Marine ecologist Phil Levin began a joint role at the University of Washington’s College of the Environment and The Nature Conservancy in 2016. He is one of only two “professors of practice” at UW and is also tackling a lead science role at the Conservancy. Levin was formerly a senior scientist at NOAA Fisheries, and currently works on many projects, including The Conservancy’s Emerald Edge project, the Ocean Modeling Forum and with Washington Sea Grant’s Melissa Poe looking at the impacts of ocean acidification on culture, particularly tribes.

Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy and University of Washington, Phil was a Senior Scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Wash. He served as the scientific lead of NOAA’s Integrated Ecosystem Assessment efforts in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem and Puget Sound. During this work, he led the development of new analytical tools for characterizing ecosystem health and forecasting the cumulative effects of coastal zone management and climate change on marine ecosystems.

André is a Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University Washington, Seattle, USA and the currently the Director of the School. He received his B.Sc, M.Sc and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Before joining the University of Washington, Dr Punt was a Principal Research Scientist with the CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research in Australia. Dr. Punt has been involved in stock assessment and fisheries management for over 25 years and has been recognized for his contributions in this area with awards from CSIRO, the University of Washington, the Australian Society for Fish Biology, and the American Fisheries Society. The research undertaken by Dr. Punt and the MPAM (Marine Population and Management) group at the University of Washington relates broadly to the development and application of fisheries stock assessment techniques, bioeconomic modelling, and the evaluation of the performance of stock assessment methods and harvest control rules using the Management Strategy Evaluation approach.

Currently, projects that Dr. Punt is undertaking with his research group include integrating genetic methods with traditional fisheries management approaches, assessment and management methods for data-poor methods, and understanding the impact of climate change and environmental variation on the performance of assessment and management methods. Dr. Punt has conducted stock assessments for a wide range of species, ranging from anchovies and sardines, to groundfish, tunas, and cetaceans. Dr. Punt has published over 250 papers in the peer-reviewed literature, along with over 400 technical reports. He was recently a member of a National Research Council panel on evaluating the effectiveness of fish stock rebuilding in the United States. Dr Punt is currently a member of the Scientific and Statistical Committee of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the advisory committee for Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology, the Crab Plan Team of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission.

Tessa is the Lead Ecosystem Ecologist at the University of Washington Tacoma’s Puget Sound Institute, and the Managing Director of the Ocean Modeling Forum. Dr. Francis is an aquatic ecologist, and she conducts research related to the ecology and management of Pacific herring. She is interested in terrestrial-aquatic linkages, and the impacts of those linkages on ecosystem function and management. Across all her work, Tessa focuses on linking science to decisions, which includes a keen interest in decision support tools, including models and multi-model approaches. Tessa also serves as the Ecosystem-based Management topic editor for the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound, and is on the Science Advisory Board of the Northwest Straits Commission. Tessa holds a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley, a BS in Wildlife Science from the University of Washington, and a PhD in Zoology and Urban Ecology from the University of Washington.

Genoa is a marine ecologist currently working to support the Ocean Modeling Forum at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on how temperate marine communities respond to human-driven disturbances. As a Master’s student she studied how an invasive alga alters species diversity and production in southern California kelp forests. Additionally, she worked on a team of scientists to assess differences in communities and ecosystem function between kelp forests and urchin barrens across the Aleutian Island archipelago in Alaska. She holds a M.S. from San Diego State University and a B.S. from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.

Salvador is an investigator at the Centro de Investigaciones Biologicos del Noroeste S.C. (CIBNOR). Learn more