Overview Sponsors Honorary Congressional Committee Register

Member of Congress
The Honorable Madeleine Bordallo
U.S. House of Representatives
Chair, Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans, and Wildlife of the Committee on Natural Resources
Representative Madeleine Z. Bordallo is serving her fourth term as the first woman to represent Guam in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans, and Wildlife. She also serves on the House Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to her committee responsibilities, the Congresswoman serves on multiple caucuses, including as Secretary of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and also as its Chair of the Healthcare Task Force. Congresswoman Bordallo has a long history of leadership of community organizations, and was introduced to public service through her role as First Lady of Guam. In between her husband’s two terms as Governor, she became the first woman from the Democratic Party to serve as a Guam Senator. Following the death of her husband, she ran for Governor herself in 1990, the first woman on Guam to head a gubernatorial ticket. Although she was not successful, she partnered with Senator Carl Gutierrez in 1994, and became the first female Lieutenant Governor of Guam, championing the cause of island beautification to enhance Guam’s tourism based economy. Although born in Minnesota, she graduated high school in Guam, and attended St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana, and the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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Moderator:
Kacky Andrews
Coral Program Manager
NOAA Office of Ocean & Coastal Resource Management
Kacky Andrews is the Program Manager of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program. Ms. Andrews recently returned to NOAA from a six-month stay in Wellington, New Zealand after being awarded an Ian Axford Fellowship in Public Policy sponsored by the New Zealand government. Prior to joining NOAA, she was the Executive Director of the Coastal States Organization, a nonprofit that represents the interests of the Governors of the 35 coastal states and territories on ocean and coastal policy issues in Washington DC. Before moving to Washington DC a few years ago, Ms. Andrews was the Director of the Office of Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas (CAMA) for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. As the CAMA Director, Ms. Andrews oversaw the management of nearly 2 million acres of marine protected areas, acted as the State Co-Trustee of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and served as Florida’s Point of Contact for the US Coral Reef Task Force. Ms. Andrews has a B.A. in Economics from Duke University, a J.D. from the University of Florida, and an LL.M. in Natural Resource and Environmental Law and Policy from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College. She is a native of Ft. Myers, Florida.
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Panelists:
Patrick Christie, PhD
Associate Professor
University of Washington, School of Marine Affairs and the Jackson School of International Studies
Dr. Patrick Christie is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington, School of Marine Affairs and the Jackson School of International Studies. Patrick's current research projects consider the human dimensions of marine protected area networks, tribal perspectives on the state of Puget Sound, and the feasibility of marine ecosystem-based management in tropical contexts. He was recently selected as a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation. He has led various comparative, socio-ecological research projects in the Philippines and Indonesia on the practice of marine resource management. Findings have been published and served as the basis for educational materials. Prior to his academic work, he was involved in the implementation of a community-based marine protected area in the Philippines as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He teaches about environmental sociology, marine protected areas, coastal management, and environmental management in the tropics. He is an Associate Editor for the journal Coastal Management and a national board member for The Coastal Society. Patrick received his B.S. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his M.S. in Conservation Biology and his Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan.

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Sheldon Cohen
Senior Policy Coordinator for the Coral Triangle
The Nature Conservancy - Coral Triangle Center
Sheldon Cohen currently serves as the Senior Policy Coordinator for The Nature Conservancy’s Coral Triangle Program. During the past two years, he has been seconded to the interim Regional Secretariat for the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) in Jakarta, housed within the Indonesian Government’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. In this capacity, he has provided a wide range of strategic and technical advice to support the CTI Roadmap process, which culminated in the CTI Summit in May 2009 in Manado, Indonesia. Sheldon Cohen’s career spans 26 years in the international environmental policy arena, with a focus in the last 17 years on biodiversity conservation issues. Throughout this period, he has worked with national governments, UN agencies, international treaties and conventions, and other multilateral governmental processes. Previous posts during his 11-year tenure with The Nature Conservancy include: Director of Conservation Finance and Policy (for international operations), and Director of Conservation Finance and Policy for the Asia Pacific Program. Mr. Cohen has worked for a number of other non-governmental organizations as well, such as The World Resources Institute, Greenpeace International, and Parliamentarians for Global Action.
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Brian Leber
President
Leber Jeweler, Inc.
Brian Leber, president of Leber Jeweler Inc. is an advocate for a range of human rights and environmental issues. He is a strong voice for reform within the gem and jewelry trade while focusing on constructive and sustainable development of natural resources throughout the world. Mr. Leber is founder of the Jewelers' Burma Relief Project (JBRP), an effort focused on raising awareness of the humanitarian issues in that country. He is active in Washington DC, working with members of the US government and non-governmental organizations on a myriad of global issues. In fall of 2007 he testified before a Congressional committee in support of legislation banning the importation of Burmese gems into the United States. Mr. Leber is an active participant in the Too Precious To Wear campaign organized by Sea Web to help end the exploitation of coral. He also lectures and writes on topics relating to corporate social responsibility and business ethics.
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James M. Turner, PhD
Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs
NOAA
Dr. James M. Turner is currently Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Affairs and leads NOAA's international scientific and environmental efforts associated with the global oceans, atmosphere, and space. Dr. Turner comes to NOAA from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) where he served as the Acting Director (September 2007 to September 2008) and Deputy Director (from April to September 2007). NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology. Prior to joining NIST, Dr. Turner served as the Assistant Deputy Administrator for Nuclear Risk Reduction in the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. In that position he was responsible for major projects in Russia to permanently shut down their last three weapons-grade plutonium-production reactors. He also worked with foreign governments and international agencies to reduce the consequences of nuclear accidents by strengthening their capability to respond to nuclear emergencies. Turner has also held several senior management posts at DOE concerned with laboratory oversight and with nuclear safety and the safeguarding of nuclear weapons both here and abroad. He holds degrees in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D.) and Johns Hopkins University (B.A.), and taught for five years as an Associate Professor of Physics and Engineering at Morehouse College.

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