Keith C. Flood – President
Keith has had a lifelong passion for sharing with others what lies beneath the waves of our oceans. Keith was inspired by his father’s love of the ocean and was certified as a scuba diver in 1986. With a borrowed underwater camera from his father, he took his first underwater photos that same year. In 1987 he joined a group of citizen scientists who had just completed the first-ever exploration of a little-known underwater oasis 20 miles West of Point Reyes – Cordell Bank. After hearing the stories of Cordell and seeing the photographs from the early explorations, Keith realized just how unique and special Cordell Bank is. Keith joined the group and contributed his skills as a scuba diver and photographer for Cordell Expeditions from 1987-1990. Keith contributed to the documentation and study of Pt. Sur Bank off the Central California coast, later named “Schmieder Bank” after the founder of Cordell Expeditions. He also participated in a National Geologic Survey sponsored expedition to collect underwater rock samples and photographs from the Farallon Islands in 1989. Over the years Keith’s passion for underwater photography and the desire to share what lies under our oceans with others has only grown stronger. From 2014-2019 Keith was a founding member of Sonoma County Sheriff’s Volunteer Dive Team. He continues to grow both his technical diving skills as well as underwater photography skills with the end goal to bring awareness to the challenges facing our oceans.
Drew McCalley – CFO, Treasurer
Drew has been drawn to the ocean his whole life, from his childhood summers at his grandparents’ home in Cannon Beach, Oregon, to his current residence in Sea Ranch, California. He is also a dedicated lifelong environmentalist, with a special concern for preserving and protecting both land-based and underwater ecosystems as crucial biological reservoirs for the maintenance of biodiversity on our planet. Cordell Bank, in addition to being in his “home territory”, is one of the richest oceanic biological reservoirs on earth, and Drew is eager to contribute to its continued health and viability through his service on the Cordell Marine Sanctuary Foundation Board. Drew is a retired accountant/CPA and financial manager. His diverse educational background includes degrees in Sociology, Asian Studies, and Accounting, from the University of Oregon and San Jose State University. After a career in credit unions (the non-profit wing of the financial services industry) he has remained active contributing his financial skills to a number of non-profit organizations as he enjoys his coastal retirement.
Gavin Chilcott, Ph.D. – Secretary
Gavin received a B.A. from UC Berkeley in molecular and cell biology, and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in microbiology. His dissertation work involved the study of genetic regulation coupled to flagellar biosynthesis in bacteria. He has been fascinated with marine environments from a young age, inspired initially by visits to coral reef systems in the south Pacific. He is currently an active technical diver in Northern California and volunteer research diver affiliated with UC Davis. Gavin is the founder and COO of Continuum Sports, which manages professional cycling teams that compete in the premiere tier of international bicycle racing. Notable team accomplishments include victories at the Tour de France, World Championships, Olympics and other significant cycling events.
Tatum Bernat
Tatum is a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Group of Ecology, a member of the Whitehead Lab, and a Coastal Marine Science Institute affiliate at UC Davis. She earned her B.S. in Marine Biology from UCLA where she studied anthropogenic stressors on coral reefs, conservation genetics in coastal lagoons, and the evolution of biomineralization. After graduating, Tatum worked as a marine molecular biology lab technician in Dr. Ronald Burton’s lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She studied mitonuclear interactions in the intertidal copepod, Tigriopus californicus, while managing an invasive mussel monitoring program. Broadly, she is drawn to eco-evolutionary dynamics related to responses to environmental and anthropogenic disturbances. A keen believer in actionable science, Tatum serves on the board to support the conservation, scientific research, and outreach goals of California’s hidden gem: the Cordell National Marine Sanctuary.
Dan Howard
From 1980 to 1995, Dan worked as a member of the groundfish ecology team studying the nearshore marine environment in California with a focus on kelp bed ecology, predator/prey relationships, and juvenile rockfish recruitment in a coastal upwelling system along the Sonoma and Mendocino coast. As a research fisheries biologist, with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Tiburon, California, he was part of a three-person team maintaining long-term monitoring programs from 1982-1995 surveying nearshore ecosystems in northern California, southern California at Catalina Island and off the Kona coast in Hawaii. Dan has over fourteen years of cold water diving experience, with over 600 working dives in a variety of marine environments. He has forty years of experience conducting marine resource assessments in northern California. Dan frequently served as the cruise leader or a principal investigator on offshore research cruises.
In 1995, Dan started working for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries as an assistant manager for Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary (CBNMS). He became the site superintendent in 2003. Responsibilities as the site superintendent included protecting the CBNMS ecosystem by managing activities and internal programs including monitoring and research, education and outreach, and resource protection programs at the site. In 2015, CBNMS expanded their boundaries north and west increasing the sanctuary’s managed area from 529 square miles to 1286 square miles. Other responsibilities as the site superintendent included working with the site’s advisory council, ocean policy development, interacting with local, state, and federal agencies, managing the site budget and personnel, and serving as a member of the National Marine Sanctuary Programs’ Leadership Team.
With 15 years of focused research in nearshore marine environments in northern California and 25 years managing an offshore marine area west of Point Reyes, Dan is intimately familiar with northern California’s dynamic marine ecosystem and the challenges of maintaining a healthy ecosystem while working with partners to permit some activities while striving to minimize impacts on the marine environment.
McKenzie Kanna
McKenzie Kanna holds a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from UC Davis and has worked with the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory on projects involving the critically endangered Delta Smelt. Beyond marine and freshwater environments, McKenzie’s experience extends to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where she contributed to permaculture initiatives, fostering a deep appreciation for sustainable agricultural practices and addressing global food demands responsibly. McKenzie has also served in research roles with institutions such as the University of Tennessee. A strong advocate for protection and preservation, McKenzie is gearing up for graduate studies focusing on marine research.
Tom Lambert
Tom’s attraction to the sea started when, as a young boy, he first peered into tide pools to see amazing creatures of all colors and shapes. His fascination led him to an education and career in aquatic biology. Tom received a B.S. In Biological Sciences from Chico State College and an M. S. in Fisheries with an emphasis on marine biology from Humboldt State University. He studied the impacts of electric power facilities on aquatic ecosystems as an aquatic biologist with Pacific Gas and Electric Company for 28 years. He is a Fellow in the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists and is the Bylaws and Nominations Chair of the California-Nevada Chapter of the American Fisheries Society and an active member of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol. Tom was a founding member of the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council and was the Council’s Chair for the final three of the six years he served on the Council. He received an Outstanding Volunteer Service award from the National Marine Sanctuaries in 2007. Tom now explores the ocean by SCUBA diving and on wildlife viewing boat trips to Cordell Bank. He continues to be amazed at seeing thousands of dolphins surrounding the boat, getting so close to humpback whales that their breath can be smelled, and watching albatross soar over the waves.
Rob Lee
Rob has been close to the ocean since a very early age and that curiosity and passion is reflected in his 15+ year tenure as an active cave and technical SCUBA diver. As an instructor for Global Underwater Explorers and a board member of Bay Area Underwater Explorers (BAUE), Rob has provided organization, training, and diving support for numerous ocean exploration, conservation, and research projects off of the Northern California coast. In addition, he is the project director for the BAUE Cordell Bank exploration team, which has worked closely with the Sanctuary to collect documentation and survey data from the Bank since 2013. Rob is particularly interested in offshore exploration of the Big Sur coastline and Cordell Bank, as well as survey and research of nudibranchs. An avid photographer as well as exploration diver, he combines both recreational passions to contribute photographic documentation, observational data, and occasionally underwater fieldwork to oceanic research and conservation efforts. Professionally, Rob is a technology executive in the Bay Area and holds undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.
Robert Rubin, Ph.D.
Bob earned the Ph.D degree in physiological ecology from the University of California Irvine, and is presently on the faculty of Santa Rosa Junior College, where he teaches courses in marine biology and human anatomy.
He has been involved in college and university teaching for several decades, and has conducted field and laboratory research on the ecology and physiology of such diverse groups as fish eating bats, elephant, hooded and harp seals, sea birds, desert dwelling birds and rodents and for the past twenty-five years on manta rays in the sub tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans.
He has been selected by the State of California, the United States Senate and Congress to receive their awards for outstanding contributions to college and university teaching. He is the recipient of the NISOD award for outstanding contributions to higher education and in 1996 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching honored him as “The California College and University Professor of the Year”. He served as a program developer and reviewer for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and for the US Department of Energy (DOE). Presently he serves as a member of the scientific advisory boards of the Save Our Seas, Safari West Cooperation, Sea Watch, Marine World USA, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundations, and The international Manta Trust.
Additionally, his research on manta rays has been the subject of international public media productions for NOVA, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, World of Wonder, BBC, Animal Planet, Blue Realm, and most recently as a TEDx invited presentation.
Nicholas Trautman
Nicholas earned a B.S. in general engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and is currently a research staff member in the Coastal Oceanography Group at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory. His primary job is maintaining an array of high-frequency radar sites along the Northern California coast that are part of the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS), which is part of NOAA’s Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). He also supports various oceanographic research and monitoring efforts along the coast and in estuaries throughout Northern California, including in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. In addition to his professional work, Nicholas was a leader for Divest the CSU and Fossil Free Cal Poly, organizations dedicated to combatting climate change by working with the California State University system to divest its direct shares in the fossil fuel industry and reinvest those assets sustainably. He also competed in cross-county, track, and road races with the Cal Poly Distance Club and currently enjoys running trails throughout Sonoma County in his free time.
Robert Van Syoc, Ph.D.
Bob has studied various topics in marine ecology and invertebrate zoology, from San Francisco Bay to the South Pacific. His field experiences include surveys of the California intertidal and shallow subtidal in San Diego to Mendocino, including participation in multi-year surveys of the Channel Islands and Southeast Farallon Island, and research expeditions to Alaska (Gulf of Alaska, Aleutians, and Bering Sea), British Columbia, Baja California, Panama, the Kingdom of Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Palau, the Philippines, Borneo, the Red Sea, Madagascar, Australia, the Galapagos Islands and Clipperton Island as well as several cruises off the California coast to sample shelf and slope fauna.
Bob earned his Ph.D. at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, using DNA analysis to study genetic relationships and speciation among barnacles at the molecular level. He continues his research into the evolution of barnacles and other topics as a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Research Professor at San Francisco State University.
When he was the Collection Manager of Invertebrates at CAS, Bob was responsible for the preservation, identification and curation of invertebrate specimens collected to document the fauna of Cordell Bank. These specimens are part of the CAS research collections and are available for study by researchers in California and around the world. Comparisons of specimens collected during recent cruises with the historical samples at CAS can provide insights into changes in species composition in the Marine Sanctuary. Anyone with access to the Internet can search the on-line collection database. You can learn more about invertebrate biology and coral reef research at CAS HERE.