• Ms. Kristina Gjerde - IUCN Global Marine Program
  Click Here For: [Abstract] [Presentation]

  Kristina M. Gjerde is High Seas Policy Advisor to the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and a graduate of UCLA (history) and NYU School of Law.  Kristina is fascinated by marine science and had the good fortune to serve as a research fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  Kristina has published widely on international marine policy and conservation issues, including a recent report with UNEP on Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas.  In 2003 Kristina was awarded a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation for her work on high seas biodiversity conservation.

  
  

• Ms. Lisa Speer – Director, Water and Oceans Program, National Resources Defense Council
  Click Here For: [Abstract]

  Lisa Speer is Director of the Water and Oceans Program at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national environmental organization dedicated to protecting natural resources and public health.  Ms. Speer’s work focuses on the conservation and management of marine biodiversity and fisheries at the international level.  She is a member of the National Research Council’s Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology.  She received her Master’s degree from Yale University and her bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College.

  
  

• Mr. Warner Chabot – Vice President, Regional Operations, The Ocean Conservancy

As the Vice President for Regional Operations, Mr. Chabot manages the Ocean Conservancy’s (TOC) regional directors and the “placed-based” regional programs in the Caribbean, Florida, New England, California and Hawaii.  These programs seek to inform, inspire and empower citizens to enact state and federal policies to restore and conserve the health and diversity of ocean ecosystems.  In his fourteen years at TOC, Mr. Chabot led successful programs to enact landmark state and regional laws and policies to restore ecosystems, restore depleted fisheries, recover vulnerable ocean wildlife and reduce land-based pollution in regions throughout the United States.  He brings to TOC a wide range and depth of experience in environmental planning, coalition building and state and federal legislation and policy in the public and private sector.  Prior to joining TOC, Mr. Chabot was president of an environmental consulting firm, where he produced studies, legislation and programs for county, state and congressional clients. Issues of concern included offshore oil drilling, oil spill prevention and response, creating marine sanctuaries and MPAs, reducing non-point pollution and marine debris, and programs to protect marine and coastal land resources.  Mr. Chabot received a B.S., with Honors, in Environmental Planning from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
 

• Dr. Elliott Norse - Marine Conservation Biology Institute

  Elliott A. Norse is President of Marine Conservation Biology Institute, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to advancing the new science of marine conservation biology and securing protection for marine ecosystems.  Since studying the ecology of blue crabs in the Caribbean for his Ph.D. and post-doc, he has worked on environmental policy since 1978.  Elliott’s 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 recently received NOAA’s Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation.