Park, Portugal," at Instituto Universitário in Lisbon, Portugal and University of California Santa Barbara in the United States. She has collaborated on a Typology of Partially Protected Areas (PPAs) and lead a study called "FEVER - fisheries (socio-ecological) vulnerability to climate change." Since 2015 she has been a postdoc researcher of CCMAR running a study entitled "Linking the ecological and evolutionary roles of MPAs: implications for management." It includes an investigation of spawning aggregations in the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina through fishers' perceptions and ecological surveys. She is also investigating the effects of protection vs. fishing selectivity on fish movement. Dr. Horta e Costa teaches ‘Ocean Governance and Marine Protected Areas' in the Masters of Marine Biology and Conservation at ISPA - Instituto Universitário. She continues to collaborate on a variety of projects on MPAs, including consulting for WWF and Fundação Oceano Azul on Portuguese MPAs.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at the University
Dr. Cassandra Brooks is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She draws on a diversity of disciplines including marine science, environmental policy, and science communication, with the last 15 years of her career focused on Antarctica. She completed a PhD at Stanford University, studying international ocean policy, with a focus on marine protection in the Antarctic. She was also a core member of The Last Ocean, a grand-scale media project focused on protecting the Ross Sea, Antarctica - one of healthiest and most productive marine ecosystems left on Earth. In 2016, these collaborative efforts helped drive the adoption of the world's largest MPA in the Ross Sea. For her efforts she was awarded a Switzer Fellowship in Environmental Leadership. She completed a MS at Moss Landing Marine Labs, studying Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea, a population that supports the most remote fishery on Earth. Dr. Brooks has worked in the lab, underwater, and at sea - including toiling as a federal fisheries observer on New England groundfish boats and five research cruises to Antarctica - and has presented and published her work around the world. Cassandra is also trained as a Science Communicator through the University of California Santa Cruz and has published more than 150 articles and multi-media stories about marine science and the environment. As the Deputy Chief Officer for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research's Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System she participates in annual meetings of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which governs the Southern Ocean. Cassandra also recently became science faculty for Homeward Bound, a ground-breaking women's leadership initiative set in Antarctica.
Dr. Ellen M. Hines' research addresses population and community ecology of threatened and endangered species. Her expertise is in inclusion of local conservation efforts and regional scale coastal and marine management science in marine protected area planning. Dr. Hines works with colleagues in California and in SE Asia on the evolution of consistent standards of field methodology and monitoring techniques, and on the creation of educational materials that can be applied to community-based conservation planning.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor at ISPA
Dr. Emanuel Gonçalves is an Associate Professor at ISPA - Instituto Universitário in Lisbon, Portugal, and Vice-President of MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre. Is a member of the Board of Directors of the Oceano Azul Foundation and a member of the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development. Was the deputy head of the Task Group for Marine Affairs which developed Portugal's Ocean Strategy and the lead negotiator for the EU in the CBD COP which approved the EBSAs criteria. His research interests are marine conservation, marine spatial planning and MPAs, and marine ecology. Has been involved in the designation and implementation of MPAs in Portugal and elsewhere, including discussions on the conservation of the high seas. Has developed, together with coauthors, a new regulation-based classification system for MPAs and is author or coauthor of over 60 papers including on the reserve effect and the effectiveness of MPAs.
Job Titles:
- Scientist
- Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Healy Hamilton is a biodiversity scientist with a diverse range of research interests in global change, evolution, conservation, and informal science education. Current marine research projects include the application of comparative DNA sequence analysis to the taxonomy, evolution, and conservation of seahorses and pipefish. Another group of projects focuses on modeling climate change impacts to species and landscapes to support climate adaptation planning. Healy received her masters degree from Yale University's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. For both degrees she conducted extensive field research. Healy is a former U.S. Fulbright Fellow and a Switzer Foundation Environmental Leadership Grantee.
Job Titles:
- Wildlands Conservation Trust, South Africa
Dr. Jean Harris has recently joined the Wildlands Conservation Trust to direct their marine WILDOCEANS programme. Prior to this she led the scientific services team of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the conservation agency which manages the protected areas and biodiversity in the eastern province of South Africa. Dr. Harris completed her PhD in estuarine intertidal trophic ecology at the University of Cape. She then joined the South African Antarctic programme to conduct field studies in Dronning Maud Land on inland rocky outcrops or "nunataks" where snow petrels nest. Thereafter she moved to work on the subtropical east coast of South Africa where she focussed on rocky shore ecology, co-management of small-scale fisheries and marine protected areas. Jean has served on the Scientific Authority that advises the South African Minister of Environment on biodiversity matters, as well as the Marine Science for Management Programme Committee of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA). Her current initiatives include the Ocean Stewards Programme which aims to build offshore marine science capacity and inspire a new generation of ocean advocates. She is a core team member for two offshore projects funded through the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP), that are conducting research in support of marine protected area expansion. Jean is also the skipper of RV Angra Pequena, the 72 ft research and training vessel that is being used by these projects to deploy equipment such as a remotely operated video (ROV), baited underwater video systems for fish communities (BRUVS) and sediment grab samplers to survey little-studied habitats and species in depths of 40-250m along the east coast of South Africa.
Dr. Elliott Norse has worked at the conservation science-policy interface for his entire career. After earning his B.S. in Biology from Brooklyn College, he studied the ecology of blue crabs in the Caribbean for his PhD at University of Southern California and his Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Iowa. Since 1978, he has worked at the US Environmental Protection Agency, President's Council on Environmental Quality (where he defined biological diversity as conservation's overarching goal), Ecological Society of America, The Wilderness Society, and The Ocean Conservancy before founding MCBI in 1996. Elliott's 140+ publications include four books: Conserving Biological Diversity in Our National Forests (1986), Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest (1990), Global Marine Biological Diversity: A Strategy for Building Conservation into Decision Making (1993), and Marine Conservation Biology: The Science of Maintaining the Sea's Biodiversity (2005). He served as President of the Society for Conservation Biology's Marine Section, is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, and was recently given the Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation by NOAA.
Job Titles:
- Communications & Development Intern
Felicia moved around as a young child but eventually grew up in Stockholm, Sweden. She got her scuba diving license at 15 which sparked her passion for the ocean and marine conservation. Since then, Felicia has explored many different areas underwater and enjoys traveling to new places and meeting new people.
She is currently a bachelor student at Copenhagen Business School, studying her last semester in Business Administration and Organisational Communication. At Marine Conservation Institute she will be working as an intern for the Communication and Development team, applying her knowledge from her studies and learning skills.
Felicia hopes to begin her master's degree in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science in 2024. In her spare time, she loves scuba diving, dancing, sailing and photography.
Gail Osherenko, who has decades of experience in marine and coastal law and policy, as well as Arctic affairs, joined our Board in 2013. She is currently an independent documentary film-maker. Before leaving academe, she was a project scientist at the Marine Science Institute of the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and a lecturer in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and the Environmental Studies Program at UCSB. Her research has focused on property rights and sea tenure, the role of marine spatial planning and ocean zoning, the public trust doctrine and the effectiveness of the California coastal management regime. She was a principal investigator in the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) working group on Ocean Ecosystem-Based Management: The Role of Zoning, and a co-author of the most cited paper on marine spatial planning (Crowder et al., "Resolving Mismatches in U.S. Ocean Governance," Science vol. 313, 4 Aug. 2006). Ms. Osherenko has served on numerous other non-profit Boards. She also currently serves on the Board of the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara.
Job Titles:
- Communications & Development Intern
Isa grew up in southern Sweden by the coast and currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she is pursuing her Bachelor's in Business Administration and Organizational Communication at Copenhagen Business School. Her bond with nature has always existed, but it was the thrill of surfing that deepened her love for the ocean. Nowadays, she enjoys surfing during vacations and is hoping to soon obtain her scuba diving license.
During her Bachelor's program, Isa had a mandatory internship, which she saw as a gateway to further explore her passion for the sea. As a Communication & Development intern at the Marine Conservation Institute, Isa creates messages about the organizations programs, such as the Blue Park Award, sharing them on social media, the website, and blog.
Job Titles:
- Emeritus
- President and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization
James Greenwood is President and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington DC. He represented Pennsylvania's Eighth District in the US House of Representatives from 1993 through 2005. Before his election to Congress, Jim earned a B.A. in Sociology from Dickinson College and served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Senate. In 2000, he co-founded the bipartisan House Oceans Caucus to encourage efforts to explore and protect the oceans. He introduced the Deep Sea Coral Protection Act to protect vulnerable seafloor ecosystems against bottom trawling, and the OCEANS 21 Act to strengthen ocean and research and management in keeping with recommendations from the US Commission on Ocean Policy and Pew Oceans Commission. The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation awarded Congressman Greenwood the 2004 Leadership Award in recognition of his work to conserve and explore the oceans.
Job Titles:
- Geospatial Database Coordinator
- Geospatial Database Coordinator ( Florida )
Jamie earned his Bachelors in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, as well as a Data Analytics Certification from the University of Miami. From a young age, Jamie fell in love with the ocean and all that it had to offer. He spends much of his time with his family surfing, fishing, or diving in the waters around Florida. He spent the past 10 years working with multiple environmental agencies in the Florida Keys, most notably as a Park Ranger at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State and as a Fisheries Biologist with Florida Fish and Wildlife, where he conducted surveys and collected fisheries population and harvest data. Jamie contributes his experience in natural resource management and data analytics as the Marine Protection Atlas Database Coordinator.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer
- Enterprise Software Industry Executive
Jeff Smith is a 30 year enterprise software industry executive and currently coaches and mentors young technology company executives through the Tech Futures Group in Berkeley, CA. Prior operating roles include sales, product line management, business and corporate development, alliance management and corporate venture capital management. Smith is a passionate environmentalist, outdoorsman and diver. He was the prior Chair and Board Member of the National Wildlife Refuge Association and has been actively involved in several land trusts in California. Jeff is an honors graduate of Boston College School of Management, received his MBA from Southern New Hampshire University, his Masters in International Management/ Finance from Thunderbird, has taken several executive education programs at Stanford and recently obtained a Professional Certificate in the Advanced Program in Sustainability Management from UC Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Regional Marine Director for Wildlife Conservation Society in the Western Indian Ocean
Jennifer O'Leary is the regional marine director for Wildlife Conservation Society in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) of the coast of East Africa. She has spent 12 years working with MPAs in the WIO to enhance MPA effectiveness and developed an international network to support this (www.smartseas.org). She is currently focusing on marine spatial planning and improving MPA and community fisheries management across three nations in the Western Indian Ocean (Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar) and collaborating with partners to develop sustainability strategies for these efforts through blue carbon. Her research focuses on how human disturbance and environmental variability affect persistence and recovery of marine systems across coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, kelp forests, and rocky intertidal habitats.
Job Titles:
- Conservation Analyst
- Conservation Analyst ( Virginia )
Jessica (Coulter) MacCarthy earned her Master of Environmental Management degree and a certificate in Geospatial Analysis from Duke University, where her research focused on utilizing sensory stimuli to mitigate elasmobranch and sea turtle by-catch in small-scale coastal fisheries. She also worked in the Duke Marine Geospatial Ecology lab where she focused on marine spatial planning in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Before that, she earned dual undergraduate degrees in Ecology and Economics from the University of Pittsburgh. Jessica's prior work has primarily focused on sea turtle and avian research and conservation projects throughout coastal Florida. As a Conservation Analyst at Marine Conservation Institute, Jessica aims to contribute to the process of creating and sustaining protections for vital marine ecosystems by supporting both the Marine Protection Atlas and Blue Parks programs.
Job Titles:
- Director of Finance & Administration
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia
Job Titles:
- Marine Protection Atlas Intern
Job Titles:
- Communications Coordinator
- Executive Assistant
Job Titles:
- Director of Policy & Legislation
Job Titles:
- Marine Protected Area Researcher
Job Titles:
- Community Engagement Exchange Fellow
Job Titles:
- Director of Strategic Partnerships
Job Titles:
- Senior Conservation Fellow
Job Titles:
- Director of Blue Parks & Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Marine Protection Atlas Intern