Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration Gulf of Mexico Regional Marine Research
Program.
As Executive Director of the Texas State Aquarium in 1985, Dr. Dokken directed
the efforts to establish the newly formed nonprofit
facility in Corpus Christi, Texas. With a full-time
staff of 78 and more than 1,000 volunteers, Dr.
Dokken directed the aquarium through its first year,
when the $32 million facility opened its doors to
over 700,000 visitors who came to view and marvel
at the living wonders of the Gulf of Mexico.
As a marine scientist, Dr. Dokken has an extensive
publication record relating to the study of the ecosystems
and fauna of the Gulf of Mexico. As Executive Director
of the Gulf of Mexico Regional Marine Research Program,
he has led his professional peers in developing priorities
for marine research in the Gulf of Mexico, a daunting
task in the face of declining research dollars. He
is the founder and coordinator of the Flower Garden
Ocean Research Program which integrates the efforts
of institutional science and the offshore oil and
gas industry to expand opportunities for marine research
in the most cost-effective manner. View Dr. Dokken's
Resume.
Ryan Fikes
Deputy Director
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: ryan@gulfmex.org
RYAN FIKES CV (PDF 32KB)
Ryan Fikes has been with the Gulf of Mexico
Foundation (GMF) since January 2008. In his role as
GMF Deputy Director, Fikes works with
federal, state, and local agencies, NGOs,
businesses, industry and private citizens to
promote and facilitate conservation of the health
and productivity of the Gulf of Mexico and its
resources as they relate to the
Goals and Mission of
the GMF.
Ryan joined GMF as the project coordinator for the
Gulf of Mexico
Community-based Restoration
Partnership, which he now manages. He then took on
the role of Program Manager for Conservation and
Restoration in early 2009, assuming the leadership
role as coordinator for the Habitat Conservation and
Restoration Team of the Governor’s
Gulf of Mexico
Alliance. Ryan has since progressed on to the Deputy
Director position. He manages the Foundation office,
assists with administration and budget, manages the
conservation and restoration programs, participates
in education and outreach and serves as the manger
for all federal awards and subcontracts.
Prior to joining GMF, Fikes worked in lab operations
for the
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico
Studies and conducted research at the
Center for
Coastal Studies at Texas A&M
University-Corpus Christi. In addition he coordinated annual
expeditions to the Southern Mexican Caribbean where
he conducted scientific diving and assisted with a
long-term coral reef monitoring program. Before HRI
he worked as an intern for the Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department, Coastal Fisheries Division and
held a position as Research Survey Coordinator for
the Pollution Prevention Partnership at Texas A&M
University-Corpus Christi.
Ryan is a native Texan who grew up in San Antonio.
He graduated from Texas A&M University-Corpus
Christi in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in biology,
concentrated in marine sciences, and earned a
master’s degree in marine biology in 2008 from the
same institution. Ryan has since served as a
short-term fellow for the Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute as part of their taxonomy
training program and has published his academic
research in several academic journals.
Bobbi Reed
Executive Assistant
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: bobbi@gulfmex.org
Bobbi Reed works on special projects, government contracts,
and as program assistant to the executive director of
the Gulf of Mexico Foundation. She recently retired
from the federal government after more than 30 years
of service.
Mrs. Reed began her career in Washington, DC with
the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of
Reclamation. She served as Special Assistant to the
head of that agency until the late '70s when she moved
to Texas with her husband. Since that time she has
worked with other natural resource agencies, including
the US Geological Survey’s Office of Marine Geology
and the Minerals Management Service. Her work
experience has been predominantly in the fields of
administration, management, and coordination.
Mrs. Reed has many years of experience in meeting
planning, meeting management, team building, and
facilitation, and has led workshops on those topics
for both governmental and nongovernmental entities.
Her hobbies include fiction writing and caring for her
golden retriever and five cats.
Richard Gonzales
Project Leader
Aransas Pass, Texas
Email: richard@gulfmex.org
Richard Gonzales is the director of
the Gulf of Mexico Foundation's multicultural outreach program, which uses science education to
bring students in Texas together with students south of the border. Entitled the "Gulf of Mexico Science and Spanish
Club Network" the program is funded through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program grant from the Texas
General Land Office and the NOAA.
As program director, Gonzales spends much of his time in the
field with students, engaged in activities such as
dragging seine nets through bay waters to learn
firsthand what lives beneath the surface, kayaking
through wetlands to monitor animal and plant life,
cleaning up trash along coastal areas, and
following a river upstream to understand how fresh
water makes its way to the Gulf and how human
impact affects the environment.
A native of Texas, Gonzales has operated New America Marketing
since 1996 in Aransas Pass, providing photography, publishing, and creative services to clients throughout South
Texas. His educational background includes a BBA and an MBA from Texas A&M University
Corpus Christi. Fluent in both Spanish and English, he
fosters relations with Mexico, particularly
between Tamualipas and Texas. His hobbies include raising his dogs and working on a ranch
in Gonzales County on weekends.
Mikell Smith
Project Coordinator
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: mike@gulfmex.org
Mikell (Mike) Smith serves as the Project Coordinator for the Habitat
Conservation and Restoration Team (HCRT) of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance.
GMF provides support and coordination for the HCRT under grants from NOAA and
EPA. Smith coordinates HCRT planning efforts as well
as projects implemented under the team’s
conservation and restoration work plan.
Smith joined GMF in April 2009 as Project Manager for the GMF's pilot watershed assessment project under
Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) in the Sabine and Red River
basins. That project, now complete, will serve as a template for similar
assessments SARP intends to conduct under the Southeast Aquatic Habitat Plan.
Smith came to GMF from the
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (HRI) where he researched marine policy fostering collaborative, science-based governance of the Gulf of Mexico. He compiled content, built a database and conceptualized
a strategy which resulted in InfoHub, an information resource made
available publically on GulfBase and
maintained through a partnership with the National Sea Grant Law Center. At HRI, Smith also assisted with lab analysis of photosurveys
of chemosynthetic communities in the Gulf and worked as a surveyor
for an economic study of freshwater inflows on the Texas coast.
After prior careers in television and property management, Smith
obtained a master's in Environmental Science at TAMU-CC
in 2008 with an eye toward integrating environmental
and economic interests. He achieved his goal of
working along the interface of science and society
when he came on board at GMF in April 2009.
J.R. Jones
IWWC Coordinator
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: JRJones@ccisd.us
James R. Jones will coordinate this year's GMF
Intracoastal Waterway Wetlands Cruise
(IWWC), a four-day workshop
which takes teachers on a live-aboard boat through
the Intracoastal Waterway, teaching them about
coastal habitats and issues facing the Gulf coast
and its inhabitants.
Jones
received a master's degree in earth science with a
minor in biology and has spent 33 years as a classroom teacher
in the Corpus Christi area.
He has received numerous awards, including Outstanding Science Teacher of the Year
in various schools.
He currently teaches Advanced Placement Biology and Honors Aquatic
Science
at King High School in Corpus Christi, Texas. He has
presented in numerous workshops on the local, state, national and
international level.
Jones got his introduction to the GMF trip during the GMF's
Down Under,
Out Yonder (DUOY) dive trip in 2000. Since then,
he has been part of six more DUOY
trips and one research trip with the Flower Garden Banks National Marine
Sanctuary.
Franklin Viola
Media Advisor
Houston, Texas
Email: franklin@gulfmex.org
Franklin Viola, a professional photographer, has
worked with the Gulf of Mexico Foundation as a
volunteer on diving expeditions for several years. Viola has received numerous
national and international awards for his underwater photography over the past two decades.
In July 2009, Viola starts a new job as Field Station Manager for
The Nature Conservancy on
Palmyra Atoll, part of an
isolated group of islands in the Pacific Ocean located about
1,000 miles south of Hawai'i. He will be responsible
for the operation, maintenance and safety of all
facilities and equipment - generators to boats, runway to galley, dive gear to
fly tackle; manage five select team members; and act
as liaison to TNC guests and working scientists.
After receiving a BS in Marine Science & Marine Transportation at Texas A&M University at Galveston in 1982,
Viola served four years in the U.S. Merchant Marine, sailing aboard huge cargo ships as a U.S. Coast Guard Licensed Third Mate (Unlimited Tonnage).
Returning to terra firma (“the beach”) in 1986, he focused his love of water -- salt or fresh, ocean or pond, river or lake -- through the optics of a camera.
Viola produces still photography and digital video for clients who use water to tell their story or to sell their product. His clients include Audubon,
National Geographic, Travel Holiday, Islands, Discovery Channel Online, Sport Diver, The Nature Conservancy, American Express, Epson, BP Oil & Gas, Turner Broadcasting,
Hitachi and Delta Airlines. To view Franklin’s photography visit
violaphoto.com.
Carrie Robertson
Webmaster & E-Newsletter Editor
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: carrie@gulfmex.org
Carrie Robertson is the Gulf of Mexico Foundation's
webmaster, photographer and electronic
newsletter editor. Ms. Robertson received a bachelor's degree in
communications from the University
of Texas in Austin in 1984. She started her career
as a newspaper staff photographer, then began freelancing for
travel and outdoor magazines and working as a webmaster.
Find her website at: Third Coast Photo & Web.
Before returning to her native Texas in
2002, Ms. Robertson lived in Oregon, Hawaii and
Mexico, working as a dive master, marine naturalist
and windsurfing instructor. She is conversationally
fluent in Spanish, gained from her five years living
in Mexico. Carrie spends her free time enjoying the
Gulf of Mexico through windsurfing, kayaking and sailboating. Carrie and her husband Pete Meyer have a
four-year-old son named Kai which means "sea" in Hawaiian.
Doug Weaver
DUOY Coordinator
Corpus Christi, Texas
Doug Weaver is GMF's Coordinator for the Down Under, Out Yonder
program, which educates teachers about the reef by
taking them scuba diving. Weaver is a research
assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Shirley at
the
Harte Research Institute for
Gulf of Mexico
Studies, focusing on the community
structure of reef fishes in the Gulf of Mexico.
Before moving to Corpus Christi in 2008, Weaver
worked as an expedition scientist and biologist with the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
He has expertise in reef fish biology, particularly in those species that inhabit deep-water reef communities in the
Florida Keys and Gulf of Mexico. He has conducted a variety of coral reef surveys and has mapped both shallow
and deep-water coral and hardbottom communities.
Weaver also is adept in the field of computer graphics and digital video
and has assisted with image production and video analysis for the 2002 Sustainable Seas Expeditions. During the expedition,
he used the DeepWorker submersible to explore and characterize the deep-water communities of the southern regions of the
Tortugas Ecological Reserve, especially the deep-water habitats surrounding Miller's Ledge and Riley's Hump. Weaver
has also explored deep water regions and pinnacles off the coast of Mississippi and Alabama and in the northwestern
regions of the Gulf of Mexico.
Dr. Quenton R. Dokken
