Dr. Wil Burns is a Senior Fellow in the Center for Global Law & Policy at the Santa Clara University School of Law, California and is also Director of the International Fisheries Law Project (IFLP). Additionally, he serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, Co-Chair of the American Society of International Law's International Environmental Law Group and Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association. Prior to becoming an academic, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for the State of Wisconsin and worked in the non-governmental sector for twenty years, including as Executive Director of the Pacific Center for International Studies, a think-tank that focused on international wildlife law. His current areas of research focus are climate change litigation; the effectiveness of international treaty regimes to conserve cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises); and how to effectively operationalize the precautionary principle in international marine environmental treaty regimes. He lives in El Cerrito, California with his wife Tamar and their daughter Shira.

John Cigliano is an Associate Professor of Biology at Cedar Crest College (Pennsylvania, USA), where he is Director of the Biodiversity & Conservation Biology program. His research interests include conservation ecology of queen conch (Strombus gigas) and marine reserve design. His main study sites are in the Bahamas (Andros Island) and the Turks & Caicos Islands (South Caicos). He also has a strong interest in conservation education (especially marine conservation education). He was a founding member of the Education Committee of the SCB and was founding board member of the Massachusetts chapter of the SCB (now the New England chapter), where he was the Education Member-At-Large on the Executive Committee. He also works with Global Explorers and the Pennsylvania Institute for Conservation Education, two organizations that deliver conservation education curriculum to K-12, middle and high school teachers and their students, and to the general public and is developing and test teaching conservation education modules for the American Museum of Natural History's Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners program. 

Leslie Cornick was born and raised in southern CA, where she had her first taste of her future as a marine biologist on a field trip to the Channel Islands in the fifth grade. She earned her BA in Biological Anthropology at UC San Diego, MA in Physiology and Behavioral Biology at San Francisco State University , and PhD in Wildlife Ecology at Texas A&M University . Her doctoral studies first brought her to Alaska to study Steller sea lion foraging in 1999. After post-doctoral work at the University of Alaska , Fairbanks , which took her to the opposite polar region to study foraging in Weddell seals, and a year teaching Marine Biology at Connecticut College , she returned to Alaska to teach Marine Biology and Statistics at Alaska Pacific University . Her research focuses on the physiological limits to foraging in diving mammals, particularly their ability to respond to natural and anthropogenic changes in the environment. As the effects of climate change become more evident in Alaska and the Arctic Dr. Cornick is committed more than ever to conducting research that contributes to marine conservation and policy. She's married with two canine children (Max and Mo) and lives in Wasilla. She loves movies, camping, fishing, SCUBA diving and the Tour de France.

Phaedra Doukakis is a Research Scientist at the University of Miami’s Pew Institute for Ocean Science (PIOS) and was elected to the SCB Marine Section Board in 2006. Phaedra holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a M. S. and Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University obtained through a joint program with the American Museum of Natural History. Her work focuses on conservation of sturgeons through the application of genetic and field studies and advocacy for science-based fisheries management and trade policy with field research in the Ural River, Kazakhstan, home of the last great population of sturgeons in the Caspian Sea. Since obtaining her Ph.D. in 2000, Phaedra held positions at the Wildlife Conservation Society and PIOS studying sturgeon conservation, fisheries and marine park management in West Africa and Madagascar, and ecosystem-based fisheries management.

Amber Himes is a fish and wildlife biologist for the Carlsbad, CA office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  In southern California, she has been focusing her attention on protection of endangered and threatened species in the coastal zone.  Most of her work is on implementing regional conservation plans in sensitive areas of San Diego County.  Before coming to the Service, she spent five years doing research through Duke University and the University of Portsmouth (UK) focused on the socioeconomic impacts of marine protected areas on local Sicilian fishing communities.  She has also conducted research on the socioeconomic effects of a potential marine reserve in Bermuda, the effects of whale watching on resident orca whales in Washington State, and the potential for an international marine protected area in the North Pacific for Pacific salmon.

Ellen Hines is an assistant professor in the Dept. of Geography and Human Environmental Studies at San Francisco State University. Most of her research encompasses the myriad issues surrounding coastal marine mammals and integrated coastal management in developing countries. She has been working in SE Asia since 1999, in Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam, looking at the population/habitat assessment and conservation issues affecting dugongs and Irrawaddy dolphins. For the past three years, she and her students have been mapping resources in Turneffe Atoll, in Belize, looking at manatee and dolphin distribution, and creating a GIS conservation zoning structure of the Atoll as part of an application for Biosphere reserve status by a group of local stakeholders. She also serves as a scientific advisor for the Oceanic Society, on the steering committee of the Mangrove Action Project, and on the board of directors for Sirenian International. 

Daniela Maldini, Ph.D. is currently the Director of Research at Earthwatch Institute and an Adjunct Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts , Amherst . Daniela completed her B.S. degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Pavia, Italy, in 1988. During this time she managed the university's marine biology laboratory and completed a thesis on the conservation biology of pleuronectiform fishes in the Ligurian Sea . She moved to the United States in 1988 and interned in the Oceanography Department at the University of Texas at Austin Marine Laboratory located in Corpus Christi , Texas . Later, she worked with marine mammals and birds at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in Monterey Bay , California , where she completed her M.S. in Marine Sciences in 1996. The topic of her M.S. thesis was the ecology of bottlenose dolphins in Monterey Bay . During this time she was also involved in a variety of ecological studies focusing on whales, dolphins, sea otters, and pinnipeds; co-founded the Pacific Cetacean Group, a non-profit corporation focusing on research, education, and conservation; and led the Marine Mammal Center Monterey Bay Operations' stranding network in 1994-1995. Daniela completed her Ph.D. in Zoology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2003 with a study of odontocete abundance and distribution around the island of Oahu . She is also the co-founder and vice president of the Oceanwide Science Institute, a Hawaii non-profit organization. She has been contracting as a biologist with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary since 1998. From 2001-2004 she worked as Research Associate at the Alaska SeaLife Center focusing on the ecology of killer whales and sea otters in Alaskan and Russian waters. Daniela is interested in behavioral ecology, population biology, and predator-prey relationships. Her work focuses on the ecology of odontocetes in various parts of the world.

Chris Parsons is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University in Virginia (USA) and a research associate at the University Marine Biological Station, Millport. He's the coordinator for the environmental science programs for George Mason University's Earth Science and Biology BS degrees and the minor in ocean and estuarine science, as well as being the director of the undergraduate certificate in environmental education program.

Chris has been involved in whale and dolphin research for over a decade and has conducted projects in South Africa, India, China and the Caribbean as well as the UK. He is currently involved in research projects on coastal dolphin populations in the Dominican Republic, and a new project based in Pakistan. Before moving to the U.S., Dr. Parsons was the Director of the Research and Education Departments of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT), from 1998 until 2003. Prior to this, he was involved in research on Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and finless porpoises in Hong Kong and China, which involved studies on the behavior and ecology of Hong Kong's cetaceans, marine pollution and its effects on marine life. He earned his Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Hong Kong, and has a BA and MA from Oxford University in 1988.

An active member in a number of marine conservation and management bodies, Chris has been a member of the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission since 1999. He was awarded a Fellowship by the Royal Geographical Society in 1997, won a Scottish Thistle Award in 2000 for his work in Environmental Tourism, and was acknowledged a young achiever in Scotland for his achievements in cetacean conservation by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1999.

Anne Salomon I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Marine Science Institute, University of California – Santa Barbara, having received my PhD from the University of Washington and my Masters from the University of British Columbia. At its core, my research is motivated by a desire to understand how human disturbances alter species interactions and food web dynamics in temperate, nearshore, marine ecosystems. Specifically, I have been investigating the community and ecosystem-level effects of fishing in Alaska, using a gradient of subsistence shoreline harvest pressure, and in New Zealand, using marine reserves as unfished controls. Currently, I am investigating the relative roles of oceanographic climate forcing and fisheries in regulating regional kelp bed dynamics in central California with the goal of forecasting future change. Overall, my research strives to inform coastal environmental decisions with quantitative and integrative science. To achieve this, I complement my field-based, experimental ecological research with natural stable isotope techniques, ecosystem modeling, satellite-derived oceanographic data, anthropological methods, archaeological data and Bayesian time-series analyses. My research is broad, interdisciplinary and heavily conservation orientated, having addressed topics ranging from marine reserve design, invasive marine species and climate change.

Jennifer Smith's research focuses on understanding the factors (natural, anthropogenic, physical & biological) that influence community structure in benthic marine ecosystems. While she has worked in a number of different systems, both pristine and degraded, her primary interests lie in determining how different anthropogenic impacts affect coral reef community structure. Jennifer has focused on understanding the importance of overfishing versus nutrient pollution in maintaining the competitive balance between algae and coral. The results of this work are critical to effective management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems around the globe. Jennifer also studies introduced and invasive marine species, specifically seaweeds. With this work she has taken a holistic approach by trying to understand a) why invaders are often so successful in their invaded environments, b) what impacts they have on native communities and c) what management options will be useful in controlling their abundance in the invaded habitats. She has a long-term interest in seaweed invasions especially as related to intentional introductions for the global aquaculture industry. Jennifer's research often goes beyond basic ecology by integrating conservation, restoration, management and sustainability. She has received numerous awards for her research and looks forward to a long career in marine ecology and conservation.

Michael Webster is a Program Officer with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Wild Salmon Ecosystems initiative. His work focuses on identifying and filling critical gaps in scientific understanding of salmon ecology, management and conservation, and applying this information to fisheries harvest reform. Michael received a B.S. in Zoology at the University of Wisconsin , Madison . From there, he started graduate work at Oregon State University where earned a Ph.D. in Zoology. His research focused on the ecology of coral-reef fishes and involved extensive field work in Australia and the Bahamas . After completing his doctorate, Michael began work as a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) at Oregon State University . While with PISCO he ran a kelp forest monitoring project in Oregon and helped coordinate numerous research projects.

Elliott A. Norse is President of Marine Conservation Biology Institute (www.mcbi.org) in Bellevue, Washington.  After studying the ecology of blue crabs in the Caribbean for his Ph.D. and post-doc, he began working in 1978 on environmental policy at two federal agencies, the Ecological Society of America and two conservation organizations before founding MCBI in 1996.  MCBI is a national and international science and conservation advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the new science of marine conservation biology and securing protection for marine ecosystems.  A Founding Life Member of SCB, Elliott organized the first and second Symposia on Marine Conservation Biology (Victoria 1997 and San Francisco 2001).  His 140+ publications include: 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 is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation and received NOAA’s Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation.

Norm Sloan works for Parks Canada Agency as the marine ecologist for Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia.  The current marine focus is towards creating a National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) surrounding Gwaii Haanas, whose seaward boundary is the high tide line.  The conservation continuum envisioned, that is, the union of the park with the proposed NMCA, will span alpine to deep-sea ecosystems.  The extent of the combined area, ~5,000 km2 (lands plus ~3,400 km2 of proposed sea space), and the breadth and completeness of the ecosystem coverage will be globally unique for a temperate coastal rainforest park.  Norm was born and raised in Vancouver, B.C., and completed his Ph.D. in 1977 from the University of London (U.K.).  His core experience is in applied marine resource work for government and industry in the conservation, fisheries, forestry, mining and petroleum sectors of which he has various work experiences in 15 nations.  His field craft embraces coral reefs to Arctic shores and a range of ecosystems from estuarine to open ocean. 

Glenn R. VanBlaricom is Professor of Marine Mammal Studies at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, and Assistant Leader of the Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.  He received Bachelor of Science degrees in Zoology and Oceanography in 1972 from UW, and a PhD from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1978. Glenn’s research laboratory studies conservation biology, and population & community ecology of coastal marine ecosystems, with emphasis on marine mammals.  Glenn currently sponsors five PhD and two MS students.  Ten doctoral and thirteen MS students have graduated from Glenn’s UW Program since it was established in 1993.  Glenn has published 55 papers in the technical literature, and teaches courses in marine mammalogy at UW.  In addition to SCB activities he currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, and the IUCN Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel.