Meet the Council Members

Doug served six years as chair for the Sierra Club’s National Marine Team (the club’s ocean arm) where the pillars are fisheries management, marine and coastal ecosystem conservation, marine protected areas, and marine wildlife and habitat. He wrote 13 grants allowing his team members each year to: lobby Congress in D.C. on ocean issues; hold town hall events in coastal cities around the U.S.; and take part in steering and promoting March For The Ocean at the Capitol Mall in D.C. Doug also helped conservationists in Guam, at their request, to halt a culvert project that would have directed toxic stormwater into Tumon Bay Marine Reserve. He did outreach in Alaska, speaking with Alaska Natives and environmental studies classes, to advance conversation and inquiries about ocean conservation.

Over ten years ago, Doug came to Hawaiʻi from Northern California where he sat on the Natural Resources Commission for the city of Davis.

On a personal note, Doug and his wife both enjoy surfing, often at Bowl’s. They have travelled widely, but Hawaiʻi is home. He used to race sailboats and rode in a cattle drive in California. Doug has authored a novel, short stories, and is currently working on a TV pilot.

"The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve represents a beacon of hope to those in the world who care about protecting vital ecosystems. I feel fortunate to be part of the important, dedicated work this Council applies to those ends."

Kammie Tavares was raised on the Waiʻanae coast where her love and respect for ʻāina grew. Her work focuses on understanding the changes happening in Hawaiʻi’s coastal communities and providing resources to support coastal management. With a bachelor’s degree in global environmental science and an master’s degree in geology and geophysics at UH Mānoa, she is well versed in natural sciences. She worked in the Coastal Geology Group for six years collaborating with various government agencies on producing coastal geospatial research of sea level rise and coastal erosion. Now, she is expanding her skillset in her next chapter as a doctoral student at Mānoa in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning to bridge the gap between science, policy, and community initiatives.

Kammie participated in two research trips to Papahānaumokuākea which were focused on studying the geology of the atolls. Her first visit was to Lalo in 2018 right before Hurricane Walaka came through, and the second was in 2021 with an all Native Hawaiian crew who studied how Lalo recovered post-hurricane. This crew also went to Nihoa to study the intertidal zone.

Before joining the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project (U.S. 501c3 non-profit organization) in 2022, James served as the operations manager and vessel operations coordinator for the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Ecosystem Sciences Division. At NOAA, James led and managed marine debris removal efforts in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, and coordinated large-scale coral reef monitoring surveys in the Pacific Islands region (Hawaiian archipelago, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the Pacific Remote Island Areas). Having spent over 10 years at NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center with the Protected Species Division Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program, and Ecosystem Science Division Coral Reef Ecosystem Program, James had the opportunity to work at over 40 islands and atolls, conducting 1,500 scientific dives over 900 days in the field. As executive director of Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project, James co-leads and co-manages large-scale marine debris surveys and removal operations in Papahānaumokuākea, having removed over 700,000 pounds of marine debris and spending over 150 days in the field. James is excited for the opportunity to serve on the Reserve Advisory Council and continue his dedication to Papahānaumokuākea, the Hawaiian Islands, and to help mentor and develop the next generation of ocean stewards.

Robin Baird is the Hawai‘i program director for Cascadia Research Collective, a nonprofit research and education organization, as well as an affiliate faculty at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, and a member of the False Killer Whale Take Reduction Team. While based on the mainland, he has been studying whales and dolphins in Hawai‘i since 1999. He is the author of "The Lives of Hawai‘i’s Dolphins and Whales, Natural History and Conservation", published in 2016 by the University of Hawai‘i Press, and author or co-author on more than 80 peer-reviewed publications on Hawaiian whales and dolphins.

With a passion for sustainability cultivated through her upbringing on the island of Oʻahu, Angelina pursued a bachelor’s degree in economics to deepen her understanding of sustainable development and environmental law and policy. She then ventured into a solar-powered, hydroponic microgreen farm business to inspire conscious consumerism at local markets. Today, Angelina shines as a field technician and community huki leader with Mālama Maunalua, where she educates volunteer groups on the implications of invasive algae and the importance of environmental awareness. When she’s not working, you’ll find her diving, surfing, backpacking, practicing yoga, or creating her next masterpiece. Angelina is driven to serve on the RAC because she believes that communities, when united, possess the immense power to effect change.

Sam ʻOhukaniʻōhiʻa Gon III is the senior scientist and cultural advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi & Palmyra – a dual title not seen yet anywhere else in the organization. Sam was conventionally trained as a conservation biologist, and also traditionally trained by a master of oli (Hawaiian chant) and ceremony, Kumu John Keolamakaʻāinana Lake, and underwent the ʻūniki huʻelepo (a traditional rite of passage) as a Hawaiian cultural practitioner of oli and ceremony. Sam is also a kumu [teacher/source] of oli in the hālau [traditional school of learning], Nā Waʻa Lālani Kāhuna o Puʻu Koholā – a responsibility passed to him by his late teacher.

Sam's dual expertise is in Hawaiian terrestrial ecosystems and species, as well as biocultural conservation. Biocultural conservation strives to “mainstream” Hawaiian knowledge, values and practice into conventional conservation efforts, not only in Hawaiʻi, but globally. As a commissioner in the IUCN, his focus has been on creating and strengthening Indigenous membership and participation in international conservation, an evolving and growing theme in the two most recent World Conservation Congresses in Hawaiʻi (2016) and Marseille (2020). Building such approaches in higher education in Hawaiʻi, Sam is affiliate graduate faculty in the University of Hawaiʻi School of Natural Resource and Environmental Management, as well as the School of Life Sciences, and an advising faculty in the university's Biocultural Initiative of the Pacific.

Daniel is at home in Hawaiʻi – inspired by the Polynesian Voyaging Society (as well as other Indigenous movements around the world), their traditional Polynesian waʻa, or voyaging canoes, and the story of Hōkūleʻa and her worldwide and Moananuiākea voyages. He holds a master’s degree in biomimicry (innovation inspired by nature), and is a biomimicry professional with Biomimicry 3.8. He concentrates on marine ecology and innovative solutions to climate change and ocean-related challenges. He also applies biomimicry to complex social issues, especially reimagining education and conservation. He is fascinated by the natural world, particularly the ocean and other wild places, and the intersections of these places and human culture and consciousness.

Since graduating from Vanderbilt University with a degree in psychology and neuroscience, he has been nurturing a global network of explorers and change-makers by growing a learning ecosystem that can inspire and empower them. An avid traveler and adventurer, Daniel has spent the past two decades living, working, and learning in international schools, nonprofits, and social enterprises across more than 80 countries, all seven continents, and all five regions of our planet’s one ocean. His experiences include an expedition to Antarctica in December 2018 as part of a fellowship with National Geographic, and a 2023 expedition to the furthest reaches of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument with Ocean Exploration Trust. Since arriving in Hawaiʻi, Daniel has led sustainability, conservation, innovation, and entrepreneurial learning programs at Punahou School and Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu. He served as a fellow for National Geographic, Ocean Exploration Trust, and Ecology Project International. He co-created place-based bio-cultural innovation platforms with Purple Maiʻa Foundation, Mālama Maunalua and Polynesian Voyaging Society. Daniel has focused on understanding and developing transformative action-learning experiences with several partners in education, exploration, conservation, and innovation, and is using that experience to support schools, innovation programs, and environmental organizations around the world.

From his place in Hawaiʻi, Daniel launched Pacific Blue Studios: a Pacific network of community and place-based, youth-powered, design and impact studios. The network values biomimicry, Indigenous perspectives, and cutting-edge technologies as vehicles to grow, connect and amplify a new intergenerational learning ecosystem. The goal is to help realize a resilient, regenerative and inclusive future in Hawai’i, around the Pacific, and across our Blue Planet.

Lurline Wailana McGregor was born and raised in Honolulu. After spending much of her early career as legislative staff for Hawaiʻiʻs congressional members in Washington, D.C, she returned home to work in management positions until leaving that world to pursue her own creative work. Her fiction writing focuses on Hawaiian identity in contemporary times while most of her non fiction writing has been for the University of Hawaiʻiʻs Sea Grant magazine, Ka Pili Kai, covering ocean-related topics, many of which have featured Papahānamokuākea. As an avid canoe paddler and crew member on Hōkūleʻaʻs Malama Honua voyage, she cares especially deeply about the health of the ocean and all living things in it.

E‘ō‘iwi Lāna‘i au. I am a seventh generation native son from the Island of Lāna‘i. I have been nurtured in the ways of my Kūpuna and I continue to perpetuate their teachings in my daily life. I am privileged with the embrace and gifted with the tools of our Kūpuna, their knowledge, experiences, Na mea Hawai‘i and the deep respect they held for each other and for all things that make up Ka Pae ‘Āina Hawai‘i. My responsibility is to nurture and to care for their gifts and to bridge and pass it on to the future generations in the manner it was given to me. E ho‘omau!

Kainalu Steward was born and raised in Lahaina, Maui and currently resides in Hilo, Hawaiʻi island. His passion for ʻāina stewardship, ocean science research, and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi extends from his ʻohana, kumu, community, and love for the places that have raised him. He received his bachelor’s degree in Hawaiian studies with a marine option program certificate from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and obtained his master’s degree in tropical conservation biology and environmental science from UH Hilo. Kainalu is currently a doctoral student in the Department of Earth Sciences at UH Mānoa where he is working to understand the morphology and natural resilience of Lalo in Papahānaumokuākea to climate impacts using geospatial mapping techniques. His goal is to understand these physical processes with kuanaʻike Hawaiʻi as his foundation.

In 2021, Kainalu had the privilege to sail to Papahānaumokuākea for the first time on an Native Hawaiian led research cruise to assess shoreline change at Lalo and intertidal ʻopihi habitat at Nīhoa with various researchers, community members, and resource managers. That trip to our kūpuna islands inspired him and strengthened his understanding of his kuleana to care for and advocate for proper stewardship of Papahānaumokuākea through his work as a Hawaiian researcher and community member. Following that trip, Kainalu participated in two deep-sea research cruises in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands with the Ocean Exploration Trust on the E/V Nautilus vessel as a seafloor mapper, data science intern and cultural liaison. He is humbled to carry this work forward that many before him have accomplished for the protection of Papahānaumokuākea and is committed to representing our Indigenous voices on the Research Advisory Council.

Thorne Abbott is a professional coastal planner who specializes in shoreline issues. He has extensive experience in planning and permitting beach restoration, coastal erosion response, and oceanfront property development throughout Hawaiʻi, Asia, and the Pacific. Mr. Abbott helped amend Hawaiʻi’s Coastal Zone Management Act, Maui County’s Special Management Area rules, Maui and Kauai County’s shoreline regulations, and co-authored Maui and Molokai’s community-based post-disaster reconstruction guidelines and protocols. He is published in the Ocean and Coastal Management journal and contributed to Springer Books Managed Realignment. Thorne is a strong advocate of conservation policies and he has successfully implemented managed retreat to keep resorts, homes, and people out of harm’s way. He chaired the Legacy Land Conservation Commission, recently co-chaired a legal seminar on sea level rise adaptation, served on Hawaiʻi Audubon Society’s Board of Directors, and helped the Maui Nui Marine Resource Council’s Coral Recovery Team create a county-adopted framework to guide local actions to improve reef health, water quality and native fish populations. Thorne considers it a privilege to serve on the RAC and SAC and looks forward to contributing.

As an Indian American, Alisha Shanti Chauhan cultivated her passion for nature during her formative years in Africa's safari lands and her family life in Canada instilled a respect for nature-based solutions, inspiring her to blend the arts and culture for watershed restoration.

With a degree in biology and writing, she has two decades of environmental consulting experience in sensitive, remote places, from the Arctic to the islands of Hawai\`i, bridging Indigenous communities with multi-stakeholders for resilience.

Alisha co-created a toolkit for Indigenous communities and protective policy at the advent of mining in pristine Arctic watersheds, co-led large-scale, low impact development retrofits along Toronto’s waterfronts, and educated keiki with Reef Guardians Hawai\`i.

Based on Maui, she builds community capacity for blue-green resilience through her Ocean Story ACTS | Blue Champion Changemakers program, serves as a board director at the Marine Institute Maui Ocean Center, and loves being in the ocean, sharing original songs about Mother Nature, and teaching keiki to be advocates for our better future.

She believes that Indigenous science is integral for restoration and that the power of community connection through education and action is key to coordinating tangible solutions for our harmonious relation with Planet Ocean, and essentially ourselves—the ocean connects us all.

Barbara Quimby spent her childhood by the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach, California. Inspired by the waters that connect us, she is now a marine social scientist and assistant professor of marine science and policy at Hawai‘i Pacific University. She earned her doctorate degree in geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara and San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program and earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in anthropology. Her research explores human-environment relationships in aquatic spaces, with a focus on non-commercial fisheries (recreational/subsistence) and community and Indigenous-led approaches to coastal marine governance. She has studied fishing practices and “blue” food systems in Sāmoa, Indonesia, California, and Hawai‘i. She enjoys the peace and beauty of coastal fishing. Barbara lives with her family on the windward side of O’ahu.

Mark is a professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, serving as the Sidney and Erika Hsiao Endowed Chair in Marine Biology. His expertise is marine ecology and conservation biology, especially regarding coral reefs, which he has studied in many locales around the world.

Mark completed his doctorate degree at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he studied the ecology of kelp forests. He was then a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawai‘i, where he began his studies of coral reefs in the late 1970s. From 1984 to 2012, Mark was a professor at Oregon State University, then was recruited back to the University of Hawai‘i as an endowed professor in 2013.

His research addresses the questions of how to enhance the resilience of corals to bleaching, what determines the number of fish in the sea, how so many different species naturally coexist on coral reefs, and how marine reserves and artificial reefs help to conserve sea life and enhance fisheries. In 2004, Mark was recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information Citation Index as the most cited scientific author on coral-reef ecology in the United States.

A Fulbright Senior Scholar, Aldo Leopold Fellow, and Fellow of the International Coral Reef Society, Mark serves on the editorial boards of multiple scientific journals. He is past chair of both the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Ocean Sciences Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation.

Mark has won various awards for teaching, and his public outreach includes TED talks and appearances on the PBS TV show Saving the Oceans. He loves being near, on, and under the sea, especially with his family.

"As a long-term guest of these amazing islands and peoples, I am honored to provide a western science perspective to the reserve advisory committee, knowing that mine is but one worldview among a constellation of cultural and life experiences."

Lauren has always had a lifelong relationship with the ocean and an undeniable love for marine life. With that love came a relentless curiosity in marine ecology and a passion for its preservation. She received her bachelor’s degree in marine fisheries biology along with a minor in scientific scuba diving from Cal-Poly Humboldt, followed by a master’s degree in environmental sciences and policy from Johns Hopkins University. Lauren's upbringing as a visitor to Hawaiʻi Island has shaped her into the person she is today, and she is eternally grateful to call this beautiful archipelago home. Her professional development in Hawaiʻi has provided invaluable knowledge and experience in marine conservation, watershed restoration, place-based natural resource management, community-based conservation efforts, scientific research, fisheries management, traditional and modern aquaculture techniques, environmental consultation, and sustainability management.

Don Schug has spent more than 20 years studying the economic and social aspects of fisheries and fisheries management at the community, national, and international levels. His doctoral research in Papua New Guinea entailed an ethnographic study of artisanal fisheries in the Torres Strait, while his duties as an economic planner in American Samoa included monitoring changes in the highly industrialized U.S. tuna harvesting and processing sectors.

Don's fisheries-related research and applied work has taken him to many places in the United States and abroad. He has worked extensively in the Pacific islands, including Polynesia (Hawaiʻi and American Samoa), Micronesia (Kiribati) and Melanesia (Papua New Guinea).

Don believes that solutions to many of our natural resource management problems can only be achieved through the integration of information from a range of scientific disciplines, including economics, biology, sociology, and anthropology. As a result, he especially enjoys working with a team of people that can provide a wide range of perspectives and skills.

Dr. Langerman is a chemist, earning a doctorate in biochemical thermodynamics at Northwestern University. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Following a post-doctoral year at Yale through the National Institutes of Health, he joined the faculty of the Departments of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at Tufts University Medical School in 1970. In 1975, he went west and joined the Chemistry Department of Utah State University (USU). At both Tufts and USU, he assumed responsibility for departmental safety programs.

Neal established his first consulting company, Chemical Safety Associates, in 1980, in conjunction with other members of the USU faculty. He headed this firm until 1997, when he sold his interests in material safety data sheet production and set up his current consulting firm, Advanced Chemical Safety, from which he officially retired at the end of 2020. He now pursues areas of interest which broadly impact human well-being.

His professional interests continue to be the prevention of chemical incidents and injuries. For the past year he has studied how businesses can better cope with the pandemic and its many physical, emotional, and economic impacts. He served as the Chair of the Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society in 2004 and in 2004 and 2013, received the Tillsman-Skolnick Award for contributions to the field of chemical health and safety through the ACS from the Division. In 2018 he was recognized for his Lifetime Contributions to Chemical Safety. He is currently an alternate councilor for the division.

Dr. Langerman is an avid scuba diver and photographer who shares his love of the underwater world on his professional photography site.

Haunani Hiʻilani Kane was raised at the foot of Olomana mountain in the coastal community of Kailua, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Haunani received a doctorate degree in Earth and planetary sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi and is a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow. In the fall she will join Arizona State University as an assistant professor with the Global Center for Discovery and Conservation Science in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. Haunani's research combines coastal geomorphology, paleo environmental reconstructions, spatial analysis, and the perspectives of a native islander to investigate how islands, reefs, and island people are impacted by changes in climate.

Haunani has been mentored since her youth in traditional Hawaiian wayfinding and navigation. Haunani has spent nearly 200 days at sea aboard both traditional sailing and modern research vessels. As a Hawaiian voyager, and a climate scientist Haunani's research and teaching relies upon reestablishing ancestral relationships to place. She hopes that through this process she may provide a more inclusive understanding of the impacts of environmental stressors and ensure that the best available climate science data is reflective of all stories of place and their people.

Dr. Bill Walsh was an aquatic biologist with the Hawai′i Division of Aquatic Resources, in Kona on the Big Island of Hawai′i from 1998 thru 2019. He received his doctorate degree in 1984 in Zoology from the University of Hawai′i at Mānoa with a research emphasis on the behavioral ecology of coral reef fishes with a particular focus on things that go bump in the dark (i.e. nocturnal fish behavior and sheltering). Additional research and management interests include traditional Hawaiian marine resource management practices, recruitment dynamics of reef fishes and the efficacy of marine protected areas. Over the years, Dr. Bill has participated in a number of research expeditions to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. In 2008 and 2014, he was formally recognized as an Outstanding Natural Resource Manager by the United States Coral Reef Task Force.

In addition to 45 years of diving experience in the Hawaiian Islands, Dr. Bill is also a lifelong recreational fisherman and has been both a New England commercial lobsterman and trawl fisherman. He has been an independent business owner, former president of the Pacific Handcrafters Guild, two-term Natural Areas Reserves commissioner, graphic artist and farmer. Dr. Bill retired from the Division of Aquatic Resources at the end of 2019.

Andy Winer is executive vice president for Strategies 360, and he heads the Washington D.C. office for the firm. He has four decades of experience in federal service, government relations, and the law. Mr. Winer’s advocacy practice focuses on appropriations and advocacy on behalf of state and local governments, tribes, universities, nonprofits, native 8(a) small business entities, and government contractors with a special emphasis on Hawaiʻi-based clients.

Before joining Strategies 360, Andy served as chief of staff for Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) for six years. In this role, Mr. Winer developed and implemented the senator’s appropriations strategy for Hawaiʻi constituents and oversaw the passage of several bipartisan bills including the Weather Act, and he led the advocacy efforts for Senator Schatz that resulted in the expansion of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and the Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument.

From 2009 to 2012, Andy served as the director of external affairs at NOAA. In that role, he served as a senior adviser to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, and he worked on a range of issues including the National Ocean Policy, the development of NOAA’s scientific integrity policy, and the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of America. During that time, Andy also served as the Co-Chair of the United States Coral Reef Task Force. Prior to his government service in Washington, D.C., Andy practiced law in Hawaiʻi for over 20 years, and he founded and served as the managing partner of a law firm in Honolulu for 15 years. Andy’s law practice emphasized construction, real estate, environmental law, and litigation, and he had an active practice as a mediator and an arbitrator.

Andy currently serves on Governor Josh Green’s Marine Affairs Committee, and he previously served on the board of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Andy graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in political science and history, and received a juris doctor degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Industrial Relations Law Journal.