Overview Sponsors Honorary Congressional Committee Register

Member of Congress:
The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse
U.S. Senate
Chair, Subcommittee on Oversight of the Committe on Environment and Public Works
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, and a sailor and diver, has been active in addressing global climate change’s its threat to ocean and coastal ecosystems. He authored an amendment to support investments in America’s oceans and coasts as part of the Senate’s FY09 budget resolution, and fought successfully to make sure climate change legislation passed by the EPW committee included protections for coastal communities, wildlife, and land and marine ecosystems. Whitehouse, who traveled to Greenland last summer to see firsthand the effects of climate change on its massive ice cap, has worked closely with Rhode Island’s environmental community to raise awareness of the potential impact of global warming on the Ocean State. In August 2008, he held an official field briefing of the EPW Committee at the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus to examine global warming’s impacts on Narragansett Bay. Whitehouse has also been a champion for coastal and estuarine habitats, successfully fighting to reauthorize the Estuary Restoration Act (ERA) in 2007.
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Moderator:
Margaret “Meg” Caldwell, JD
Executive Director
Center for Ocean Solutions
Meg Caldwell is a senior lecturer and director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program at Stanford Law School. She has dedicated her career to environmental law, having worked as an attorney, professor, and board member in the field. Her scholarship has focused on the environmental effects of local land use decisions, the use of science in environmental and marine resource policy development and implementation, and developing private and public incentives for natural resource conservation. Caldwell also has an appointment with the Woods Institute for the Environment where she serves as Interim Director of the Center for Ocean Solutions. The center is a collaboration between Stanford, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute whose core mission is to increase the impact of the natural, physical and social sciences on ocean policy. She received her BS in Business Administration from University of California, Berkley in 1982 and her JD from Stanford Law School in 1985.
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Panelists:
Larry B. Crowder, PhD
Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology
Duke University
Dr. Crowder is the Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology at Duke University. His research centers on predation and food web interactions, mechanisms underlying recruitment variation in fishes, and on population and food web modeling in conservation biology. He has studied food web processes in estuaries and lakes, and has used observational, experimental and modeling approaches to understand these interactions in an effort to improve fisheries management. He co-directed the South Atlantic Bight Recruitment Experiment (SABRE) and continues to conduct research on the life histories of estuarine-dependent fishes. He continues to conduct model and statistical analyses to assist in endangered species management for both aquatic (sea turtles) and terrestrial species (red-cockaded woodpeckers). Recently he has begun developing more extensive programs in marine conservation, including research on bycatch, spatial analysis, nutrients and low oxygen, marine invasive species and integrated ecosystem management. Dr. Crowder received his BA from California State University Fresno and his MS and PhD from Michigan State University.

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Michael Kearns
Director, External Affairs
National Ocean Industries Association
Michael Kearns is the Director of External Affairs at the National Ocean Industries Association(NOIA). NOIA is the only national trade association representing all segments of the offshore energy industry. The NOIA membership comprises over 300 companies engaged in activities ranging from drilling to producing, engineering to marine and air transport, offshore construction to equipment manufacture and supply, geophysical surveying to diving, and ocean-based renewable energy to finance. Michael works as an advocate on behalf of NOIA and its member companies before Congress and the Administration, seeking laws, regulations and policies that will support and enhance reliable access to the nation's valuable offshore hydrocarbon resources in order that they may be developed, produced and supplied in an environmentally responsible manner. Prior to joining NOIA, Michael was a member of the staff of the Congressionally-created U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, where he served as Special Assistant to the Executive Director and Assistant Project Manager. Michael is a member of the Public Relations Society of America, and graduated from Georgetown University’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1993 with a degree in Government and History.

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Steve Murawski, PhD
Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor
NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
Dr. Steven Murawski is the Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor for NOAA Fisheries Service, a position he has held since May of 2005. In addition to these duties, he was selected to be the NOAA Ecosystem Goal Team Lead in January 2006. As Goal Team Lead, Dr. Murawski is responsible for out-year strategic planning and budget development for all of NOAA’s ecosystem activities which amount to $1.2 billion in 2009. Currently, Dr. Murawski works to move forward ecosystem approaches to management both at NOAA and in conjunction with other federal agencies and international bodies. He has published over 150 reports, articles and other documents, appearing several notable journals. During his career, Dr. Murawski has been a key representative on several committees and councils. His current roles include official U.S. delegate to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), NOAA representative to the White House interagency Joint Sub-Committee on Science and Technology (JSOST), and member on the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) Program Steering Committee. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, in 1984.

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Matthew Tinning
Legislative Director
Ocean Conservancy
Matt Tinning is Ocean Conservancy’s Legislative Director, overseeing the organization’s government relations team. He is focused on issues including climate change, fisheries, aquaculture, marine wildlife protection, ocean governance and marine debris. He has previously worked as a lobbyist and political analyst for the Australian government, based in their Washington Embassy; a legislative aide in the office of Senator Jeff Bingaman; and an attorney based in Sydney. He has a BA from the Australian National University and completed a Masters-equivalent in US politics. He also has a law degree and is admitted to the New York bar.

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Jack Wiggin
Director, Urban Harbors Institute
University of Massachusetts, Boston
Jack Wiggin is the director of the Urban Harbors Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is responsible for the overall management of the Institute including its research, education, and public service priorities which span topics of ocean and coastal management, port and harbor planning, environmental protection and sustainable development. He has over 28 years of experience in government, the private sector, and academia developing and implementing coastal and marine policy, planning and management strategies at the national, state, and local levels of government in the US and abroad. He teaches planning courses in the Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is currently a Councilor of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, a board member of the Environmental Business Council of New England, a trustee of The Boston Harbor Association, and serves on numerous other advisory boards for government and nonprofit organizations.

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