Board Members
Shelly Benoit is a co-founder and former executive director of Sustainable Fishery Advocates. Currently, Ms. Benoit is a candidate for her Ph.D. degree with the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on Marine Pollution and Remote Sensing. Her B.S. is in Biology, emphasis in Evolution and Ecology, from the University of California, Davis. Shelly served as Controller for MusicBank Inc. from 1999 to 2000.
Samantha Campbell is the Program Director of the California office of The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, which was founded by her father in 1999 and is headquartered in Annapolis. Her grants portfolio centers around marine conservation issues, although she strives in her work to find projects with innovative approaches to a variety of environmental challenges. Samantha has a BFA in Advertising design from Syracuse University, and has a passion for effective communication. She was previously an Art Director at Grey Advertising in San Francisco, and has also worked as a food stylist and voice actor.
Tim Eichenberg is Chief Counsel for the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, adjunct professor of law at the Vermont Law School, where he teaches Ocean and Coastal Law, and a member of the Bar in California and Washington DC. He holds a BA from Earlham College and a JD from the Washington University School of Law, and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship in Marine Policy from 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 has authored more than 30 articles and reports on environmental issues, and is an editor of Ocean and Coastal Law published by the American Bar Association in 2008.
Teresa Ish builds partnerships with leading companies that harness industry's ability to innovate and create environmental improvements that are aggressive, yet feasible. She is currently leading Environmental Defense Fund's partnerships with seafood buyers to help them source more environmentally friendly farmed seafood by developing purchasing standards. As eco-labels for farmed seafood become more appealing to the aquaculture industry, consumers and seafood buyers, establishing environmentally rigorous standards for certification is increasingly important. Teresa works with these stakeholders and other NGOs to push for strong standards for eco-certified farmed seafood grown with technology that is currently available. During her graduate work, Teresa co-founded FishWise and served as the organization's Director of Science until joining Environmental Defense Fund. Teresa also has an extensive background in capture fisheries as one of the co-authors of the stock and assessment for California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) and a NOAA award winning paper on adaptive management of fishery resources. Teresa received her Masters of Marine Science from the University of California at Santa Cruz where she was a California Sea Grant Fellow and a member of the Center for Stock Assessment Research. She received her B.A. in Environmental Studies and Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Marc Mangel is Distinguished Professor of Mathematical Biology and Director of the Center for Stock Assessment Research (CSTAR) at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he has served since 1996. He also acts as the Senior Scientific Advisor for MRAG Americas, as well as the Director of its California regional office. MRAG Americas is an independent consulting business dedicated to promoting responsible, rational and sustainable utilization of aquatic resources. MRAG Americas performs multi-disciplinary projects for a variety of clients including international, governmental and non-governmental entities, as well as industrial and commercial companies.
From 1980-1996, Mangel was at the University of California Davis, where he served as Assistant, Associate and Full Professor for eight years in the Department of Mathematics and eight years in the Department of Evolution and Ecology. He was founding Director of the Center for Population Biology (1989-1993). His awards include, in part, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1987; Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, Oxford University, 1988; George Gund Foundation Distinguished Environmental Scholar, Case Western Reserve University,1992; Distinguished Statistical Ecologist, International Association for Ecology, 1998; Mote Eminent Scholar, Florida State University, 2000; Fellow, California Academy of Sciences, 2000; Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2003; UCSC Academic Senate Excellence in Teaching Award, 2003; Frohlich Fellow, CSIRO Hobart, 2006; Astor Lecturer, University of Oxford, 2007; Kaeser Lecturer University of Wisconsin, 2008; and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2009. Mangel has numerous journal publications and books that include, in part, Dynamic State Variable Models in Ecology: Methods and Applications (with Colin Clark, 2000, Oxford), and The Theoretical Biologist's Toolbox. Quantitative methods for ecology and evolutionary biology (Cambridge, 2007). He has supervised more than 50 undergraduate research projects or senior theses, 20 PhD students and 27 post-doctoral colleagues.
Dr. Andrew Rosenberg is a Professor in the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire where, prior to April 2004, he was dean of the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture. Over the past three years he has also been a member of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. Prior to coming to UNH he was the Deputy Director of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service from 1998-2000, the senior career position in the agency. As Deputy Director he dealt with policy decisions on science and resource management issues nationwide as well as the administration of the agency. He was also a principle agency spokesperson before Congress, the public and technical audiences. Before becoming NMFS Deputy Director, Dr. Rosenberg was the NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator. He negotiated and implemented the recovery program for New England fisheries, reversing overfishing and resource declines on George’s Bank as well as other areas for groundfish and scallop fisheries. He also worked to develop and implement marine mammal recovery programs and endangered species protections throughout the northeast. He also has served as the U.S. lead representative in several international fishery management organizations such as NAFO, NASCO and FAO. Dr. Rosenberg’s scientific work is in the field of population dynamics, resource assessment and resource management policy. He holds a B.S. in Fisheries Biology from the University of Massachusetts, an M.S. in Oceanography from Oregon State University and a Ph.D. in Biology from Dalhousie University. He was on the faculty of Imperial College of Science and Technology in London for six years and was the Deputy Director of the Renewable Resources Assessment Group, and internationally known quantitative analysis and policy consultancy group. He currently also serves as the Senior Vice President of MRAG Americas, a consulting company with offices in Florida, Massachusetts and affiliated with MRAG, a London-based international marine resource consultancy.
Walt Samuelson recently retired as the President and CEO of CustomerLink Systems, Inc., a customer relationship management company supporting the automotive aftermarket. He and his family are avid scuba divers and as a result have become very interested in reef protection, marine conservation and fishing procedures. Mr. Samuelson brings to the Board 40 years experience in business planning, business development and management. Over the years he has successfully led several small companies as their top manager building their customer base, revenues and financial stability and success. His experience spans software, hardware and services like customer relationship management. His particular expertise is with annuity-based business models where success is based upon delivering and supporting a quality product or service. Early on Mr. Samuelson spent 17 years with Xerox Corporation in a variety of administrative, sales and marketing roles. Mr. Samuelson graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in business administration.
