2005-Present

Marine Spatial Planning Consultant, Paris, France

Provides consulting services to international organizations, national governments, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector on marine spatial planning and ocean zoning, integrated ocean and coastal management, ecosystem-based management, and marine protected area management. Specialises in results-based strategic planning and performance monitoring and evaluation.

 

Past consulting activities include: the development of a guide to monitoring and evaluating the performance of marine spatial plans for UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission; a global review of marine spatial planning for WWF; a report on the future of UNESCO World Heritage Marine Program; a report on marine spatial planning in the Arctic for the Aspen Institute; WWF-Sweden for an assessment of the implementation of integrated management and marine spatial planning in the Baltic Sea; advice to the U.S. President’s Task Force on ocean policy and marine spatial planning; UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) (marine spatial planning as a operational approach toward ecosystem-based management with work in the State of Massachusetts (United States of America) and Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Coastal First Nations in British Columbia (Canada); the Nature Conservancy for chairing workshops on marine spatial planning in the Northeastern USA; the American Petroleum Institute for training on marine spatial planning; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for training on marine spatial planning; the World Bank on coastal adaptation to climate change; and the Regional Seas Programme of UNEP (strategic global review of the Regional Seas Programme)

1998-2005

Director, International Program Office (IPO), National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Directed the international activities of NOAA’s National Ocean Service, including programs and projects focused on capacity building for integrated coastal management, marine protected area management, environmental quality monitoring and observations, spill response and natural resource damage assessment, nautical charting, and applied physical oceanography. Worked with international organizations such as the United Nations Environment Program, the UN Development Program, as well as UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the World Heritage Centre, and Man and the Biosphere Program, to implement goals of the World Summit on Sustainable Development related to marine protected areas, integrated coastal management, and marine ecosystem management.

 

Led bilateral programs on coastal management capacity-building with China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Thailand, South Africa, and Caribbean nations. From 2000-2005, chaired the Marine Biome of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas. Worked with nongovernmental organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and others, to establish a global system of marine protected areas and to improve the effectiveness of MPA management. 

2001-2003

Acting Director, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA 
(collateral duty while also Director, International Program Office)

Directed the National Coastal Management Program, a partnership of 34 states and territories that manage activities in the coastal zone of the U.S. through $60 million in Federal grants to states.  Evaluated the performance of state programs through a formal evaluation process. Oversaw management of the National Estuarine Research Reserve Program, a network of 26 estuarine reserves covering over 4,000 sq. km. established for research and education. Completed major reorganization of office, including establishment of National Policy and Evaluation capability, while emphasizing performance measurement and results-based management

1991-98

Director, Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment (ORCA), National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Following a re-organization of the National Ocean Service in 1990, managed NOAA’s coastal and marine pollution programs, including oil spill response, natural resource damage assessment, coastal monitoring, and strategic environmental assessment. Served as a member of the Coastal Component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) planning team organized by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

 

Drafted the 1995 technical guidance for the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) Global Program of Action (GPA) for Protection of the Marine Environment from Land Based Activities and continued to work internationally on implementation of the GPA. Served as member of the Coastal Zones and Small Islands working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and was a lead author of the chapter on coastal zones in the IPCC Second Assessment report. Co-chaired the 1993 World Coast Conference held in The Netherlands.

1991

Acting Director, National Marine Sanctuary Program, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
(collateral duty while also Director, ORCA)

Assigned to manage the National Marine Sanctuary Program for six months during a search for a permanent Director; following the establishment of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in 1990, committed significant analytical resources of the Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment (ORCA) to help develop local capacity to draft the FKNMS Management Plan (1991-1996), a process and final product that has become a global model for MPA management planning 

1989-1992

Director, Exxon Valdez Damage Assessment Center, Office of the NOAA Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington, DC, USA
(collateral duty while also Director, Office of Oceanography & Marine Assessment)

Established and managed an office with the responsibility to coordinate a $100 million program of natural science and social science studies of the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989; the studies resulted in a $3 billion settlement between the Exxon Corporation and the U.S.Government, and the capacities and activities of the Center were expanded into a NOAA Natural Resource Damage Assessment Program, the first of its kind in the U.S. Government 

1986-1991

Director, Office of Oceanography and Marine Assessment (OMA), National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Rockville, Maryland, USA

Promoted to manage the combined marine pollution (including the activities of the Ocean Assessments Division described below) and applied oceanography programs of the National Ocean Service. Coordinated the early implementation of the Next Generation Water Level Measurement System, a state-of-the-art electronic data collection, processing, and dissemination system that replaced existing tide gages in the US. Initiated the longest, continuously operating environmental quality monitoring program in the US—the Mussel Watch Program that measures the chemical contaminants in mussels, oysters, and sediments at over 250 sites nation-wide 

1983-86

Chief, Ocean Assessment Division (OAD), Office of Oceanography and Marine Assessment, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
Rockville, Maryland

Following the creation of NOAA’s National Ocean Service in 1983 (I was a member of the reorganisation team), assigned to manage its marine pollution programs including oil spill response, coastal monitoring, strategic environmental assessment, and the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) in Alaska, the latter initiated in 1973 as a means to gather and synthesize environmental, social, and economic science information to support decision-making concerning the US offshore oil and gas in Alaska. The OCSEAP funded about $200 million of studies in Alaska, on topics including physical, chemical, and biological oceanography, atmospheric studies, whales and other marine mammals, seabirds, and sociology and economics.

1978-83

Director, Office of Ocean Resources Coordination and Assessment (ORCA), Office of Coastal Zone Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington, DC, USA

Upon joining NOAA in 1978, established the first NOAA office to provide technical assistance to state coastal management programs and national marine sanctuaries. Beginning with three professionals and a small budget, grew the office into a major center of analytical expertise and resources. Initiated major efforts to (1) map important natural and social characteristics of America’s coastal areas and publish four strategic data atlases of the US Exclusive Economic Zone, including the East Coast (1980), Gulf of Mexico (1986), Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas (1988), and West Coast (1990), (2) quantify the land-based pollution discharges to coastal waters (National Coastal Pollution Discharge Inventory), and (3) estimate the value coastal resources, including the first estimates of the social costs of a major oil spill, the Amoco Cadiz spill in 1978.

1977-1978

Director, Economic Incentives Research Program, Office of Air, Land and Water Use, Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA

Served as an EPA expert on the application of economic incentives for natural resources and environmental quality management; initiated, with the Council on Environmental Quality and the Council of Economic Advisors, a major inter-agency research program on Economic Incentives for Air and Water Quality Management, including some of the first ideas for pollution charges (that later evolved into “the polluter pays” principle) and emissions trading.

1974-77

Manager, Regional Environmental Management Research Program, Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA

Served as EPA’s principal expert on environmental effects of land use, urban planning, and comprehensive regional environmental management; developed research program to analyze the use of comprehensive land use techniques, e.g., zoning, for environmental quality management, as well as the effects of alternative land use patterns on environmental quality; member of the “Comprehensive Analysis of the Environment” expert group of joint US/USSR Agreement in the Field of Environmental Protection, including early work on environmental management in Soviet Union.

1973-74

Assistant to the Director, Washington Environmental Research Center, Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA

Gained national public policy experience as an Assistant to the Director of EPA’s social science research program, providing practical advice on some of EPA’s first attempts to use economic incentives and land use planning for environmental quality management. 

1971-73

Associate Professor and Educational Director, Graduate Program for Urban and Policy Sciences, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, USA

Worked within a faculty of physicists and engineers to develop an innovative, graduate-level public policy program that applied a “systems approach” to public policy problems--modeled after Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the Rand Corporation; the program worked with the City of New York to apply operations research methods to public policy problems (the program later evolved into the W. Averell Harriman School Management and Policy); taught courses in comprehensive environmental management, urban development models, and regional planning theory and practice

1969-71

Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, USA

Held joint appointments in architecture, urban design, and regional planning; in addition to teaching graduate-level studio courses in design, taught courses in quantitative analysis for planning (introductory operations research), transportation planning, and following Earth Day 1970, responsible for developing one of the first PhD-level programs in environmental planning and management; developed an innovative course in environmental forecasting and futures studies

1968-69

Lecturer, School of Environmental Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Taught graduate-level seminar on applications of operations research techniques to architectural and regional planning problems

1967-68

Teaching Fellow, School of Environmental Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Assisted teaching undergraduate architectural design studio; supported visiting professors, Yona Friedman (Paris) and Cedric Price (London)