President | 2023 | Divina Lade (@DiviLade)
Divina has a strong background in marine biology, environmental management, and conservation communication. With roles at McKeough Marine Research Center and Rare, she currently serves as the Geospatial Planning Manager at the Apalachee Regional Planning Council. Her MS in Geographic Information Science fuels her commitment to enhancing environmental planning through the use of spatial data and maps.
Fun Fact: Divina loves exploring the parks in Tallahassee, Florida.
President | 2022 | Lynn Bonomo (@rave_slugs)
Lynn Bonomo is a nudibranch researcher and marine life enthusiast. She’s a recently graduated student from the Gosliner Slug Lab at @calacademy.
Fun Fact: Lynn received her BM in Music Performance on bassoon!
President | 2021 | Chelsea Grey (@DivingWSharks)
Chelsea Gray is currently a Ph.D. student at George Mason University. Her Master’s research was focused on basking shark tourism in Donegal, Ireland, and she is currently working on an agent-based model of the basking shark movement for her dissertation. Chelsea does social media and outreach for GMU’s Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center, as well as assists with fieldwork and plankton counts for the annual Ecological Study of Gunston Cove. Chelsea graduated in 2013 with a bachelor’s in biology at the University of Mary Washington.
Fun Fact: Chelsea is currently learning a new language: Irish!
President | 2020 | Ashley Sitar (@ScarlettSmash)
Dr. Ashley S.M. Sitar’s award-winning Master’s research was on the effectiveness of green commercials. Her Ph.D. research was an interdisciplinary study on assessing sustainability, and community attitudes towards, dolphin-watching in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Her research provided essential information to help develop a plan to promote whale-watching sustainability and awareness of government bodies and the local community. This research won an award for its real-world conservation impact. Currently, she is the lead manager of a Park and Recreational department that generates revenue of $3 million annually and oversees an annual spending budget of 1 million dollars, 18 staff, and 24 volunteers.
Being in charge of people, projects and events is one of Ashley’s main skills – she was a member of the organizing committee for the 1st International Congress for Conservation Marketing & Engagement and was in charge of local sponsorship and community outreach as well as organizing social events. She is incredibly honored to be SCB Conservation Marketing & Engagement Working Group Vice President and intends to take this leadership role very seriously, and one of her main goals is to build relationships between the working group and conservation agencies, organizations, scientists, and other groups, and help to play an essential part in conservation success.
Fun Fact: Ashley is a jack-of-all-trades: she can change your brakes and produce your podcast! She loves cats and is an aspiring cat lady.
President | 2019 | Brooke Tully (@brooke2cents)
Brooke Tully spent the first decade of her career working in ad agencies, such as Ogilvy, helping clients reach target audiences to build brand awareness, change preferences, and sell products. In 2007, she joined the NGO Rare where she designed and implemented behavior change campaigns that inspired local communities in Mongolia, Thailand, Laos, and The Philippines to adopt more sustainable fishing and hunting behaviors. Operating independently since 2016, Brooke trains conservationists how to design marketing and outreach plans that motivate action. She brings together best practices from her work in commercial advertising, insights from behavioral science research, and her first-hand experience in international conservation programs. Brooke’s workshops, manuals, and online courses focus on practical steps for designing effective and cost-efficient behavior change communications that will spark conservation movements.
- Fun Fact: As a form of stress relief and exercise, Brooke has been boxing for many years and more recently took up Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing). Her shins have big bruises to prove it!
President | 2018 | Andrew Wright(@marinebrit)
Andrew Wright is a British marine biologist that has been working on the science-policy boundary around the world for over a decade. His experiences have led him to champion a better communication of science to policy makers and the lay public. His research has included analyses of sperm whales and harbour porpoise bioacoustics, the impacts of noise on various marine mammals and an exploration of how stress responses are reflected in cetacean skin. He is also investigating sleeping behaviour in harbour porpoise and bottlenose dolphin – some of which he is presenting today. Andrew recently moved into a role with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to explore the impacts of ship noise on North Atlantic right whales. He is also spearheading efforts to bring more marketing techniques into conservation outreach, including introducing conservation to sci-fi fans through the Facebook page Vaquita Are Browncoats.
- Fun Fact: Andrew was once a sports radio reporter for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and Korea.
President | 2017 | Diogo Veríssimo (@verissimodiogo)
Diogo Veríssimo is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and the Head of Impact and Measurement at On the Edge Conservation. His work focuses on the use of social marketing principles to design and evaluate behaviour change interventions that the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as across a number of digital channels, including mobile games, social media, and documentaries. He is a board member of the European Social Marketing Association and the International Social Marketing Association.