Our team

Claire Christian

Executive Director

Claire has worked for ASOC since 2009 and has substantial expertise on a full range of issues relevant to the Antarctic environment. Her aim is to educate and inspire people around the world to protect the Antarctic continent and its surrounding ocean, which are some of the world’s last great wilderness areas. She coordinates policy and strategy related to many issues that impact the Antarctic environment including tourism, fisheries, marine protected areas and climate change. As part of this work, she has developed relationships with Antarctic stakeholders, including government officials, scientists, and industry. Claire leads ASOC’s delegations to Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCMs) and meetings of the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). She has authored blogs, opinion pieces, and academic articles, and has been interviewed by a wide variety of international publications and media outlets. Claire has a special fondness for Antarctica’s fascinating but little-known invertebrate species, and aspires to make them as famous and beloved as penguins. She has an M.A. in International Affairs from the American University School of International Service.

Eli Webster

Director of Operations and Finance

Eli has worked for ASOC since 2015 where she spends her days working on grants, finances, fundraising, and the day-to-day operations that keep ASOC running smoothly. Before joining ASOC, she worked for a number of non-profits in the greater DC area with a focus on natural history and public education, including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Geographic Museum. Eli attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College as an undergraduate and The George Washington University for graduate school. Outside of work, Eli enjoys reading, going to museums, kickboxing, and playing the occasional game of rugby or Gaelic football.

Holly Curry

MPA Campaign Director

Holly joined the ASOC team in 2023 as MPA Campaign Director. Prior to joining ASOC, Holly practiced land use, local government, and environmental law. Holly has clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and served as a staffer for U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. Additionally, Holly worked for the Surfrider Foundation and the Nature Conservancy in environmental policy, governmental affairs, and grassroots organizing. She is an Adjunct Professor of Community Organizing at FSU College of Social Sciences & Public Policy. Holly holds a BS in International Affairs, MS in Applied American Politics & Policy, and JD with a certificate in Land Use & Environmental Law. She is an outdoor enthusiast and nature nerd and can often be found on hikes with her husband, her children, and her dogs!

Mary Liesegang

Program Coordinator

Mary joined the ASOC team in 2023 as Project Coordinator. Having fallen in love with the white continent during a 2019 expedition, she maintains a deep admiration for its majestic walls of ice, diverse wildlife and, of course, playful penguins. She aims to share her passion for Antarctica, and the surrounding ocean, through strategic policy development, collaborative research, and articulating complex information in a manner that is accessible for all. Mary’s broad background includes coral reef research in the central Pacific, North Atlantic Right whale studies in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and blue carbon ecosystem conservation in San Diego. She received a B.A. in Biology from Boston University and an M.S. in Marine Science from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego. In her free time, she stays active in marine conservation work, scientific scuba diving, tide pooling, and coaches synchronized swimming. If Mary is not physically in the water, she is usually thinking about it!

Nina Gallo

Communications Advisor

Nina is a writer and strategic digital communications advisor with a particular focus on the global systems at work in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. She has written and presented extensively on topics related to Antarctic science, history and governance, and is the author of Antarctica, published by Australian Geographic.

Since 2020 Nina has held a voluntary position on the Council of the Antarctic Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) Oceania, where she contributes to the development of science communication and public outreach skills. Her primary goal here is to help polar professionals communicate their important research to a broad, non-specialist audience. In addition to her work in the field of communications, Nina has worked as an Antarctic expedition guide and onboard historian, and Communications Director for remote events in the Australian desert. 

In 2021 Nina was recognized as an Antarctic Ambassador by the Antarctic Science Foundation (Australia) and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). 

Shivani Tanaka

Project Coordinator

Shivani joined the ASOC team in 2020. She manages ASOC’s website and social media needs. She earned her master’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park. Shivani enjoys rock climbing, hiking and reading.

Randy Helten, Friends of the Earth, Japan

Japan Coordinator

Based in Canada

Through ASOC member organization Friends of the Earth Japan, for more than a decade Randy has been supporting the efforts of ASOC and other coalition members to create Antarctic MPAs. He is currently representative director (equiv. to chairman of the board) of FoE Japan and supports the organization and its campaigns. Since the 1990s he has been involved in their campaigns and activities on international financial institutions and the environment, forests, climate, energy, eco-tourism, and marine protection. Current major priorities for FoE Japan include promoting renewable energy, ending Japan’s support for coal-fired power (both domestic and overseas), pressing for accountability regarding the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and more. Among marine-related topics are Antarctic MPAs, ocean dumping of contaminated water from Fukushima, and preserving a coastal ecosystem from a military base construction in Okinawa. FoE Japan is part of the international FoE federation in 73 countries tackling today’s most urgent environmental and social issues. Randy has a commerce degree in marketing from the University of British Columbia. With ASOC, in recent years he has supported joint Japan/Korea MPA workshops in Seoul, ASOC/MPA advocacy meetings in Tokyo, and outreach in Japan, and most recently had the opportunity to observe CCAMLR and ATCM meetings to see how Japanese
delegations participate and/or intervene. A current priority is fostering youth to get involved in Antarctic MPA efforts.

Eunhee Kim

South Korea Coordinator

Based in South Korea

Eunhee has been working on Antarctic marine protected areas (MPAs) and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing issues since she started working with ASOC in 2014. She earned her Ph.D. in environmental chemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park, focusing on trace metal biogeochemistry in estuarine/marine environments. While working on MPA issues, Eunhee Kim’s research interests expanded to the Antarctic. Currently, she is working on a research project to look at mercury biogeochemistry in Antarctica.

Dr. Jessica O’Reilly

Climate Coordinator

Based in the United States

Jessica O’Reilly, Associate Professor of International Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, is an environmental anthropologist who conducts research on science/ policy interfaces in Antarctica and about global climate change. She has worked with ASOC since 2006, as a researcher, as an advisor, as a liaison with the US delegation to the ATCM, as well as representing ASOC at the UNFCCC Conference of Parties. Her research on science/ policy translations in Antarctica is published in The Technocratic Antarctic: an ethnography of scientific expertise and environmental governance (Cornell University Press, 2017). Her research on the history of scientific projections on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is published in Discerning Experts: the practices of scientific assessment for environmental policy (Chicago University Press, 2019). She currently is undertaking long term ethnographic research on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  

Sian Prior

Shipping Advisor

Based in the UK

Dr Sian Prior leads ASOC’s work on shipping in the Southern Ocean. The work focuses on the implementation and further development of the International Maritime Organization’s Polar Code, along with a range of environmental protection issues relevant to shipping in the polar regions, including atmospheric emissions, marine plastic litter, grey water and sewage discharges, underwater noise, invasive species, and ships’ routeing. Sian specializes in interpreting marine science to support conservation and management policy and advocacy. Priority areas of work include ocean governance and ecosystem-based management in relationship to shipping and offshore industries, marine protected areas and fisheries management. She has over 30 years of experience of contributing to a variety of international and regional marine management and conservation frameworks.

Dr. Ricardo Roura

Senior Advisor

Based in the Netherlands

Dr. Ricardo Roura is a conservation professional and independent scholar specialising in Antarctica and the Antarctic Treaty System. Initially a geologist/geomorphologist from the University of Buenos Aires, he migrated to social sciences with a Master of Philosophy from Massey University, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa (NZ) and a PhD from the University of Groningen (NL). His broad research interest is human behaviour and human-environment interactions. 

Ricardo has represented ASOC at Antarctic Treaty System fora since 1997 and currently serves as ASOC’s representative to the Committee for Environmental Protection. His goal is to keep Antarctica natural and the Antarctic Treaty System doing the right thing.

He has so far spent fourteen seasons in Antarctica, including wintering-over, with Greenpeace, the Argentine Antarctic program, the University of Canterbury (NZ) and other organizations. He has served in a variety of roles including scientist, environmental manager, and field tutor.  

Ricardo has also conducted research in Svalbard with the Arctic Centre, University of Groningen; and has worked in the Solomon Islands, where he learnt Pijin, the common language. 

Besides his lifelong dedication to the protection of polar environments, Ricardo’s interests mostly involve dynamic balance, the ocean, languages and other cultures. 

Meike Schützek

Senior Campaigner

Based in Germany

Meike Schützek is a marketing and communications expert and strategic advisor in the German campaign team. She has a M.A. in International Cultural and Business Studies from the University of Passau (Germany) and studied politics at The Institut d’études politiques de Toulouse (France). She lived in the UK and US where she worked as a media correspondent and led teams in global performance marketing campaigns. A passionate surfer and climate protection volunteer, she changed her career to ocean protection. Learning about the significance of MPAs, she expanded her interest to the Antarctic. Her professional passion in the areas of policy making, science and creative storytelling drives her in campaigning for the conservation of the Southern Ocean. 

Mike Walker

Europe and Strategy Coordinator

Based in Ireland

Mike Walker is a campaign consultant for the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. He has a history of supporting terrestrial and marine campaigns for organisations, funders and coalitions, including on ending overfishing; winning large scale fully-protected marine reserves; tackling plastic pollution and delivering transformative agriculture reform. He is dogged in identifying and attainable change within the constraints of the available resources.

Barry Weeber

Senior Advisor

Based in New Zealand

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).

Jim Barnes

Founding Chair

Jim received his Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1970. In 1970 he joined on the legal team opposing the Alaska Pipeline case at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). That case was won in the Supreme Court in 1974. Jim served as a Public Defender in Washington, DC in 1972-73, and in Vanuatu in 1974. From 1977-82 Jim was an attorney with the CLASP’s International Project, serving as Co-Director in 1981-82. He co-founded the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) in 1978, serving for many years as General Counsel and as Executive Director from 2005-14. With Elliot Porter he wrote Let’s Save Antarctica in 1982 as a citizens’ handbook for Antarctica to be protected as a World Park. He directed ASOC campaigns for an ‘ecosystem-as-a-whole’ fisheries treaty from 1978-82; against the proposed Minerals Convention from 1982-89; and for an Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty that banned minerals activities from 1989-98. In 1994 he helped start the CEE Bankwatch Network (BWN) in Krakow, serving as an advisor for the next ten years. Jim helped develop the campaign to protect the Ross Sea starting in 2003. Today he serves ASOC as Board Chair, and is a Member of the BWN Review Committee in Prague. 

Scott Hajost

Vice-chair (United States)

Scott is an international environment and conservation policy and law expert and manager with 39 plus years’ experience working with the US Government, NGOs, multilateral institutions and leading global environment and development projects. He is currently Senior Wildlife Policy and Climate Advisor to the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) and a Senior Fellow for Environmental and Wildlife Protection at the Whistleblower Network News and a Contributing Editor; having previously served as the Managing Director of the Global Wildlife Whistleblower Program.  He has also been a Senior Strategic Adviser to the National Heritage Insitute which works internationally on alternatives to large scale dams. Prior to NWC, he was the Chief of Party for the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, a global initiative of USAID in partnership with National Geographic, the Smithsonian and TRAFFIC. Before that he was the Chief of Party for the global USAID funded Forest Carbon, Markets and Communities – FCMC Program.

Scott started his career at the US State Department Legal Adviser’s Office lawyer where he worked on international environmental and oceans issues. He subsequently served at the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency, a former IUCN member) as Deputy and then Acting Associate Administrator for International Activities and as the first Associate General Counsel for International Activities before leaving the government to become the International Counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF an IUCN member). After EDF, he served almost 15years as the Executive Director of the IUCN USA Multilateral Office including overseeing the IUCN UN mission in New York. (EPA was an IUCN member during this time.)  After IUCN he was senior Counsel at the Center for International Environmental Law before taking over as head of FCMC.

Among other things, Scott is Chairman of the Board of Thinking Animals United, Vice Chair of the Board of ASOC (Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition), a member of the CIEL International Advisory Board (all IUCN members), a senior adviser to Earth Day Network, Senior IUCN Advisor and Authorized Vote Holder for Earth League International and Senior Policy Counsel to SPECIES (all IUCN members) and senior advisor to the Global Island Partnership.   He is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the IUCN US National Committee and is a past member of the IUCN US board. Scott is a very long-time member of WCEL and is also a member of WCPA, CEM and CEC.

Courtney Perry

Treasurer (United States)

Courtney Erin Perry is an accomplished finance professional with more than 12 years of non-profit experience working in higher education as well as 501(c)3 and 501(c)6 organizations in Washington, DC. She’s a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) as well as a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and holds and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from The George Washington University.  Courtney has focused her career on financial reporting, financial statement analysis and investments and is an audit management expert. As the Accounting Deputy Vice President for PhRMA, she is responsible for both domestic and international compliance, including payroll, as well as all aspects of financial statement compilation and analysis. Outside of finance, Courtney is passionate about gender equality issues, in addition to environmental conservation, and serves on the leadership committee of PhRMA’s female-focused Employee Resource Group. 

Prior to working in the non-profit world, Courtney spent many years working in real estate with a focus on financial reporting and regulatory compliance for publicly-traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Originally from Boston, she’s an avid Red Sox fan and enjoys frequent trips to Fenway park and Cape Cod. 

Mark Bauman

United States

Mark Bauman is an award-winning media and communications executive, specializing in multi-platform content strategies.

He has been recognized with numerous broadcast, web and print journalism honors, including an Emmy, more than a dozen CINE Golden Eagles, and various film festival awards. Bauman is currently launching a news start up. Recently, he served as founder, CEO and President at Virtual Wonders, a Virtual Reality startup that digitized cultural and natural sites all over the world, including Mount Everest, Petra, Chichen Itza, and the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank. Previously, he oversaw the Smithsonian Institution’s commercial media units, including Smithsonian and Air & Space magazines, Smithsonian Books, Smithsonian.com and the Smithsonian Channel partnership with Showtime.

Before Smithsonian, Bauman served as Chairman of National Geographic’s Cross Platform Committee, and as Executive Vice President of National Geographic Television, where he oversaw more than 400 hours of programming for the National Geographic Channels. During that period, Bauman launched and oversaw the largest YouTube Channel belonging to any traditional media company in the world, and served on YouTube’s Video Advisory Board.  

He also spent more than a decade in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America for ABC News, and has covered war and genocide in Central Africa, Lebanon, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq for some of the best broadcast and print media outlets in the world. He speaks Spanish, Russian, Czech and Italian.

Deb Castellana

United States

As Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Sylvia Earle Alliance / Mission Blue, Deb is responsible for strategic planning and forming new relationships to generate cooperative programs and projects to increase ocean conservation. She works with SEA’s Executive Director, Board of Directors, partners and staff to ensure that results and outcomes are in accordance with the organization’s mission and goals.

Deb joined the Sylvia Earle Alliance in 2010 and served as Director of Communications for six years, developing communication strategies to broaden the impact of Mission Blue’s programs and partnerships, after which she served as Chief Operating Officer. She has also served as Board Secretary for eight years.

Deb also serves as Chairman of the Board of Turtle Island Restoration Network, and is on the Board of On Wings of Care and the Double Bay Sanctuary Foundation.

Deb’s professional career has centered on the ocean, from teaching scuba diving to working in the yachting industry. She has been a Communications Director for world-class sailing races and has sailed her own yacht in the coastal US, Europe, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and Mexico. When not immersed in Mission Blue business and ocean advocacy, Deb tends her organic vegetable garden and works in her local community on issues from climate change to politics. Deb was born on Long Island, New York, and has lived in Massachusetts, Florida, California, Mexico, and Sweden. Currently, Deb lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Melissa Dann

United States

With thirty years’ experience in the philanthropic, non-profit and government sector, Melissa is a thought leader on issues such as ESG, commodity certification, climate change, impact investing and raising the profile of using capital markets to drive environmental and social change. As Executive Director of the Wallace Global Fund, she was responsible for all areas of foundation’s management– from financial to programmatic. She spearheaded the Fund’s first program related investment, raising the profile of using capital markets to drive social and environmental change. For the past decade, she has advised foundations, corporations, and non-profit organizations to position them on a range of issues such as climate change, sustainable business, impact investing and overall strategic direction. Most recently she worked for an energy start-up with a disruptive subscription model for commercial building HVAC and lighting systems. Prior positions include directing two programs for the US-Asia Environmental Partnership, a USAID-funded Presidential Initiative, and the World Wildlife Fund. Melissa has extensive experience serving on a variety of non-profit boards, and has deep experience on effective governance, revenue diversification, organizational evaluations, and strategic planning. In addition to ASOC, she currently chairs the board of Nature for Justice, a start-up organization. Formerly Melissa chaired the boards of Fauna & Flora International (US) and the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. Other board tenures include Winrock International, Root Capital, Island Press and RARE. She is a graduate of Columbia University (Masters, Political Economy), Denison University (French and Political Science) and she attended the Institute d’Etudes Politiques.  Melissa is a Fellow with the Royal Geographic Society. She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband, Tom, and has four grown children and a wonderful golden retriever named Samson.

Giulia Foscari

Germany

Giulia Foscari W. R. is an architect, researcher and activist who has been practising in Europe, Asia and the Americas. She is the founder UNLESS, a non-profit agency for change devoted to interdisciplinary research on extreme environments threatened by the planetary crisis, and of its alter ego UNA, an architecture studio focussed on cultural projects.

Giulia’s past work experience includes an extensive collaboration with Rem Koolhaas, which began in Hong Kong and led her to run OMA’s South American platform, and with Zaha Hadid Architects. She taught at Hong Kong University and at the Architectural Association, where she ran a Diploma Unit and founded the transnational platform of the Polar Lab.

The work of UNA and UNLESS was exhibited in multiple editions of the International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and other international venues, including the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid.

Giulia authored Elements of Venice (Lars Müller Publishers, 2014) and is the editor of Antarctic Resolution (Lars Müller Publishers, 2022); both are award-winning publications.

Giulia is a Board Member of the Antarctic Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), a Board Member of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, and a member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Darren Kindleysides

Australia

Darren Kindleysides has in-depth experience, knowledge and expertise in marine conservation having worked in this field for 25 years both in Australia and overseas. He has overseen the development and implementation of marine conservation programs, projects and campaigns in Oceania and Europe, leading initiatives to safeguard Antarctic whales, Coral Sea reefs, Pacific turtles and Atlantic seabirds.

He is currently the CEO of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, where he works on a variety of issues including marine protected area establishment, threatened species conservation, sustainable fisheries management and mitigating the environmental impacts of marine industries, coastal development and shipping.

Carol LeBlanc

United States

Carol LeBlanc is the president of Smithsonian Enterprises where she oversees the commercial activities of the Institution with four primary business divisions: Media, Retail, E-Commerce, and Travel.

The media division includes Smithsonian magazine, which reaches more than 6.5 million monthly readers, the online platform smithsonianmag.com, with more than 130 million annual visitors, and the award-winning Smithsonian Channel, which is available as part of the Paramount Global portfolio on all cable, satellite, and telecom providers as well as streaming platforms, nationally and internationally. The Channel has received 200 awards, including News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards and a Television Academy Honors Award.

The Retail division includes 39 retail venues including the museum stores, two IMAX theaters, food concessions, visitor parking, Smithsonian Books, and a licensing program with more than 80 licensees in categories such as toys, publishing, collectibles, jewelry, home, student travel and classroom materials.

The E-Commerce division includes smithsonianstore.com, which features products from each Smithsonian museum and the National Zoo as well as limited-edition merchandise drops associated with key events at the Smithsonian.

The Travel division includes Smithsonian Journeys, the Institution’s 50-year old cultural travel program with more than 300 annual departures and Smithsonian Student Travel.

Prior to her appointment as president, LeBlanc served as director, vice president and senior vice president within Smithsonian Enterprises consumer and education products division. During this time, LeBlanc grew the business by negotiating many first-time agreements including a direct-to-retail deal with QVC; promotional programs with Kraft and Subway; strategic partnerships with The Great Courses, Harvard Extension School, and Carnegie Learning; and travel programs with MT Sobek and WorldStrides.

Before joining the Smithsonian, from 1999 to 2008, LeBlanc held two vice president positions in the consumer products area at Discovery Communications. In these roles, she led the merchandise, retail development, publishing, and home entertainment businesses in North America and managed licensing programs for the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Discovery Kids networks as well as programs built around hit series including Trading Spaces, American Chopper and Miami Ink.

From 1988 to 1998, LeBlanc worked for National Public Radio, initially in a business affairs role and then as manager of the Business Initiatives Group where she directed the daily operations of the audio, print and consumer products business.

A resident of Washington D.C., LeBlanc earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Michelle Perrault

United States

Michele Perrault was Sierra Club President from 1984 to 1986 and also 1993 to 1994; the former Vice President of the Boston League of Women Voters; and a Board member at Greenseal, Greenbelt Alliance, and Earthteam. She was also on citizen advisory committees to three US presidents including Coastal, Sustainable Development, and Environmental Education. Additionally, she served five years on the Department of State’s US Delegation to Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings.

Barry Weeber

New Zealand

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).

Zhou Wei

China

Zhou Wei got her master’s degree in Environmental Planning and Management from Nanjing University. She has been working with Greenpeace East Asia since 2012. That was also the year she started advocating for Antarctic marine protected areas. Wei has ten years of experience working on fisheries and marine protected areas. She coordinated research on the overfishing of “trash fish” and contributed to the transition towards sustainability of China’s domestic fisheries. She wrote recommendations on China’s distant water fisheries management and authored articles on oceans issues. Wei also works on promoting the adoption of a strong treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). She also has extensive experience in organizing activities to increase public understanding of the ocean and participation in ocean protection.

Catherine Workman

United States

Dr. Catherine Workman is the Head of Programs for Adventure Scientists, an environmental NGO that mobilizes and trains individuals and local communities to scale high quality field data collection to advance conservation and tackle environmental challenges. Trained as an anthropologist, she has conducted fieldwork with colleagues in Southeast Asia, Central America, and Central Africa and has more than 15 years experience in the strategic planning, research, policy, impact evaluation, and communication of biodiversity conservation, combating wildlife crime, and global grant-making. Prior to joining Adventure Scientists, Catherine oversaw the National Geographic Society’s research, conservation, and technology funding as the Vice President of Science, served as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the Office of Forestry and Biodiversity at USAID, and worked in Denver Zoo’s Conservation Biology department. Catherine holds a Ph.D. in evolutionary anthropology from Duke University.