Team

Dr. Will McClintock is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis within the University of California Santa Barbara. His lab of software engineers and marine planners support a variety of marine science and planning efforts globally. Their flagship software service, SeaSketch (www.seasketch.org) is used in dozens of countries to engage stakeholders in the design of zones for the sustainable use and protection of ocean resources. He received his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology from the University of California Santa Barbara, M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, M.S. in Behavioral Ecology from the University of Cincinnati and B.A. in Biology from Earlham College. 

Linwood Pendleton holds the International Chair of Excellence at the European Institute for Marine Studies, in the Institute for Marine Law and Economics, at the University of Brest and Laboratory of Excellence in Brest, France. He is a senior scholar in the Ocean and Coastal Policy Program at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Pendleton’s work focuses on policies that affect human uses and enjoyment of ocean and coastal resources – both living and non-living. He is the Director of the Marine Ecosystem Services Partnership, author of many scholarly articles, and coordinates the Marine Secretariat of the international Ecosystem Services Partnership. Pendleton’s current projects include understanding the economic and human impacts of ocean acidification (funded by SESYNC and the Prince Albert II Foundation), Mapping Ocean Wealth (with the Nature Conservancy), the economics of coastal blue carbon (Global Environmental Facility), and efforts to better manage the deep sea. Pendleton served as Acting Chief Economist at NOAA from January 2011 through August 2013.

Mark Spalding is the Lead Scientist in the Mapping Ocean Wealth project. A TNC employee for over a decade, Mark has worked on many global syntheses and analyses describing the distribution and condition of marine and coastal resources, and looking at conservation efforts, notably with the use of marine protected areas. He is based out of the University of Cambridge in the UK where he works with colleagues and post-docs and where his work is now entirely focused on understanding, modelling and mapping ecosystem services in marine and coastal settings.

Chris Bergh’s work focuses on three main areas: 1. Sea level rise adaptation in the Florida Keys and beyond; 2. Land stewardship (primarily fire and invasive species management) in the Florida Keys, Bahamas and wider Caribbean; and 3. Coral reef resilience, restoration and management in Florida and Caribbean

Dr. Rob Brumbaugh is an ocean scientist with The Nature Conservancy’s Global Marine Team, with 20 years of experience in the field of ocean conservation and management. He leads the Conservancy’s global strategy for Integrated Ocean Management, and Mapping Ocean Wealth is an integral component of that strategy. Mapping Ocean Wealth provides a critically important pathway for transforming ocean management by developing new knowledge about ocean benefits and using that information to make better decisions about the use of ocean space.

Dr. Sherry Constantine is currently the Director of the Eastern Caribbean Program with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In this position, she is responsible for project management including projects related to coastal resilience, effective management of protected areas, expansion of the marine protected area networks, marine spatial planning, conservation finance and ecosystem-based adaptation. She is also responsible for ensuring that TNC in-country infrastructure and activities meet specific country legal, labor and tax requirements in Grenada. She worked previously as a Biologist with the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), the Executive Director of the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards, and the Managing Director of CePro Consultants limited.

She is a Saint Lucian who has a Master’s Degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of the West Indies and a PhD. in Biology (focus on Ecology and Marine Biology) from the University of Miami. She has spent the past seventeen (17) years working on environmental and marine conservation projects in a number of Caribbean islands including Saint Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda and the Bahamas. She is a Fulbright scholar and a certified Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Dr. Constantine brings to the team her experience in working with diverse groups of stakeholders in many Caribbean countries, skills as a certified project manager, and technical competence in the areas of fisheries biology, ecosystem-based adaptation, marine and coastal area management, and the ecology of nearshore marine and coastal ecosystems.

Emily Landis is the Coastal Wetlands Strategy Lead at the Nature Conservancy.  Emily works as the project manager for the Mapping Ocean Wealth project within The Nature Conservancy’s Global Marine Team. Emily comes with a marine background working for the Global Ocean Commission, Pew Charitable Trusts and Rare. She holds a Master’s Degree in biology from University College London, and during her tenure at UCL she worked directly with the Zoological Society of London and Natural England. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental science from American University.

Valerie McNulty is the Spatial Ecologist for the Caribbean team. She manages all ecological and socioeconomic spatial data for the Caribbean and uses remote sensing and GIS to support Caribbean projects. Valerie has supported projects in marine spatial planning, blue carbon storage, coastal resilience, and ecosystem-based climate adaptation. She assists with field data collection for habitat mapping and is a certified AAUS Scientific Diver. Valerie has previously worked with The Nature Conservancy’s Texas team on migratory species conservation in the Gulf of Mexico and with the New York City program on green roof infrastructure and open space mapping.

Simon is the Mapping Ocean Wealth Coordinator for the Nature Conservancy’s Australia program. The Mapping Ocean Wealth Program aims to quantify and communicate the benefits that Australia’s marine habitats provide to people. In this role he facilitates daily running of the program, including partner relationship support and ongoing communication. Alongside his role at TNC, Simon is finishing his PhD examining resilience of temperate reef systems in urban settings. This research was heavily field focused and saw him spending long hours underwater undertaking surveys and experiments elucidating the factors that contribute to the collapse or recovery of temperate reef habitats. Simon has also worked in a number of roles managing and supporting field programs undertaking oceanographic and biological sampling from the tropics to Antarctica.

 Dr. Steve Schill is the Lead Scientist for The Nature Conservancy’s Caribbean Division. As a marine conservation specialist, he has been promoting the use of technology to protect and manage marine resources for the past twenty years. He works with governments to map coral and mangroves, strategically expand marine protected areas, and develop new technique to measure ecosystem health and quantify benefits provided to people. Steve received his doctorate in Geography from the University of South Carolina and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Brigham Young University’s Department of Geography where he teaches courses in remote sensing.

Micronesia Team Lead

Mariana Walther works as the Gulf of California Coordinator within The Nature Conservancy’s Mexico and Northern Central America Oceans Team. She coordinates the Baja Marine Initiative, a 10-year endeavor to double the amount of conservation and fisheries management areas in the region. Mariana holds a Bachelor degree in Marine Biology from the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur and a Master degree on Environmental Management from the University of Queensland.