Board Members

 

Michael Jones, Chair

Michael Jones has lived in Santa Cruz County for 45 years since arriving in 1973 to attend UC Santa Cruz. Originally from Pasadena, California, he worked as an educator for 36 years in the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. Until retirement in 2015 Michael served as principal of Alianza Charter School. He is focused on working with Save Our Shores to protect our Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and expand educational programs to build awareness, knowledge, and understanding of our unique and precious marine environment amongst students in schools throughout the area.

 

 

Cathleen Eckhardt, Vice Chair

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Curtiss, Secretary

Mary has lived in Santa Cruz with her family since 1998. She has a BS in Industrial Engineering along with an MBA from Santa Clara University. Raising three boys in Santa Cruz and spending many days at the beaches has given her an appreciation for the beauty of the Bay and wanting to work to keep it healthy for many future generations. Mary is currently Director of Energy and Sustainability globally for HP. In this role, she has over 20 years as an experienced industry leader. As a Board member, Mary hopes to use her background in business and marketing to expand the donor base with corporates and create opportunities for public/private partnerships. Protecting the environment is core to her values and she feels fortunate to bring this passion to her role on the Board.

 

 

Dr. Justin Cummings, Director

Justin is originally from Chicago, IL and holds a BA in Spanish and a BS in Biology from Eastern Illinois University. In 2007 Justin moved to Santa Cruz to pursue a Ph.D at UCSC. His dissertation work focused on understanding how trees used for forest restoration inhibited the regeneration of the invasive grass Saccharum spontaneum in Panama. In 2013, Justin received his Ph.D. from the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a designated emphasis in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz. As a post-doc at Florida International University, Justin studied how changes in environmental factors influenced the uptake and release of CO 2 across seasonal marshes in the Florida Everglades.  In 2015, Justin moved back to Santa Cruz, CA where he helped co-create and served as the director of the UCSC Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program, whose mission is to prepare the next generation of diverse conservation leaders, from November 2015 – March 2020.  In 2018, Justin was the highest vote recipient in the election for Santa Cruz City Council and served as Mayor of Santa Cruz during 2020. Dr. Justin Cummings currently holds a position as drone operator and environmental sensor technician for the UC Natural Reserve Systems California Heartbeat Initiative based out of UC Santa Cruz and is working to create a drone education and research program at UC Santa Cruz

 

Alejandro Garcia, Director

Alejandro Garcia was born and raised in Watsonville. After completing his general education at Cabrillo College, he transferred to UC Santa Barbara and majored in sociology with a lean towards the relationship between people and the environment. As an undergrad, Alejandro interned at the Human Rights Campaign in Washington DC and studied abroad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Fun fact: Alejandro learned about Save Our Shores in elementary school when he and his classmates learned about the impacts of littering and marked storm drains in the neighborhoods surrounding the school. Alejandro is eager to inspire a new generation of ocean stewards to create an equitable blueprint for conservation.

 

 

Dr. Charles Lester, Director

Charles grew up in Boulder, Colorado and lived in Santa Cruz for over 20 years. He's worked in the field of ocean and coastal management for more than two decades. Charles is currently at the Marine Sciences Institute at UC Santa Barbara where he continues to research, write, teach and consult about sea level rise, coastal resilience, and other aspects of California coastal law and policy. His goals with Save Our Shores are to bring his knowledge and experience to help build and support the capacity of our organization to protect the incredible coast and ocean resources.

 

 

 

Tonia Maclean, Director

Tonia Maclean was born in London, England and moved away to Singapore to work as an executive trainer in 1996. In 1998 she moved again, this time to California where she currently lives. Tonia is an ocean enthusiast, having been a PADI-certified open water diver since 1997, and is an ASA 103 qualified sailor, as well as a keen kayaker. Her favorite pastimes involve being in, on, or by the ocean. Tonia is currently. enrolled in a citizen science program, monitoring plankton in the Monterey Bay. She also works as a filmmaker and has produced, written, and directed several outreach videos for Save Our Shores over the past few years as well as several marine-centered documentaries for her family YouTube channel. Tonia has volunteered for Save Our Shores as a Sanctuary Steward since 2020 and looks forward to future involvement to increase public awareness of our organization and its mission to protect the health of our ocean. 

 

Jane King Silberstein, Director

Jane is excited to join the Save Our Shores board and get back to her roots of ocean conservation and advocacy. She is currently teaching a citizen science, plankton monitoring class at Cabrillo College and in the fall an environmental interpretation class at CSUMB. Her love for the ocean began as a child spending summers in a small cove in Maine, driving with her family every other summer from Davis, Calif., and my winters visiting her grandmother in Carmel. She became a passionate ocean conservationist in her Junior year in high school when she learned about the killing of whales. She worked tirelessly doing dance-a-thons and many other fund-raising activities to give to whale conservation organizations. In college she studied marine science at UCSC and became fascinated with the microscopic, unseen world beneath the mud in Elkhorn slough (where she did my senior thesis and later a Master’s in Marine Science study). After graduating she began her career of 34 years as an educator and interpreter at the Monterey Bay Aquarium where she could teach hundreds of volunteers who inspire thousands of people to love and protect the ocean.

 

Lucas Roy Lehman, Director

Lucas Roy Lehman is a Prosperity and Personal Power Coach, Speaker and Trainer, inspiring hundreds of clients over the past 15 years to fulfill their potential and expand their hearts. A California native, he is blessed to have lived in Santa Cruz for the past 30 years, taking thousands of beachwalks and swimming in the ocean year round. A former founding director of the non-profit Freedom Within Prison Project, Lucas is committed to improving the health and well-being of all life.

 

 

 

Mark Carr, Director

Mark grew up along the West Coast from southern California to Seattle, Washington. He received his BA from UC Santa Cruz, MS from Moss Landing Marine labs, and PhD at UC Santa Barbara. Since 1997, he has been a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCSC and a core faculty with the Coastal Science and Policy program since its inception in 2018. At UCSC, he teaches courses on marine ecology, kelp forest ecology, and coastal sustainability. His research focuses on the basic and applied ecology of coastal marine ecosystems. Because of his interest in reef fishes and kelp forest ecosystems, his research informs the management and policy of ecosystem-based fisheries management, including the design and evaluation of marine protected area (MPA) performance, artificial reefs, kelp forest restoration, environmental impact mitigation, and ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change. Mark is looking forward to help Save Our Shores navigate ongoing and future initiatives.