Mark
J. Spalding,
President,
concurre
ntly
serves
as the Executive Director of Fundación Bahía
de
Loreto A.C. He is the chair of the Council of
the National Whale
Conservation Fund. Mark is an active
participant in the marine working
group, Baja California group, and coral reef
group of the funders'
organization, the Consultative Group on
Biological Diversity. He serves
on the International Bering Sea Forum. He has
consulted for the Alaska
Conservation Foundation, San Diego Foundation,
the International
Community Foundation, the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation,
Fundación La Puerta, and a number of family
foundations. He designed
and managed the Orca Fund. He has served as a
member of the
Environmental Grants Advisory Committee of
FINCOMUN (Tijuanas Community Foundation)
. In addition, he has helped
design some of the
most significant ocean conservation campaigns
in recent years. He
brings his extensive experience with the legal
and policy aspects of
ocean conservation to the Foundation's
grantmaking strategy and
evaluation process.
Read More.
Jeremy
Linneman, Special Projects Director,
is approaching a decade of experience in
the marine
conservation sector, during which time he has
consulted for a number of private
and public foundations.
He has
been the Special Projects Director at The Ocean
Foundation for four years,
where he has a wide variety of
responsibilities, including grantmaking,
fundraising, project design, management
consulting, event coordination,
strategic planning, and website
development.
Jeremy
has a master's degree in Pacific International
Affairs from the University of California, San
Diego, with special
emphasis on
international environmental policy and economic
development. Jeremy is
an avid SCUBA diver, adventurer, and general
lover of mischief. As evidenced by his
staff photo, in his spare time Jeremy likes to
SeaGrass
Grow.
Diane
Davidson, Senior Legal and
Program
Consultant,
is a veteran attorney with extensive experience
in mass media
communications, administrative, contract, real
estate and international
law. A lifelong conservationist and scuba diver
since 1983, Diane has a
strong passion for the oceans and their
protection. She manages the
resort
partnerships at The Ocean Foundation and
provides assistance as
needed in other areas. She concurrently serves
as an Associate with the
Lake Barcroft Watershed Improvement District in
Falls Church, Virginia
and as a member of the Citizen's Advisory
Committee for the Cameron Run
Watershed Plan in Fairfax County, Virginia, and
has been certified by
the Potomac Greenways Coalition's Master
Watershed Stewardship Program.
Previous employers include two private law
firms, the Federal
Communications Commission, Discovery
Communications, and The Walt
Disney Company. Diane received her JD degree
from Vanderbilt University
and her undergraduate degree from Duke
University.
Kevin
M. Ranker, Senior
Fellow,
concurrently 
serves
as a Washington State Senator where he
represents
the beautiful 40th District. As an
elected official, Kevin has focused
on a combination of conservation and community
development – working to
successfully bridge the gap between economic
development and
conservation. Kevin brings 15 years experience
in community development
and public policy at the local, state, national
and international level
to his work at the Ocean Foundation. He
possesses comprehensive
professional experience in the private and
public sectors developing
and implementing coastal and ocean policy,
community development
strategies, legislation and conservation
initiatives. He has directed,
and consulted for, multiple organizations
focusing on oceans and the
coastal communities that depend upon
them. Kevin has spent his entire
life on the coast and in the ocean and is an
avid sailor, paddler,
diver, fisherman and surfer. He lives
with his wife and daughter in
the
San Juan Islands in Washington
State.
Andrea
DeGirolamo,
Bookkeeper,
joins us with a deep background in non-profit
work experience and a
love for the ocean. She grew up in
Washington, D.C. and has worked in
many offices there ranging from the IRS to
another ocean non-profit
with responsibilities from maintaining
membership databases to writing
and editing contracts to executive
administration and human resources.
She lives just outside D.C. with her husband
and son.
Kama
Dean, Program Officer, oversees
the Pro
Peninsula Fund and manages all of the Fiscal
Sponsorship Funds within The Ocean
Foundation. She joined The
Ocean Foundation team from Pro Peninsula, an
organization that she
co-founded and directed, dedicated to
strengthening individual and
community efforts to protect the natural
environment throughout the
Baja California peninsula. Kama holds a
Master's degree in Pacific
International Affairs from UCSD's Graduate
School of International
Relations and Pacific Studies where she
concentrated on international
environmental policy and Latin America. She has
worked extensively on
community conservation issues, with a focus on
the Baja California
peninsula. From 2004 to 2008 she managed the
Grupo Tortuguero de las
Californias, or Sea Turtle Conservation Network
of the Californias,
overseeing their monitoring, education and
network building programs.
Kama continues to work closely with the
organization, serving as the
President of the Board of Directors. She
has also worked with several
environmental organizations on grantwriting and
fundraising, policy
research, event planning and coordination and
organizational
development.
Nicole
Ross, Communications Officer,
has come
full circle in her return to The Ocean
Foundation. Nicole has
been interested in the aquatic world since her
early years exploring the
turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea,
surrounding her home island of
St. Croix. She began her work in marine
conservation at The Ocean
Foundation and continued on to work for
EarthEcho International as the
Program and Development Manager.
While working at EarthEcho, Nicole
produced, edited and managed all media
projects; assisted in the design
and implementation of all programs; and managed
fundraising efforts.
Nicole studied film production at the Toronto
Film School and graduated
from George Washington University’s Center
for Documentary Filmmaking.
She graduated Cum Laude from Drew University
with a B.A. in History and a
double minor in Pan-African Studies and
Theatre. Nicole loves
scubadiving, hiking, filmmaking, and traveling;
and loves the job that
allows her to do it all!
Giuliana
Schroeder, 
Pro
Peninsula's Communications and Marketing
Director, holds
a Bachelor's Degree in Humanities from Soka
University of America. She
has offered her Communications and Public
Relations services for
several nonprofit organizations throughout the
years, such as through
research and in building awareness campaigns.
She worked with Pronatura
Mexico A.C. as a Communications and
Publications Consultant for two
years, contributing greatly to their overall
outreach and education
departments. And besides her passion for
nature, she also is captured
by the art world, having more than 10 years of
painting experience.
Frances
Kinney
,
Education Coordinator,
holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental
Studies with a minor in
Spanish from the University of California at
Santa Barbara. While her
studies focused on endangered species
protection, Frances also has
experience in outdoor education, native plant
restoration, and wildlife
conservation. Frances manages Ocean
Connectors, a binational
environmental education program, since
2007. Since that time, Frances
has more than doubled program participation and
support. Through
outreach efforts, event planning, and volunteer
coordination, Frances
also serves as an educational resource to the
greater San Diego
community.
Bill
Finch, Senior Fellow, Gulf of Mexico
Region,
has had a long career as a conservation
planner, natural history writer and
environmental journalist in the Gulf Region,
and concurrently serves as director of the
Mobile Botanical Gardens. He is a former
conservation director for the Alabama Chapter
of The Nature Conservancy. As an environmental
editor and journalist, he won numerous national
writing awards, including the Columbia School
of Journalism's Oakes Award for Distinguished
Environmental Journalism; the Scripps Howard
Foundation National Journalism Award for
Environmental Reporting and the Bacardi
Environmental Journalism Award; the Society of
American Business Editors and Writers' General
Excellence Award; and the Southern
Environmental Law Center's Phillip Reed Award
for Outstanding Writing on the Southern
Environment for reporting on Gulf Coast
estuaries. He writes a popular weekly column
for regional newspapers, and is at work on a
book on the longleaf pine ecosystem of the
Southeast. He lives in Mobile, Ala. and is
working with a consortium of community leaders
and conservation groups to develop a
restoration plan for the Gulf, including an
effort to rebuild 100 miles of oyster reef and
10,000 acres of marsh and seagrass beds in
Mobile Bay.
