Appendix A Advisory Group Biographies
Barbara A. Schaal, Chair (NAS) is dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis. She is chair of the Division on Earth and Life Studies at the NRC and is on President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. Her research focuses on the evolutionary genomics of rice. She received a B.S. from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and a Ph.D. from Yale University, both in biology. She has been president of the Botanical Society of America and the Society for the Study of Evolution and vice president of the NAS. She is an elected member of the NAS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was appointed a U.S. science envoy by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Donald F. Boesch is president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. During the 1980s he was executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. A biological oceanographer, he has conducted research in coastal and continental shelf environments along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, Australia, and China. Dr. Boesch has long been active in extending knowledge to environmental and resource management at regional, national, and international levels. He was a member of the NRC Committee on America’s Climate Choices, chair of the NRC Ocean Studies Board, and one of seven members of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Dr. Boesch received his B.S. from Tulane University and Ph.D. from the College of William & Mary.
Robert S. Carney is a professor emeritus in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences of Louisiana State University. He is a biological oceanographer interested in deep-ocean ecology and human-impacted systems. His research activities in the Gulf of Mexico include 28 years at Louisiana State University (LSU). He has served as director of LSU’s Coastal Ecology Institute and founding director of the Coastal Marine Institute, a multidisciplinary cooperative with BOEM. Interaction with the regulatory agencies and offshore industry has included funding via BOEM, NOAA, and consulting. Prior to moving to the Gulf Coast he served as program director of Biological Oceanography at the National Science Foundation.
Stephen R. Carpenter (NAS) is the S.A. Forbes Professor of Zoology and director of the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research focuses on biogeochemistry and food webs in lakes, ecosystem services, scenario planning for environmental change, and resilience of social–ecological systems. He is on the boards of the Stockholm Resilience Center and the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability.
Cortis K. Cooper is a Chevron Fellow, 1 of 25 elite scientist and engineers in the company. His primary technical efforts at Chevron focus on better understanding oil spills and physical oceanographic processes that affect the operation and design of offshore facilities worldwide. To improve tools and databases, he has initiated and led many important cooperative research efforts such as a 32-company consortium to better quantify the risks during the transportation of major offshore facilities; a 24-company consortium that investigated the fate of oil and gas from deepwater blowouts; an 18-company consortium focused on understanding strong physical oceanographic phenomena that can affect offshore facilities and operations; and working groups on the use of subsea dispersants. Dr. Cooper has served on six NAS committees and boards, the board of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association, and several federal advisory committees.
Courtney Cowart is a scholar in the fields of ascetical theology and American church history. In 2013, she was appointed associate dean and director of the University of the South’s School of Theology Programs Center. Shortly after completing her Th.D., and while serving Trinity Grants in New York, Dr. Cowart played a leading role in the recovery ministry at Trinity Church’s St. Paul’s Chapel following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Four years later, she was deployed to New Orleans in the days following Hurricane Katrina, where she served as the co-director of the Office of Disaster Response for the Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana. In this role, Dr. Cowart led major collaborations with other nonprofits, FEMA, and other agencies. Her on-the-ground post-Katrina work through the Episcopal Church brought a unique perspective on the communities of the Gulf region to the Advisory Group. She received a Th.D. from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church of New York in 2001.
Robert A. Duce is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and retired dean, College of Geosciences, at Texas A&M University. He was also dean, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. He was awarded the Rosenstiel Award for his research in atmospheric and marine chemistry and has more than 300 scientific contributions. He has served on the NRC Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, chaired several NRC committees, and now chairs the NRC Ocean Studies Board. He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and The Oceanography Society (TOS), and is a member of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel. He has been president of TOS, the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, and the International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution, and chair of the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP).
Deborah L. Estrin (NAE) is a professor of computer science at Cornell NYC and a professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is also a co-founder of the nonprofit startup, Open mHealth. She was previously professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the founding director of the National Science Foundation–funded Center for Embedded Networked Sensing. Dr. Estrin is a pioneer in networked sensing, which uses mobile and wireless systems to collect and analyze real-time data about the physical world and the people who occupy it. Her current focus is on mobile health, leveraging the programmability, proximity, and pervasiveness of mobile devices and the cloud for health management. She also has worked on K–12 education, spearheading a groundbreaking internship program for Los Angeles high school students in mobile technologies and data. Dr. Estrin received her Ph.D. in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985.
Christopher B. Field (NAS) is the founding director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford University, and faculty director of Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Dr. Field’s research emphasizes impacts of climate change, from the molecular to the global scale. He has been deeply involved with national- and international-scale efforts to advance science and assessment related to global ecology and climate change. He is co-chair of Working Group II of the IPCC, which is currently working on the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, scheduled for release in 2014. Dr. Field is a recipient of a Heinz Award and is a member of the NAS. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Ecological Society of America. Dr. Field received his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1981.
Gerardo Gold-Bouchot is a professor at the Marine Resources Department of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies at Merida (Cinvestav Merida), where he has been director of the campus and chairman of the department. He is the coordinator of the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem Project, a U.S.–Mexico project funded by the Global Environment Facility through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. He is a member of the GESAMP and a member of a number of other international groups of experts.
Lynn R. Goldman (IOM) is dean of the School of Public Health at George Washington University. From 1999 to 2010, she was a professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as well as principal investigator for the Johns Hopkins National Children’s Study Center and dual principal investigator for the National Center of Excellence for the Study of Preparedness and Catastrophic Event Response. She was assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (1993–1998). Dr. Goldman has conducted public health investigations on pesticides, childhood lead poisoning, hazardous waste, and other environmental hazards. She earned her M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, M.S. in health and medical sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Bernard D. Goldstein (IOM) is emeritus professor and former dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. His NAS activities include chairing the Committee on Considerations for the Future of Animal Science Research and the Committee on Sustainability at the EPA. He has been a member of the IOM Environmental Health Science Research and Training Roundtable and of the NRC Committee on Risk Management and Governance of Shale Gas. He also serves on numerous committees related to shale gas and energy issues including for the Canadian Council of Academies. He was EPA assistant administrator for research and development (1983–1985). His Gulf-related activities include the IOM’s Workshop Assessing the Health Effects of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, the Coordinating Committee of the Gulf Region Health Outreach Program, and the GoMRI Public Health Working Group.
Thomas O. Hunter retired in July 2010 as president and laboratories director of Sandia National Laboratories. Dr. Hunter joined Sandia in 1967 and became president in 2005. His responsibilities included managing the laboratories’ $2.3 billion annual budget and 8,700 employees. He led programs in areas of national security, nuclear nonproliferation, energy development, environmental management, and the U.S. R&D Enterprise. He served as leader, with Dr. Steven Chu, of the government’s science team
for the DWH oil spill and chaired the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee for the Department of the Interior. He chairs the Leadership Development Advisory Committee for the University of Florida College of Engineering. He has degrees from the University of Florida and the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Shirley Ann Jackson (NAE) is president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Jackson has held senior leadership positions in government, industry, research, and academe. A theoretical physicist, she was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1995–1999). She serves on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Her research and policy focus includes energy security and the national capacity for innovation. She is an International Fellow of the British Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the NAE, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and a member several other prestigious scientific and policy organizations. She holds an S.B. in physics and a Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ashanti Johnson is the executive director of the Institute for Broadening Participation and the assistant vice provost for Faculty Recruitment and associate professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her areas of research specialization include aquatic radiogeochemistry, professional development of students and early-career professionals, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) diversity-focused initiatives. Dr. Johnson has received numerous honors and awards. In 2010 she received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring at the White House in recognition of her professional development and diversity-related activities and was recognized by TheGrio.com, an NBC product, as 1 of 100 History Makers in the Making. She was profiled in the Black Enterprise Magazine March 2011 Issue’s “Women in STEM” feature story. Dr. Johnson received her Ph.D. (1999) in oceanography from Texas A&M University, College Station.
David M. Karl (NAS) is a microbial biologist and oceanographer in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, whose research interests include the ecology of microorganisms, microbiological and biogeochemical oceanography, and oceanic productivity. Dr. Karl is director of and was instrumental in establishing the University of Hawaii’s Center for Microbial Oceanography for Research and Education, a National Science Foundation–supported Science and Technology Center established to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the diverse assemblages of microorganisms in the sea. Dr. Karl has served on NRC committees focused on planning the International Polar Year, stewardship while exploring subglacial lakes in the Antarctic, and reviewing the North Pacific Research Board (Alaska). In the course of his career, Dr. Karl has spent more than 3 full years at sea, including 23 expeditions to Antarctica.
Molly McCammon serves as executive director of the Alaska Ocean Observing System, a coalition of government, academic, and private partners working to integrate ocean and coastal data to improve stakeholder decision making. Prior to this, she served for 10 years as executive director of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, managing the billion-dollar restoration program following the 1989 oil spill in Alaska. Her leadership positions include current treasurer and past chair of the Integrated Ocean Observing System Association, member of the federal Ocean Research Advisory Panel, Municipality of Anchorage representative on the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council, a public oversight group for Cook Inlet Alaska oil and gas activities, and past member of the NAS Polar Research Board.
Linda A. McCauley (IOM) is professor and dean of Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. Dr. McCauley has special expertise in the design of epidemiological investigations of environmental hazards and is nationally recognized for her expertise in occupational and environmental health nursing. Her work aims to identify culturally appropriate interventions to decrease the impact of environmental and occupational health hazards in vulnerable populations, including workers and young children. Dr. McCauley was previously the associate dean for research and the Nightingale Professor in Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She received a Ph.D. in environmental health and epidemiology from the University of Cincinnati. A member of the IOM, she is active on the Environmental Health Roundtable and the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice. She currently serves as a member of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council.
J. Steven Picou is the director of the Coastal Resource & Resiliency Center and professor of sociology at the University of South Alabama. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and research monographs in the areas of environmental sociology, disasters, and sociological practice. In 2001, Dr. Picou received the Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association (ASA), and in 2008 was the recipient of the William Foote Whyte Distinguished Career Award given by the ASA Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology. His public sociology activities include the preparation of an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court (2008) on the Exxon Valdez disaster and he has co-edited and contributed to two books—The Exxon Valdez Disaster (1997) and The Sociology of Katrina (2010).
Eduardo Salas is trustee chair and Pegasus Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Florida. He earned a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology at Old Dominion University (1984), and has since co-authored more than 400 journal articles and book chapters as well as edited 25 books on topics such as teamwork, team training, safety, team leadership, expertise, minimizing human error, stress, and decision making. Dr. Salas is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), past president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the HFES, and a recipient of two life achievement awards for his work on teams and training.
Kerry Michael St. Pé is the retired executive director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (1997 to July 2014), a nationally recognized effort dedicated to preserving and restoring the 4.2-million-acre area between the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in southeast Louisiana. Prior to 1997, Dr. St. Pé worked for 25 years as a field biologist for the Water Pollution Control Division of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. His wetland restoration work has been featured in the book Bayou Farewell, the Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast and in the PBS documentary Washing Away: Losing Louisiana, and the Louisiana Public Broadcasting documentary Turning the Tide. In May 2010, Dr. St. Pé was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by Nicholls State University. He was presented with the James Lynn Powell Award in March 2012 by the Nicholls Alumni Federation, the highest honor awarded to an alumnus of the university.
Arnold F. Stancell (NAE) is Turner Professor of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus, at Georgia Tech and has been appointed by President Obama to the National Science Board (2010–2014). He worked in industry for 31 years with Mobil Oil, starting in research (granted 11 patents), and then progressing to senior business management positions as vice president of exploration and production for the United States and subsequently for Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. He led the development of the now $70 billion ExxonMobil–Qatar joint venture in liquefied natural gas to produce and supply natural gas
to markets worldwide. He was a member of a group of six NAE members who consulted for the U.S. government shortly after the BP oil spill to advise on near-term steps for improved offshore drilling safety, which were announced by President Obama on May 28, 2010.
LaDon Swann is the director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium and director of Auburn University’s Marine Program. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tennessee Technological University and a Ph.D. from Purdue University. Dr. Swann has more than 29 years of experience in implementing practical solutions to coastal and Great Lakes issues through competitive research, graduate student training, and extension and outreach and K–12 education. He is actively involved with how to maximize the role of boundary organizations in translational research. He is the president of the National Sea Grant Association and a member of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel. Dr. Swann is a past president of the U.S. Aquaculture Association and a former Peace Corps Volunteer.
James W. Ziglar is senior counsel at VanNess Feldman, LLP, and principal of The Ziglar Group. He has 50 years of experience in law, investment banking, corporate management, education, and public policy. In addition to his 33 years of experience in the private sector, Mr. Ziglar has served in the federal government as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, sergeant at arms of the U.S. Senate, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, and a staff aide in the U.S. Senate. He was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, and a resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics. Mr. Ziglar serves on a number of boards, including the Water Science and Technology Board of the Division of Earth and Life Studies and the Board of Councilors of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation.
Mark D. Zoback (NAE) is the Benjamin M. Page Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University. He is also co-director of the Stanford Rock Physics and Borehole Geophysics Project, an industrial consortium. He received a Ph.D. in geophysics from Stanford University. Dr. Zoback conducts research on in situ stress, fault mechanics, and reservoir geomechanics. He is the author of a textbook titled Reservoir Geomechanics and was co–principal investigator of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth, the scientific drilling project that drilled and sampled the San Andreas Fault at 3-km depth. Dr. Zoback served as a member of the NRC committee that produced the report Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety. He recently served on the NAE committee investigating the DWH oil spill and the Secretary of Energy’s committee on shale gas development and environmental protection.
