The Waitt Foundation is my valentine.
San Francisco, California
February 14th
Contract signed! I am now Director of Science and Solutions at the Waitt Foundation. I could not be more thrilled about the potential this position holds for contributing to meaningful progress in ocean conservation.
The mission of the Waitt Foundation:
- “With the rapid decline of marine life and resources, the primary mission of the Waitt Foundation is to protect our oceans from the harmful impacts of overfishing. To achieve this, we direct our efforts toward facilitating the creation of marine protected areas, engaging stakeholders to improve the management of fisheries, fostering sustainable solutions, and raising public awareness through a network of collaborative NGO’s and foundations. Our vision is to restore the seas to full productivity for future generations.”
That’s something I can get behind, and, in fact, I have. It is well synchronized with my personal mission statement, which, briefly, is to collect, create, curate, actualize, and amplify the best ideas in ocean conservation.
My responsibilities/amazing opportunities:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of current grants and potential of future grants through site visits, discussions with grantees and local community members, and assessment of project methods, data, and execution.
- Publicize the Waitt Foundation’s ocean conservation successes and share compelling conservation stories online (especially via The Foundation’s web site), in the media, and through events, by creating and executing a communications strategy.
- Extend the reach of The Foundation by enhanced presence in DC, establishing us as a leader in ocean conservation science and policy.
- Work with the Foundation Board and Staff to develop and potentiallyexecute a rolling-application, rapid turn-around grants program to fund high-impact (and potentially high-risk) ideas and projects.
Or as I like to put it, travel the world for the best ideas in ocean conservation and figure out how to make them happen by connecting people, ideas, dollars, policy, organizations, and media.
Phew. Simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating to think about all this. Ready… set… go…!
[Note: This is a picture taken after I found out about winning the Solution Search, but the enthusiastic jumping on this occasion was almost identical.]
