The ASOC Secretariat in Washington, DC is the administrative and financial base of the organization, raising funds, providing administrative support to campaigners, responding to the public, and maintaining this website. To contact a campaigner, please contact the Secretariat.
The ASOC Campaign Team includes people from all over the world, who work as ASOC experts on a wide range of subjects, representing the members of the Coalition on Antarctic issues. All are experts in their fields, and many have extensive Antarctic experience to accompany their education and environmental advocacy credentials. The team is dedicated to the pursuit of the ideals of the preamble of the Antarctic Treaty: that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean should be reserved for peace, science and protection of the Antarctic environment.
Secretariat Staff
Jim Barnes, Executive Director
A co-founder of ASOC in 1978, Jim received his B.A. at Northwestern in 1966 and his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1970. Currently living in Villamblard, France, Jim has devoted the past thirty-eight years to working with environmental organizations around the world. He received the International Environmentalist of the Year award from the National Wildlife Federation in 1991, the Order of the Golden Ark from the Dutch Royal Family’s foundation in 1998, and the Sierra Club’s Earth Care award in 2004.
Claire Christian, Director of the Secretariat
Claire received an M.A. in International Affairs at American University, School of International Service in May 2008. She worked as Program Assistant at the National Council for Science and the Environment in Washington, DC from December 2003 – May 2006, and has worked with ASOC since 2007.
Danny Elias, Social Media Coordinator
Daniel earned an M.A. in Global Environmental Policy from American University's School of International Service in May of 2011. He has honed a strong background in marine policy through ASOC, the Hubbs Sea World Research Institute and various other marine and environmental non profits. He has worked with ASOC since June 2009.
Deidre Zoll, Assistant to the Director
Deidre Zoll is a sustainability and conservation professional with over eight years experience serving universities and non-profits organizations. Deidre’s academic background is in environmental policy, receiving an M.A. in Global Environmental Politics at American University. Previously she worked at Alaska Pacific University, and as a Program Officer with WWF's Global Forest & Trade Network. Deidre has assisted ASOC since 2006 and is now managing many of ASOC's grant contracts.
Kisei Tanaka, Project & Website Coordinator
Kisei earned his M.A. in Environmental Policy in 2010, and M.S. in Environmental Science in 2012 from American University. Previously, Kisei has worked for UNEP in Jamaica, as well as a host of other marine and coastal resource management organizations. Kisei joined ASOC in 2012.
Campaigners
Asia
Japan
Mayuko Yanai, Country Organiser for the AOA Marine Protected Areas Campaign
South Korea
Jeong Soo Kim, Ph.D.
Jeong Soo Kim is the organizing member of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement., and is the Vice director of CIES(Citizen's Institute of Environmental Studies). He has a Ph.D. in Agriculture and Ecology (Seoul National University 2007).
Tess Park, Country Organiser for the AOA Marine Protected Areas Campaign
Russia
Grigory Tsidulko, Country Organiser for the AOA Marine Protected Areas Campaign
Victor Michaelson, Ph.D. in Political Science, Media Advisor for the AOA Marine Protected Areas Campaign
Victor Michaelson has founded Communicator Group in 2004. His experience in strategic marketing, corporate communications, journalism and PR gives a successful dynamic development of the company. Before the Group’s foundation Victor was the head of Moscow office of Mmd Public Relations and was promoting in Russia such companies as IBM, Philips, PepsiCo., Discovery Networks Europe, Visa International, Jabra, SAP, etc. In 1999-2000 Victor was a marketing consultant in European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Before EBRD Victor Michaelson worked for The World Bank on technical assistance projects. Since 1999 Victor is an associate professor and head of "Social and Communication Technologies" department at State Humanitarian University, he has created and is teaching several courses in PR, strategic marketing, corporate culture. Since 2012 Victor is teaching marketing at RMA business- school. He also is an assistant professor in the department of Media Communications in the State Research University – Higher School of Economics. In 1977 Victor graduated Moscow University of Transportation Engineers, then was engaged in the automated control systems creation. In 1997 Victor Michaelson continued his education in London School of Economics and Political Science.
Oceania
Australia
Lyn Goldsworthy, ASOC Advisor
Born in New Zealand, Lyn moved to Australia in the mid-1970s to undertake a Masters in Environmental Studies, and has devoted her working career to activism. She has worked on Antarctic issues on-and-off since 1983, and has attended many Antarctic Treaty and CCAMLR meetings as NGO advisor to the Australian delegation or on the ASOC delegation. In 1990 Lyn received the New Zealand Antarctic Society Award and in 1991 was awarded an Order of Australia for services to conservation and environment, primarily for her work on stopping mining in the Antarctic. She served 12 years on the Australian government Antarctic Science Advisory Committee and has been to Antarctica twice to review Australia's environmental impact at their three continental bases. Lyn spent two years on the ASOC Board in 2005-2006. These days much of her work involves project facilitation and management and advocacy work. She has recently branched out into organisational network analysis and hopes soon to bring these skills to the not-for-profit sector.
Blair Palese, Media Coordinator for the AOA Marine Protected Areas Campaign
New Zealand
Barry Weeber, ASOC Advisor
Barry is an ASOC board member and has been involved in Antarctic conservation for more than 20 years going back to campaigns against the Antarctic Minerals Convention during the 1980s and the campaign for the Antarctic Environmental Protocol in the 1990s. Barry's training is in science and environmental law. He has extensive international and national campaign experience in resource management and conservation law and fisheries management issues, and has served both as staff and as a board member of ENGOs. He has attended most CCAMLR meetings since 1990 as part of the New Zealand delegation, and has also attended several ATCMs. He works as a consultant with environmental NGOs on deep-sea fisheries, marine management and conservation, and to a tertiary education organisation. For 15 years, Barry worked as the Royal Forest and Bird Society of New Zealand's senior researcher. Barry is a member of the IUCN Antarctic Advisory Committee (since 1996) and also a member of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas. He serves as vice-Chair of the Environment and Conservation Organisations of NZ (ECO).
Geoff Keey, Country Organiser for the AOA Marine Protected Areas Campaign
Europe
France
Tina Tin, ASOC Advisor
Tina conducted her Ph.D. research on the thickness of Antarctic sea ice at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (US) and holds a Masters of Engineering from the University of Cambridge (UK). She participated in two research cruises in the Ross Sea and has presented papers at a number of international scientific conferences including International Geophysical Year and SCAR meetings. Her passion lies in the protection of wilderness areas in the polar regions and worldwide. She has worked with WWF and other environmental organizations to promote climate change science and policy in Europe and elsewhere. Tina is a native of Hong Kong.
Netherlands
Ricardo Roura, Coordinator of ASOC's Protocol & Tourism Campaigns, Advisor to the AOA Marine Protected Areas campaign
Ricardo graduated as a geologist from the University of Buenos Aires in 1989, completed a Master of Philosophy degree from Massey University (New Zealand) in 2001, and received his doctorate from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands in 2012. He has participated in twelve Antarctic expeditions, including one winter-over with Greenpeace International, the Argentine Antarctic program, and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has served in a variety of roles including scientist, environmental manager, and field tutor. Ricardo has represented NGOs at various Antarctic fora since 1992 and has been an ASOC representative to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings since 1997. He has also conducted research in Svalbard with the Arctic Centre, University of Groningen. He has published more than 40 scholarly articles on a range of polar issues.
Ukraine
Gennadi Milinevsky, Marine Protected Areas Campaign Advisor
Gennadi received his MS from Kiev State Universityin 1974 and his PhD from Tarasa Shevchenka University in 2001. He is Head of the Space Physics Department, National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev and Principal Scientist at the National Antarctic Scientific Centre of Ukraine; Deputy Chief Editor of scientific "Ukrainian Antarctic Journal", and a delegate to SCAR. He served as Base Commander in the First Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition winter-over at Vernadsky Station, Antarctic Peninsula (from 6 February 1996 till 18 March 1997), as well as a member of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 10th Ukrainian Antarctic Expeditions. Gennadi has published more than 100 papers in scientific journals, and often serves as an NGO advisor to the Ukraine's CCAMLR delegation.
United Kingdom
Sian Prior, IMO Coordinator and ASOC Advisor
Sian is a marine scientist and policy specialist with a B.Sc. Marine Biology- Oceanography joint honours degree from the University of Wales and a Ph.D. in Marine Ecotoxicology from the University of London. Sian first worked on a range of coastal and marine management policy issues for the port and shipping industry. She then spent 15 years heading WWF's UK marine programme and later WWF's European marine programme. Her work has focused on marine governance and coastal management issues, including ecosystem-based management, marine spatial planning, marine protected areas, fisheries management, shipping, and oil and gas development. During this time Sian participated in a variety of international and regional policy frameworks, including heading WWF's delegation to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for 10 years, concentrating on issues such as prevention of shipping accidents, designation of particularly sensitive sea areas (PSSAs), ships' routing, MARPOL Special Area Status. For the past five years, Sian has worked as an independent adviser on marine policy development focusing particularly on marine governance, spatial planning and protected areas, and shipping management in the Southern Ocean, north-west European waters and New Zealand's EEZ.
Donna Mattfield, Country Organiser for the AOA Marine Protected Areas Campaign
Mona Samari
North America
United States
Jessy O'Reilly, Cliamte Coordinator for ASOC
South America
Argentina
Virginia Gascón, Policy Advisor for the IUU Fishing Project
Virginia is a specialist on marine policy, with a special focus on global fisheries issues. She holds a Degree in Law from Universidad Autonoma (Madrid) and two Masters in International Law from the Free University (Brussels) and Georgetown University (Washington, DC). From 1997 she has worked as international consultant for World Wildlife Fund International, Pew Environment Group, and other nongovernmental organizations on various environmental policy and fisheries issues. She also has experience as a lawyer and university teacher. She has worked with ASOC since 2002, especially on toothfish and krill, and has represented ASOC at several meetings of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (www.ccamlr.org). Currently, she advises ASOC on issues related to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing around Antarctica and also at the global level.
Dr. Rodolfo Werner, Senior Advisor (Antarctica & Southern Ocean)
Dr. Rodolfo Werner Kinkelin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, graduated as biologist from the University of Buenos Aires, obtained a PhD in Biology at the University of Munich, Germany, and conducted a Postdoc in Marine Zoology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He has provided advice on marine science and conservation policies to numerous international environmental organizations. For the last 10 years he has been focusing his work on Antarctic marine wildlife, especially on the conservation of Antarctic krill, penguins, seals and Patagonian toothfish. Currently, he is a Senior advisor to the Pew Charitable Trusts and ASOC. For the last 10 years, he has been attending meetings of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (www.ccamlr.org), the Committee for Environmental Protection of the Antarctic Treaty, and Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (www.ats.aq) as representative of ASOC. He has been the Coordinator of the Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea and Areas of Influence (www.patagoniansea.org) and is also a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. Since 2006, Rodolfo has been also working as a naturalist on board of vessels traveling to Antarctica. Currently, he is part of the Antarctic field staff of Lindblad Expeditions/National, lecturing on diverse Antarctic marine conservation issues. Besides of his academic credentials, he is fluent in English, Spanish and German. He is currently based in San Carlos de Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina and can be contacted at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
