Although the CORAL staff comes from a variety of backgrounds and countries, we all share a common love of the ocean and dedication to keeping coral reefs alive. We’re passionate about what we do, and we’d love to hear from supporters like you. Give us a call at (415) 834-0900 or stop by the office and say hello; we’d love to tell you more about our conservation programs and ways that you can help save coral reefs.

Brian Huse, Executive Director (ext. 317)

Now in his seventh year at CORAL, Brian has worked in the environmental conservation and advocacy fields for twenty-five years. He began his career at the California League of Conservation Voters, where he spent a decade working on political campaigns and ballot initiatives before joining the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) as its first Pacific regional office director. At the NPCA, Brian launched a national initiative for enhancing the management of marine resources under National Parks Service jurisdiction. Leaving NPCA to work as a consultant, Brian played a key role in organizing the Ocean Wilderness Network, a collaboration of major West Coast environmental groups working to establish a network of marine protected areas. Before joining CORAL in 2002, Brian served as executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper and as a member of Waterkeeper Alliance's Board of Directors. Brian has a degree in physiological psychology from the University of California, San Diego.

Rick MacPherson, Conservation Programs Director (ext. 302)

Coordinating our conservation projects since 2005 as well as developing and implementing strategies and tools that increase the capacity of stakeholders to work collaboratively toward coral reef conservation, Rick brings an abundance of passion and experience to the CORAL team. Among his many accomplishments, he has served as marine science specialist for U.C. Berkeley; project specialist for the California Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence; designer and instructor of the award-winning U.C. Berkeley course “Communicating Ocean Sciences;” director of the Lawrence Hall of Science Marine Biology Research Program at U.C. Davis’s Bodega Marine Lab; consultant to the U.S. National Marine Sanctuary system; life science content specialist for MacMillan/McGraw-Hill publishing and KQED public broadcasting; and on several state educational task forces.

As principal and founder of Pelagia Consulting, an ocean science, education, and conservation think tank, Rick has provided aquariums, museums, and science centers with exhibit research, writing, and content development. Additionally, he has published extensively on topics related to ocean science, science education, coral reef ecology and economy, and marine conservation, and serves as guest speaker at international marine conservation symposiums and meetings. Rick is a PADI-certified diver with more than 1,000 dive hours logged. He has lead ecotourism expeditions to the Galapagos and to coral reef ecosystems in the South Pacific and throughout the Caribbean basin. He has conducted fieldwork in California, Florida, Hawaii, the Canadian Maritimes, Jamaica, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Ecuador, Palau, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Rick holds a B.S. in marine biology from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island and has studied evolutionary theory and the history and philosophy of science at Harvard University.

Tom Meshishnek, Administration & Finance Director (ext. 301)

Tom has more than twenty years of experience working in the nonprofit industry. Before joining CORAL in 2003, he held a variety of accounting positions with numerous San Francisco Bay Area community organizations, including wildlife rehabilitation projects, community food stores, free medical clinics, reproductive health advocates, dance companies, and software design firms.

Diana Williams, Development Director (ext. 305)

The newest member of our team, Diana brings more than a decade of development experience to CORAL. Most recently, she was director of development at the Head-Royce School in Oakland, and before that she worked for the Environmental Defense Fund, where she directed the Major Gifts program and coordinated development for the Western region. Prior to joining CORAL, Diana traveled with her husband and two children throughout Southeast Asia for a year, where she did volunteer and fundraising work for a pediatric cardiac surgery organization in Vietnam and a school and orphanage in Laos. Diana has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Rhode Island College and a master's degree in counseling psychology from Columbia University. 

Julie Bennett, Communications Manager (ext. 319)

Julie began her career in the event planning industry, where she coordinated workshops and seminars for the University of California, San Diego, and incentive travel programs for Fortune 500 companies and professional trade associations. Before coming to CORAL in 2008, she spent more than a decade in the book publishing industry, first cutting her teeth at a West Coast literary agency, and then acquiring and editing prescriptive nonfiction books for Ten Speed Press, a Berkeley-based independent book publisher. Julie attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a women’s studies emphasis. She is a lifelong ocean lover, avid scuba diver, and active volunteer for literacy and conservation organizations.

Bryan Dias, Indo-Pacific Program Manager (ext. 303)

Managing CORAL’s field sites in the Indo-Pacific region (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Raja Ampat, Indonesia), Bryan has worked in conservation for more than six years. Before coming to CORAL in 2006, he was director of outreach and education for the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) in Key Largo, FL. Prior to his work with REEF, Bryan worked for the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory in Alviso, CA, and in the private sector for ecotourism and international trade organizations. Bryan has bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from the University of California, San Diego, and a master’s degree in international environmental policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he focused on coastal zone management, marine policy, environmental economics, and sustainable tourism. A semi-retired scuba diving instructor, Bryan has taught and led dives in California, Honduras, Colombia, and Mexico.

Rich Wilson, Mesoamerica Program Manager (ext. 308)

Rich brings his skills and passion for biodiversity conservation to CORAL through management of our conservation programs in the Mesoamerican region of Central America (Mexico, Belize, and Honduras). His primary interest lies in facilitating an integrative approach to marine conservation that builds effective working alliances between the private sector, resource managers, and government agencies, and realizes both immediate and long-term benefits for communities dependent on a healthy marine environment. Rich began his work in conservation nearly fifteen years ago as a marine naturalist aboard charter boats in Maui, HI. After witnessing firsthand the damage that tour boat anchors inflict on coral reefs, Rich left the charter industry to coordinate Hawaii’s Day-Use Mooring Program on his home island of Maui. As a volunteer project leader, he built pioneering coalitions among state government, private industry, and the conservation community, spearheading several projects that placed boat moorings at popular snorkel and dive sites throughout south Maui. Additionally, Rich worked as a park ranger at Maui’s Haleakala National Park, educating the public with interpretive programs about Hawaiian ecology, geology, and park service history, and leading a variety of backcountry resource management projects. Prior to joining CORAL in 2003, he served as chief scientist and team leader with the National Marine Fisheries Service Marine Debris program in Honolulu. While most of Rich’s knowledge, skills, and abilities come from life experience, he holds degrees in history, Classical studies, and geography from California State University at Chico.

Liz Foote, Hawaii Field Manager

As CORAL’s Hawaii field manager based in Maui, Liz contributes invaluable local knowledge and understanding to our conservation programs, ensuring that each project fully incorporates the needs and realities of the local communities. In addition to her work with CORAL, Liz founded the Maui-based nonprofit organization Project S.E.A.-Link in 1999 and currently serves as its executive director. Project S.E.A.-Link seeks to encourage and inspire marine science education and promotes local stewardship through community-based reef monitoring, marine naturalist volunteer trainings, and other education and outreach projects. Before settling on Maui, Liz worked as a whale watch naturalist in Massachusetts, volunteered at aquariums in Connecticut and California, taught coral reef ecology aboard a schooner in the Virgin Islands, studied orcas in British Columbia, and assisted reef researchers in the Florida Keys. Among her favorite ocean-related memories are diving in the Johnson Sea-Link submersible while in high school and meeting renowned ocean scientist Sylvia Earle in the Aquarius Undersea Habitat sixty feet underwater. Liz earned a bachelor’s of science degree in ecology, behavior, and evolution from the University of California, San Diego, and worked in research laboratories at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. After shifting her focus from marine research to marine education, she obtained a master’s of science degree in science education from Oregon State University.

Anja Mondragon, Conservation Program Associate (ext. 316)

The assistant to our conservation programs staff since 2007, Anja developed a love for marine ecosystems as a child growing up near the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary. She has worked as a docent in Northern California’s Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve; with The Nature Conservancy in Western Massachusetts to remove invasive species, create geographic information systems maps, and conduct timber investment surveys; and volunteered with private scientists and Canadian wardens researching orca whale populations in British Columbia, Canada. Anja has a B.S. degree in natural resource planning and interpretation from Humboldt State University, and is a newly certified scuba diver.

Mathew Higham, Executive Assistant/Office Manager (ext. 314)

Mat was born and raised in Cheshire, England. Prior to joining CORAL, he worked at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco as administration assistant before being promoted to IT support manager for the administrative and teaching staff. Mat moved to America in 2004 after many extended visits to San Diego, where he was an active volunteer with the Surfrider Foundation and Ocean Conservancy. He earned a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in film from England's Manchester Metropolitan University, where he was also part of the surf school and a beach clean-up volunteer.

Elizabeth Curran, Development Assistant (ext. 306)

Elizabeth assists CORAL’s external relations department in fund-raising and donor communications. She earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies with an emphasis in global environmental policy from Colby College in Maine, and brings a strong environmental background to CORAL. Before joining us in 2007, Elizabeth worked at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (GGNPC) as a project information coordinator for the Presidio Bluffs Environmental Remediation Project. She is a newly certified scuba diver, is proficient in Spanish, and was a volunteer coordinator at the Amazoonico Wildlife Refuge and Forest Preserve in Ecuador. For one year, Elizabeth worked with indigenous people (Kichwa) in grassroots conservation of native rain forest animal species and habitat, participating in wildlife release projects and coordinating international tourist volunteers.

Catherine Nguyen, Communications Assistant

As CORAL’s communications assistant since early 2008, Catherine provides general support and serves as photo librarian, securing location-specific photographs and systematically cataloging the coral reef photographs in our collection. Originally from Orange County in Southern California, Catherine graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a bachelor’s degree in politics and a minor in the history of art and visual culture. In addition to her part-time work at CORAL, Catherine volunteers at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. She is a classical pianist and a newly certified scuba diver.

Jennifer Baing, Papua New Guinea Field Representative

 

Sirilo "Didi" Dulunaqio, Fiji Field Representative

Hailing from the village of Nadivakarua in the Kubulau District of Fiji, Didi worked closely with district chiefs and local communities to facilitate the creation of the Namena Marine Reserve in 1997. In 2001, CORAL funded a trip to the Bonaire Marine Park in the Dutch Caribbean, where Didi learned about marine protected areas and sustainable financing. In addition to being CORAL’s field representative in Fiji, Didi works for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Prior to joining CORAL, he spent several years working in the dive industry at Moody's Namena and L'Aventure at the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort. Didi helps the CORAL program staff implement conservation projects and works tirelessly to increase communication between the Kubulau Resource Management Committee, tour operators, and environmental organizations.

Kenneth Johnson, Mexico Field Representative

As CORAL’s field representative in Mexico, Kenneth’s main focus is to advance the goals of the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN)’s Mesoamerican Reef Alliance (MAR) project, which involves the development of good environmental practices for marine recreation providers. In addition to his work with CORAL, Kenneth is owner and general manager of EcoColors, an ecotourism adventure company in the state of Quintana Roo that runs eco-educational, biking, kayaking, snorkeling, trekking, bird watching, and archaeological tours. A marine biologist with a master’s degree in business administration, Kenneth has several years of experience designing new ecotourism products and working with local communities, including Punta Allen and Muyil in Siankaan, Holbox, and Xcalak town to educate, develop, operate, and promote environmental interpretation and ecotourism ventures. He has served as both president and vice-president of the Mexican Association of Adventure Travel and Ecotourism, and his greatest passion is to share his love for wildlife conservation with others.

Jenny Myton, Honduras Field Representative

Jenny is an American-Honduran who has lived in Honduras her whole life. She currently resides on the island of Roatan, where she and her husband, Ian Drysdale, serve on the water board and for the local business association. Jenny has more than nine years of experience monitoring coral reef health and working on community-based resource conservation initiatives, including two years with the Bay Islands Environmental Management Program (funded by the Inter-American Development Bank). She has worked with Coral Cay Conservation, UNEP, Conservation International, and The Nature Conservancy, among others. Jenny and Ian founded and run Luna Environmental, an environmental consulting company, and have carried out environmental impact studies throughout Honduras. In addition to her work for CORAL, Jenny is currently completing a master's degree course in sustainable development.

Kara Osada, Hawaii Field Representative

Originally from Colorado, Kara’s lifelong passion for the ocean was nurtured by frequent family trips to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Caribbean throughout her childhood. In 1999, Kara moved to Hawaii to attend the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She graduated in 2004 with bachelor’s degrees in biology (conservation and ecology track) and marine science. Kara is currently finishing her master’s degree in tropical conservation biology and environmental sciences, focusing on the zooplankton eaten by manta rays. In addition to serving as CORAL’s field representative in Hawaii, Kara helps with research dives along the Kona Coast for the Division of Aquatic Resources, is a scientist with Reef Check and a NOAA scientific diver, works as a dive master at Jack's Diving Locker, and runs her own business offering CPR, first aid, and oxygen certification classes.

Valentine Rosado, Belize Field Representative

Valentine combined his passion for conservation and scuba diving when he joined CORAL as its field representative in Belize in 2007. Based in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, Valentine also works for the Green Reef Environmental Institute, where he is on the forefront of conservation issues relating to the global effects of tourism, coastal development, and climate change on many World Heritage Sites in Belize. As president of the University of Belize Sub-Aqua Club in 2004, he organized volunteer student initiatives, including sea turtle nesting patrols, manatee capture and tagging, grouper spawning aggregation dives, mangrove studies, and student scuba certifications. As part of independent research for the university, Valentine was actively engaged in the monitoring of Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) hatchlings at the Manatee Bar Sea Turtle nesting beach in Southern Belize. Valentine earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from the University of Belize, and is an active PADI IDC Staff Instructor, a Reef Check Instructor Trainer, and a Belize National Tour Guide.