PRESIDENT

Chris Parsons is currently serving his second term as the President of the SCB Marine Section and a member of the SCB Board of Governors. He has been both the Student Matters representative and the Policy Chair for the SCB Marine Section, before becoming President. In addition he was the Director of the Local Organizing Secretariat for the 1st International Marine Conservation Congress (Washington DC, 2009), is Program co-Chair for the 2nd International Marine Conservation Congress (Victoria, BC 2011) and will be the Chair of the 3rd Congress (to be held in the UK, 2014). He's also on the steering committees of first two International Marine Conservation Think Tanks (to be held in New Zealand in 2011 and 2013).

He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University in Virginia (USA) and a research associate at both the University Marine Biological Station, Millport, Scotland and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia. He's the director for the undergraduate conservation biology, environmental science and marine and freshwater biology programs at George Mason as well as being the director of the undergraduate certificate in environmental management.

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 Caribbean. 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. 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.

FINANCE OFFICER

John Cigliano is Associate Professor of Biology at Cedar Crest College (Pennsylvania, USA), where he is Director of the Biodiversity and Conservation Biology program. His research interests include conservation ecology of queen conch (Strombus gigas) and marine reserve design. His main study sites are in Belize. He also has a strong interest in conservation education and works with several organizations that deliver educational curricula to K-12 teachers and students, conservation practitioners, and the general public.

John Cigliano was a Director on the Marine Section Board from 2006 – 2009, and has since been the Marine Section representative for the SCB Conference Committee. He was the Conference Chair for the 1st International Marine Conservation Congress (Washington DC, 2009) and as such he managed the half million dollar turnover of this SCB major event. He is also the Program co-Chair for the 2nd International Marine Conservation Congress (Victoria, BC 2011) as well being on the steering committee for the 1st International Marine Conservation Think Tank (to be held in New Zealand in 2011).

COMMUNICATION OFFICER

Dori Dick is presently a PhD student in the Department of Geosciences Geography Program at Oregon State University where she is focusing her interests in spatial modeling, spatial analysis and GIS towards advancing marine conservation issues in Oregon.  Dori earned her Bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Victoria and her Master's degree in Geography from San Francisco State University. Complementing her academic pursuits, Dori has worked for numerous universities, government agencies, and NGOs conducting field research and GIS analyses on whales, dolphins, pinnipeds and seabirds.  Her thesis research, conducted in Belize, focused on estimating abundance, distribution and habitat use of bottlenose dolphins at Turneffe Atoll and developed several conservation recommendations for an area that lacks any ecological long-term protection.  Dori has strong interests in research and the conservation of marine biodiversity through the development of marine protected areas (MPAs), measuring the efficacy of MPAs, marine spatial planning and marine ecosystem-based management.  As the Assistant Chair of the Scientific Program Committee at the First International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC), she noticed a recurring theme: the need for a multidisciplinary approach to bridge the gap between scientists and managers to advance marine conservation.  In her capacity as a Board Member and Communication Officer for the SCB Marine Section, Dori has addressed this gap by improving recognition of marine conservation issues at SCB meetings, increasing multidisciplinary section membership, and encouraging diverse collaborations to achieve innovative solutions to marine conservation.  Dori is the Education and Outreach Chair for the upcoming Second IMCC where she continues to advocate for marine conservation issues.

POLICY OFFICER

Dr Hedley Grantham works in the Economics and Spatial Planning department at Conservation International doing applied research on spatially explicit analysis of economic returns from business as usual vs. conservation based economies, integrated land/seascape planning methods and process, integration of fisheries and biodiversity conservation in MPA planning, marine spatial planning and developing innovative approaches to spatially explicit land-use and sea-use tradeoffs. He studied conservation planning and earned his PhD from the University of Queensland where he developed conservation planning approaches accounting for ecosystem dynamics and uncertainty under supervision from Prof Hugh Possingham and others. He has worked in academia and as a consultant before joining Conservation International. He has conducted applied research projects in marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in Australia, South East Asia, China, South Africa and Mediterranean Europe and has published over 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters.

SCIENCE OFFICER

Carol Scarpaci is a lecturer in the School of Engineering and Science at Victoria University in Australia. Carol has carried out research on marine mammals since 1997 in Australia and successfully completed her PhD (RMIT University) in 2004. Since the completion of her PhD, Carol, has continued to conduct research with the following research scopes: microflora in little penguins, compliance of tour operators to either code of conducts or regulations for dolphin/seal/grey nurse shark swim operations, toxicity testing in little penguins and use of stomatal cells as a proxy to rising carbon dioxide levels across time. She is the author of several scientific research papers on various topics concerning the biology and management of marine mammals exposed to marine tourism. Her research has been utilized in a number of international forums (for example International Whaling Commission, Society of Marine Mammal Science), and has resulted in re-evaluating and re-structuring cetacean tourism and their enforcement in several countries. Carol has also participated in many community projects and was awarded as an "icon" in the western metropolitan region of Victoria (Australia) for her community efforts and marine focused projects. Carol hopes that her ongoing research will encourage sustainable tourism in marine and terrestrial environments by developing management strategies that promote acceptable levels of compliance by tour-operators.

EDUCATION OFFICER

Dwayne Meadows is an endangered species biologist with NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources. He works on endangered species act policy and implementation and is national coordinator of a proactive conservation program. Dr. Meadows has B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Zoology from the University of California at Berkeley and Oregon State University, respectively. He was an Assistant then Associate Professor of Zoology at Weber State University for some years before becoming Director of Research and Marine Science at Pacific Whale Foundation in Maui, Hawaii. Dr. Meadows then worked in the coral reef program in NOAA Fisheries' Hawaii lab before moving to his current position at NOAA Headquarters. His 50 or so publications include work on conservation and behavioral ecology of coral reef fishes, sea turtles, marine mammals, and mollusks as well as numerous popular articles. Dr. Meadows has served as Secretary of Hawaii chapter of American Fisheries Society, chapter president for Sigma Xi, represented Hawaii Ecosystems on the Advisory Panel to the Western Pacific Fish Management Council and chaired and served on numerous committees and working groups.

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE

Katheryn Patterson has been a student member of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) since 2008 and has been a very active member of the marine section specifically. Throughout her academic career, she has held several positions that have given her the opportunity to serve as a student liaison to both faculty within her department at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, and the governing bodies of SCB. In preparation for the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) / 2nd International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC2), Katheryn served on several of the conference committees and assisted the secretariat director with day-to-day coordination of budget registration, merchandising and other logistics. She was solely responsible for organizing and coordinating some of the side events and forums where she spent a great deal of time advocating SCB's policies, especially marine ones, to other events, organizations, and forums. Furthermore, Katheryn is currently serving as the Student Committee Chair for the Second IMCC and will be assisting in the organization of all student activities to be held in Victoria, B.C., May 2011. As the Marine Section's Student representative, she will continue to strive to improve student interest in the marine section and society (both in terms of increasing student membership overall, and increasing active participation); to increase communication and foster interaction between the board and student members; to advocate for student interests and concerns; and will continue to assist in the implementation of unique student activities at conferences and independent marine section events in order to promote a stronger sense of community within the Marine Section.

INTERNATIONAL OFFICER

MEMBER-AT-LARGE

Sarah Foster. My research experiences have been aimed at advancing marine conservation, and have been truly interdisciplinary in nature. My PhD research takes a novel look at the impacts of tropical shrimp trawling, by considering its effects on the many small fishes obtained as bycatch. Commitments to ecosystem based management and food security demand adjustment of such capture to sustainable levels. For my thesis, I explored tractable approaches using easily extracted data to estimate how trawling affects small fish species – including length-based indicators, qualitative criteria, life history reference points, and population viability analysis. I integrated local knowledge from fisher interview, new biological data, and available records to assess the impact of shrimp trawling on the smaller species in the ecosystem, and evaluate socially accepted bycatch mitigation tools for reducing impacts.
As a member of Project Seahorse, an international marine conservation organisation, I focus on understanding the life history of syngnathids (seahorses and their relatives), and using this information to inform policy. Most notably, I helped prompt an international Convention (CITES) to begin controlling exports on marine fishes of commercial value, using seahorses as the precedent for change. This landmark decision tacitly recognised that economically-important marine fishes can also be wildlife, thus setting a new framework for collaborative management of marine resources. As part of this work, I was invited to contribute planning and expertise to two international workshops. That led me to participate in a co-operative project to devise a new management measure that would allow CITES Parties to meet their CITES responsibilities without closing down trade.
My post-PhD research direction aims to reduce the rate of marine biodiversity loss by achieving two main goals: 1) to ensure sustainable trade in wild seahorse populations (a continuation of previous work with Project Seahorse); and 2) to assess and address the issue of small fish species in tropical shrimp trawl bycatch (a continuation of my PhD work).

INTERDISCIPLINARY OUTREACH

MARINE WELFARE SCIENCE

SCIENCE & PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVE

Ellen Hines is an associate 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.

AWARDS COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVE

Carolyn Lundquist. I am a marine ecologist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Hamilton, New Zealand, and an honorary lecturer at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. I completed my undergraduate degree in marine biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, 1993), and my PhD degree in conservation ecology at the University of California, Davis (2000). I moved to New Zealand to take on a postdoctoral position in 2000, and soon took on a permanent position here. As a member of SCB since 1994, I remain committed to ensuring that conservation science is incorporated into resource management and policy. I have a strong interest in communicating conservation science to the public and to policy makers, and regularly organize workshops, symposia and presentations at scientific conferences, with regional policy makers, and to local community groups. My research focuses on the effects of human disturbances on marine communities, using a combination of empirical research and modeling to advise regional councils and government agencies, and community organisations on both conservation and utilisation of marine resources. I have been active on the SCB Board since 2002, serving as board member and president of the SCB Marine Section in 2002-2004 before joining the Oceania Section Board in 2008 and have been president of this section since 2010. I have assisted with SCB Section meetings; as program chair for the Biodiversity Extinction Crisis Conference; on the program committee of the 1st International Marine Conservation Congress in May 2009 and co-chair of the First International Marine Conservation Think Tank. I have participated on various SCB committees, including the SCB Membership, Student Affairs, and Awards committees.

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.