Team
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mary T. Crowley, President and Founder
John Grant Crowley, Director
Conrad Gann, Director
Ann Nichols, Director
Ann Rundle, Director
Ryan Yerkey, Director
Mary T. Crowley – President & Founder
Mary Crowley is the founder and executive director of Ocean Voyages Institute established in 1979 as a public charity based in Sausalito, California, with the goal of preserving the maritime arts and sciences, the ocean environment and island cultures. Mary is one of the founders and project directors of the environmental mission Project Kaisei. She is also founder and CEO of Ocean Voyages, Inc, an international yacht chartering company which offers trips on sailing vessels and luxury yachts worldwide.
Ms. Crowley previously served as Executive Director of the Oceanic Society, publisher of Oceans magazine and on the board of Directors of Project Jonah, the Maritime Museum of San Diego, Sail San Francisco and many other organizations. Her current board positions include Ocean Voyages Institute, WELL Network as well as the Richardson Bay Maritime Association. She is a founding member of Planetree, which enhances healing environments in hospitals and healthcare education.
As an educated and ardent environmentalist, Mary has found time to enjoy exploring the world via yacht, logging over 90,000 nautical miles. She was a teacher and program director for the Oceanic School of New York on board the 345′ Brigantine Statsraad Lehmkuhl for nine months, (a school year). She was also on the first voyage of S.E.A. of Woods Hole on board the Brigantine Westward as staff. She has sailed in the Galapagos archipelago 17 times as well as repeat visits to most of the world’s ocean areas.
It is Mary’s lifelong passion for sailing, snorkeling, diving and exploring the world’s oceans that has fueled her continuing commitment and dedication to ocean conservation and the marine environment. She feels we all need to take action to improve the health of our oceans.
OCEAN VOYAGES INSTITUTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Sylvia Earle – Explorer in Residence
National Geographic
Dr. Earle is probably the most renowned person in the world of ocean preservation and exploration. In 1979, Sylvia Earle walked untethered on the sea floor at a lower depth than any living human being before or since. In the so-called Jim suit, a pressurized one-atmosphere garment, she was carried by a submersible down to the depth of 1,250 feet below the ocean’s surface off of the island of Oahu. In the 1990s, Dr. Earle served as Chief Scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration where she was responsible for monitoring the health of the nation’s waters. She is co-founder and CEO of Deep Ocean Engineering, a company which designs and builds underwater research vehicles. Additionally, she served on the President’s Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere and is involved with several environmental foundations and committees, including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Duke University Marine Laboratory, World Wildlife Fund, and The World Resources Institute. She was the 2009 winner of the TED Award (Technology, Entertainment and Design) for her work on the oceans.
Jim Dufour – Associate Director and Principal Development Engineer
University of California, San Diego/Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Instrument Development Group
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide. Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration
Russell Long – Founder
Bluewater Network
Russell founded Bluewater Network, a national environmental organization which merged with Friends of the Earth in 2005. Bluewater has helped establish laws and regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars, reduce air and water pollution from the shipping industry, and curtail thrillcraft use on public lands. He has served on various state, regional, and local advisory boards regulating oil spills, water conservation, and marine transportation in California. Russell holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a Master’s of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Doctorate in Ecology and Development from the California Institute of Integral Studies. In addition to Friends of the Earth, he also serves on the Board of the Sapelo Foundation in Georgia. He was the youngest skipper to ever challenge the America’s Cup, and continues to hold various world speed sailing records.
Mark Massara – Attorney
Director of the Sierra Club’s California Coastal Campaign
Massara gained a reputation in the surfing and environmental communities when, as counsel for Surfrider in 1991, he won a lawsuit against two pulp-mill companies near Eureka, California that were dumping 40 million gallons of toxic effluents per day into the ocean. Massara founded Surfers Environmental Alliance and the National Association of Surfing Attorneys, and partnered with Ken and Gabrielle Adelman to create a California coastline photographic survey. He is on the board of Vote the Coast and Coastal Advocates, and serves on the advisory board of Save the Waves Coalition. He writes on coastal and environmental legal issues for surfing magazines, Coastwatcher, and other publications.
Adam Dell – Managing General Partner
Impact Venture Partners
Prior to founding Impact, Mr. Dell was a partner with Crosspoint Venture Partners in Northern California and a senior associate with Enterprise Partners in Southern California. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Mr. Dell worked as a corporate attorney in Austin, Texas, with the law firm of Winstead, Sechrest & Minick. He received a B.A. in political economy from Tulane University and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. Mr. Dell’s investments include: Buzzsaw (ADSK), Hotjobs (YHOO) and Connectify (KANA). Mr. Dell founded and served as chairman of the board of MessageOne, which was acquired by Dell, Inc. in 2008. He currently serves on the board of directors of XO Communications, BagBorrowOrSteal and Open Table and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute. Mr. Dell teaches a course at the Columbia Business School on business, technology, and innovation and is a visiting professor at the University of Texas School of Law where he teaches a class on the role of law in innovation.
Tim Eichenberg – Chief Counsel
San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
Mr Eichenberg is an adjunct professor of law at the Vermont Law School, where he teaches Ocean and Coastal Law. He is a graduate of Earlham College and the Washington University School of Law, and was post-doctoral fellow in Marine Policy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has co-chaired the Clean Water Network in Washington, D.C., co-founded the Casco Baykeeper Program in Maine, and has served as legal counsel for the Ocean Conservancy, Oceana, the Marine Law Institute, the California Coastal Commission and the Environmental Defense Center. He is a member of the Bar in California and Washington DC, and has authored more than 30 articles and reports on environmental issues, including Ocean and Coastal Law and Policy published by the American Bar Association in 2008.
Honoring Seba B. Sheavly
Ms. Sheavly was an international marine debris expert with over 20 years working with the United Nations Environment Programme’s Regional Seas and Wider Caribbean Region and other organizations. She was a former director of pollution prevention for the Ocean Conservancy and technical advisor for marine debris. She also worked with the American Chemistry Council, Dow Chemical, NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, and EPA’s Office of Water/OCPD on marine debris research and directed a debris monitoring study with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on Midway Atoll of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.