Steering Committee

Steering Committee

Andrea (Dre) Bogomolni is a community scientist as well as many other “-ists”: a naturalist, artist, biologist and conservationist with a passion for the ocean. Working with a range of collaborators from scientists, fishermen, to artists, she aims to understand our human relationship with the natural world and ways we can help preserve, protect and sustainably make use of the limited resources nature provides. She is the Chair and co-founder of the Northwest Atlantic Seal Research Consortium.

Robert DiGiovanni is the founder and Chief Scientist for the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. He has responded to over 4,600 strandings and directed his team in various rescue and rehabilitation techniques, including the disentanglement of Leatherback sea turtles, animal transport, and post-rescue animal care. Rob lectures at both universities and community events about his first-hand experience with marine mammals and sea turtles.  

Greg Early has scientific, animal health, and management, experience, with over ten years experience as head of animal care laboratory and animal care facility. He has over fifteen years experience teaching, formal, and informal lecturing with extensive experience training and coordinating technical staff and volunteers and has organized meetings and conferences about pinniped/human interactions on the east and west coasts. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg_Early

Keith Matassa is is the Founder and CEO of the Ocean Animal Response and Research Alliance located in Dana Point, CA. OARRA responds to marine mammals and sea turtles that wash up on accessible southern California beaches to monitor causes of mortalities or threats to these animals. His research interests are multifaceted but center around research and monitoring of known and emerging diseases that affect marine animals and humans. These interests include the prevalence of the diseases, transmission of these diseases, effects of immunology systems of marine mammals, and increasing antibiotic resistance. Outside response to mortalities, Keith is also interested in post-release monitoring, including satellite tagging and re-siting/reporting of flipper tags. He is active in the disentanglement efforts of large whales, cetaceans, and pinnipeds and is also involved in research into the disposal of marine mammals by composting. He is studying the breakdown of persistent and non-persistent contaminants and pharmaceuticals in the compost pile.

Owen C. Nichols is the Director of the Marine Fisheries Research program at the Center for Coastal Studies and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts. His primary research interests include fisheries oceanography, distributional ecology, and marine mammal/fishery interactions. Key elements of his work are direct involvement of fishermen in all aspects of research projects, and the application and deployment of advanced sensing and imaging technology.

Kristen Patchett is the Stranding Coordinator for the Marine Mammal Rescue and Research Team of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Previously, Kristen was the program manager at the Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. She has worked with a variety of marine mammal and sea turtle species in both field and rehabilitation settings. She also coordinates volunteers, trains and manages staff as well as conducts lectures and outreach.  

Lisa Sette Lisa Sette started at the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) in 2007 as part of the large whale disentanglement team. In 2019 she began directing the CCS seal research program full time. LIsa is a co-founder of the Northwest Atlantic Seal Research Consortium and her primary interest is in marine mammal entanglement.

Stephanie Wood has worked on several pinniped studies in the northeast U.S. including seal captures and tagging, aerial survey work and food habits studies. She received a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her dissertation research focused on the recovering gray seal population in the northeast U.S. She is currently a contract biologist for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Last updated: March, 21 2023