AAUS Elections
Secretary Nominees
Jennie
De La Cruz
Dive
Lead
Samish
Indian Nation DNR
Jennie De La
Cruz’s life ambition is to explore the ocean as an underwater scientist. Jennie
graduated from Towson University, Maryland, in 2018 with a B.S. in Organismal
Biology & Ecology. Shortly after moving to Washington with her husband and
daughter, she completed her Rescue Diver certification and was hired as a diver
for the Eye-to-Eye Shark Dive program at Tacoma’s Point Defiance Zoo &
Aquarium (PDZA). In this role, she promoted shark conservation to children,
families, and military veterans through educational talks and shark tank diving
experiences. Through PDZA she regularly performs husbandry dives, field dives,
and continues to educate the public about the effects of climate change on the
Salish Sea.
While
attending a 5-week course at University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs
(FHL) in 2022, Jennie fell irrevocably in love with the San Juan Islands. By
the end of the 5-week course, she swore that she would find a way to stay.
Before the last week of her course at FHL, she was hired in nearby Anacortes,
WA, for conservation and diving-related work.
In addition to continuing to work part-time at the aquarium, Jennie now
serves as Dive Lead and Natural Resources Technician II for the Samish Indian
Nation Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Jennie is currently completing
her Divemaster training, with the goal of acting as Samish’s Diving Safety
Officer in the near future.
As a person
whose life and career have been so intimately tied to AAUS, Jennie would be
honored to serve on the Board of Directors as Secretary. Her strong passion for
science and diving will allow her to further the Academy’s mission to advance
and facilitate safe and productive scientific diving, while representing a
female voice in the diving community for current and future scientific divers.
1. In what direction should the AAUS
be heading in the next decade?
Within the
next decade, the AAUS should strive to be recognized as the expert, scientific standard-setting body among the global
scientific diving community. The Academy should prioritize higher diving
education for scientific divers in leadership roles. Standardized training and
e-learning opportunities will allow AAUS-certified Instructors, Diving Safety
Officers, and Dive Leaders to provide the safest and most accessible
instruction for scientific diving students that far exceed the standards of
recreational instructor training.
Additionally,
the AAUS will greatly benefit from increased communication, outreach, and
support for scientific divers and organizational members. Increased
communication and public outreach including more frequent AAUS meetings,
networking opportunities, promotional events, and a stronger social media
presence, will allow the academy to gain wider public recognition while
subsequently promoting collaborations with other scientific diving entities.
More support for scientific divers can be offered in the form of streamlined
dive logging and reporting processes, specialty e-learning courses, and
providing divers without an affiliated organization with opportunities to
maintain their active status.
The AAUS
should also increase accessibility and diversity for scientific divers. The
Academy should focus on strong advocacy for minorities and underrepresented
groups in scientific diving, increase scholarship opportunities, and strengthen
partnerships and collaborations with other AAUS Organizational Members and
scientific diving organizations around the world.
2. Describe your scientific diving
experience and indicate its relevance to AAUS governance.
My
professional experiences, from aquarium diving to being a Dive Lead for the
Samish Indian Nation DNR, have allowed me to be involved in a wide spectrum of
scientific diving. At PDZA, I gained experience performing husbandry dives on
open-circuit, surface-supplied, and full-face mask hookah scuba in coldwater
exhibits. This experience exposed me to diving with a high level of attention
to detail, safety procedures, and comfort with public engagement.
Friday
Harbor Labs allowed me to gain experience with independent dive planning and
enforcement of AAUS safety standards. Thanks to the curriculum, I learned to
appreciate the need for and importance of collaboration and efficient
communication with other scientific divers in training as well as networking
with professors and PhD candidates to further their own research initiatives or
data collection.
In my
current role as a Dive Lead at the Samish Indian Nation DNR, I was the catalyst
behind the formation of an inter-agency collaboration which allows the Samish
Dive Program to operate under the AAUS auspices of Shannon Point Marine Center.
This partnership continues to provide me with valuable experience in
communication and maintaining reciprocity with project partners, as well as
honing my leadership skills as my organization prepares to operate as an AAUS
OM in the future.
3. What
relationships/networks/professional contacts/nonprofit board experiences do you
have that will benefit AAUS by electing you to the AAUS BOD?
Throughout
my diving career, I have managed to procure a strong and extensive network of
people and organizations which has aided in my success as a professional diver.
In addition to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and the Samish Indian Nation
DNR, I maintain close personal and professional contacts with AAUS current and
prior board members, Shannon Point Marine Center, Friday Harbor Labs, Rosario
Marine Laboratory, Seattle Aquarium, WA Reef Check Foundation, and WA DNR,
among others. My diverse experience and professional network allow me to better
understand the needs of a variety of scientific diving programs and will
subsequently allow me to successfully address these needs as a member of the
AAUS BOD.
As a person
with a heightened drive for networking and collaboration, and passion for
scientific research and scuba diving, I believe that I am the ideal candidate
for the AAUS Board of Directors Secretary position. In this role, it is my
ambition to enliven the current progress of the AAUS and its Strategic Plan,
offer new perspectives from the next generation of scientific divers, and
strengthen the voice of AAUS in the national and global scientific diving
community.
Lizzie McNamee
DSO/BSO
Florida Atlantic
University
Lizzie McNamee serves as the Diving and Boating Safety
Officer at Florida Atlantic University in southeastern Florida. Prior to
joining FAU, Lizzie worked at Florida International University as the Boating
Safety Officer and Assistant Dive Safety Officer. At FIU, Lizzie was a member
of the support team for Aquarius Reef Base, the only active underwater research
habitat and supported missions for the US Navy as well as NASA. Lizzie’s
background is experiential education and outreach programs. Lizzie has
experience with students of all ages and academic backgrounds. This allows her
to approach scientific diving from a different perspective; by focusing on
environmental identity and connection to nature, Lizzie helps her students find
purpose in their underwater work. Lizzie has previously been the Scholarships
chair on the AAUS Board of Directors. She authored the Diversity Scholarship
for the AAUS Foundation; the purpose of which is to support students through
the prerequisites for scientific diving. She also authored two new scholarships
for DSOs to support continuing education; DSOs are the engine that keeps AAUS
moving forward and should be encouraged to expand their knowledge as much as
they encourage their students! She is currently the interim Secretary for AAUS.
Lizzie attended Boston University for her bachelor’s
degree in marine science. She has since completed her Masters of Science in
Environmental Science at FAU while working fulltime, and is completing a
Masters of Education in Environmental Education this May. She has been an
invited lecturer for Broward College and FAU to talk about her research on
artificial reefs, as well as different ways students can get jobs in the marine
science world. She currently volunteers as an instructor for DiveN2Life as well
as on the DCB for SCUBAnauts, International. Lizzie is always excited to learn
new things and listen to different perspective; an attribute that she will
continue to bring to the AAUS BOD.
1. In
what direction should the AAUS be heading in the
next decade?
AAUS has gone through some incredible shifts in the
past few years. From the meetings with OSHA and the new online learning
platform, to becoming a certifying agency this past year! All of this work as
strengthened the place of AAUS as the standards setting agency for scientific
diving in the United States. None of these landmark movements would have been
possible without the input of the AAUS community. In the next decade, I look
forward to AAUS listening to its membership and moving forward to solidify
these initiatives, continuing to hit the strategic goals outlined in their
plan.
It has been exciting to witness the communication
among the worldwide scientific diving community to create a global baseline
training standard. By actively participating in these discussions, AAUS is cementing
its place on the international platform.
2. Describe your scientific diving
experience and indicate its relevance to AAUS governance.
Throughout my scientific diving career, I have worked
at an aquarium, two non-profit education facilities, and two academic
institutions. This variety has given me the opportunity to understand how
different institutions utilize and implement scientific diving. From citizen
science programs to saturation diving, AAUS needs to be able to fit the
operating needs of all of these institutions, not just in their home waters,
but abroad. The need for collaboration has been my biggest insight into the
importance of AAUS standards. Volunteering with other OMs has been an
incredible learning experience as to how other programs use AAUS standards to
create safe learning environments and train the next generation of scientific
divers.
My strong background in science has been an asset to
my time as a DSO. I have had the privilege to join researchers in the field to
work on projects from seagrass and coral, to sharks, fish, and artificial
reefs. Every time I join divers in the field, I learn more about how our
scientific diving program can best support our researchers. Working through my
own research for my graduate degree allowed me to put a magnifying glass on our
manual to make sure that we were finding the space for safety among practical
application of the standards.
Over the past few years, I have been asked to join the
AAUS BOD in different capacities; first as a Director-at-Large and the
Scholarships Chair, and now as the Secretary. Each time, I have wholeheartedly
jumped in with two feet, ready to take on the responsibility of the position
and support AAUS and the BOD. This time, I am choosing to make that move; I
have witnessed what AAUS can do for the scientific diving community and I am so
excited to have the opportunity to be a part of it!
3. What relationships/networks/professional
contacts/nonprofit board experiences do
you have that will benefit AAUS by electing you to the
AAUS BOD?
My position and experiences within the Florida State
University System have given me a great base to collaborate. Networking is such
an important part to running a successful program and I have gained so much
insight from other DSOs. As such, I started a Florida DSO group which includes
all Florida DSOs as well as a few AAUS OMs from neighboring states. Not only
have we gotten together for dives, but local positions have been circulated in
this chat so that new graduates may find local opportunities to jump start
their careers!
My volunteer positions with other AAUS OMs like
SCUBAnauts and DiveN2Life have led to amazing collaborations! I have planned
and contributed to dives with FPAN and iCare to introduce our students to
different ways that scuba is used as a tool in research and education. Not only
this, but the interactions between the college students and young dive
participants is a great learning opportunity for all; these occasions lead to
mentorships and opportunities to discuss careers in research that may not exist
otherwise.
I have always been of the mindset that open and honest
communication is the best way forward. I appreciate all of the knowledge that I
have gained, and hopefully shared, about standards, program implementation, and
quality training practices. I would be honored to carry on this practice of
collaboration and open sharing by continuing in the position of Secretary for
AAUS.
AAUS Elections
Director at Large Nominees
Dan Abbott
DSO/Kelp Forest Program
Director
Reef Check Foundation
I am running
for the AAUS director-at-large position. I have over 20 years’ experience as an
AAUS scientific diver and have been involved with many AAUS programs including
university, non-profit, governmental, and a for-profit consulting OMs. I was
originally certified as an AAUS diver through UC Berkeley, worked for Tenera
Environmental for eight years, and am currently the Director of the Kelp Forest
Monitoring Program at Reef Check where I oversee the largest subtidal
monitoring program on the west coast. Throughout my career I have promoted and
encouraged scientific diving efforts by serving as DSO, spearheading
organizations’ applications to AAUS and overseeing a wide range of dive
operations and instructing AAUS Scientific Diver courses. I joined the CDFW
dive team in 2015, and the UCSC dive team in 2020. I’ve been a member of the
AAUS Manual Review committee since 2015.
I believe
that my experience diving with and overseeing a variety of dive programs,
developing a wide range of training materials, collaborating across
organizations, working with AAUS on standards development and manual review,
and experience teaching scientific diving skills to hundreds of divers from a
wide range of backgrounds make me a good candidate for this position.
1. In
what direction should the AAUS be heading in the
next decade?
The world of
scientific diving is changing as more groups are engaging in this work and AAUS
should grow and adapt to include these efforts. Once solely the purview of
university-trained scientists, scientific diving is now being conducted by an
increasingly large diversity of people with a huge range of backgrounds. At
Reef Check we’ve taught scientific diving to groups from commercial cucumber
fishermen in Baja California to tribal members in Washington state. These
efforts bring welcome new perspectives to our community and contribute to the
value of the work we do. AAUS has so much to gain by bringing these efforts
under their umbrella while communities have a lot to gain from the collective
knowledge and experience of AAUS. Over the next decade AAUS should work to
embrace and include all scientific diving to involve a broader population of
people conducting research and extend our expertise, best practices and unparalleled
safety record to these communities.
At Reef Check I spearheaded our successful application into
AAUS by working closely with AAUS board members to formalize our citizen
science diver standards. These standards ensure that all divers, including
divers from the community, follow safe diving practices. The standards we
developed offer a promising model that can be used to expand our reach to a
larger and more diverse dive community.
2. Describe your scientific diving
experience and indicate its relevance to AAUS governance.
As someone
who has been a part of university, governmental, non-profit, and for-profit
commercial AAUS OM’s I feel like I understand the unique perspectives of each
of these groups and can represent and speak to their interests. I was
originally trained as a scientific diver by Jim Hayward in 2001 while attending
UC Berkeley. Then after graduating I was hired by Tenera Environmental which
has had an active scientific diving program since the early ‘70s. I learned a
lot from the experienced divers there and dived on a wide range of projects
from impact studies of proposed desalination facilities to assessing the impact
of intake screens from water diversions.
I spearheaded their successful application to AAUS and oversaw a wide range
of dive operations as their DSO including the subtidal monitoring around Diablo
Canyon Nuclear Plant, which is one of the longest running sampling efforts
along the west coast. However, my true passion was the west coast’s kelp
forests.
While I was
the DSO at Tenera I would volunteer for Reef Check to monitor kelp forest
health, and quickly became a contract instructor to teach these methods to
citizen scientists. In 2014 this passion became my full-time job and since then
I have put hundreds of divers through the Reef Check training program and have
led survey trips all along the west coast, oftentimes operating in remote
locations. I continue to teach a large
number of divers each year in our kelp forest monitoring protocols. I developed
our highly-rated teaching materials which are utilized by scores of divers
every year including by many of our partner OM’s. Once trained, we take these
divers out on the water to conduct over a hundred surveys each year.
In 2020 I
took on the role of Director of the Kelp Forest Monitoring Program where I grew
our program to become the largest subtidal monitoring program on the west
coast, doubling the number of surveys in California and extending the program
from Baja California to Oregon and Washington state.
3. What relationships/networks/professional
contacts/nonprofit board experiences do you have that will
benefit AAUS by electing you to the
AAUS BOD?
At Reef
Check collaboration with partners is a key part of our success. Even before we
joined AAUS we partnered with a wide range of dive programs to teach our
protocols to their divers and have them collect Reef Check data. We have
partnered with wide variety of other intuitions and groups including aquariums
(MBA, CSC, AoP, CAS, PDZA), universities (UCSB, MLML, UCSC, CSUMB), non-profits
(ORKA, PSRF, TNC, COBI), governmental agencies (CDFW, WADNR), and tribes
(Samish Indian Nation). This has given me tremendous insight into how these
different programs operate and what their needs and interests are.
In addition
to the two Diving Control Boards I have served on as DSO (Tenera and Reef
Check) I am currently a member of the UC Santa Cruz DCB. For five years I
served on the board of The Watershed Project, a non-profit that works to
educate underserved communities about their local watershed and engages those
communities in conservation efforts. Currently, I am on two National \Ski
Patrol boards (Northstar and Tahoe Backcountry) where I am involved in
overseeing the operations and training of emergency care and rescue and
evacuation skills and techniques.
In all these
efforts I have a reputation for working well with other board members and above
all else, getting stuff done!
Dave Benet
Diving Safety Officer
University of
California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)
Dave is currently celebrating his 20th year
of scientific diving at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Like many of
the scientific diving students he now teaches, his path to the AAUS started
through the undergraduate marine biology program at UCSC. He received a B.S. in
2004, after diving under the mentorship of Cecilia Shin, Steve Clabuesch and
Dr. Mark Carr (2022 AAUS Lifetime Achievement Award recipient). The bulk of his
research experience came as a technician specializing in kelp forest ecosystem
monitoring efforts of California MPAs. In 2009, he began serving as Assistant
Diving & Boating Safety Officer for UCSC, became a NAUI Instructor, and
received his USCG 100-ton Master license. He began serving on the University’s
Diving Control Board and Boating Safety Committee where he has helped shape
safety policy and procedures for the past 14 years. In 2018 he became a NAUI
Freediving Instructor and began providing formalized breath-hold dive training
for UCSC students. In 2022 he accepted the role of campus Diving Safety Officer
and helped transition the program from the academic division to the
Environmental Health & Safety Dept. He is now responsible for the safety
oversight of all campus diving activities and teaches scientific diving courses
and relevant safety and technical trainings. Engaging with students in today’s
environment helps him to keep a fresh perspective on how AAUS can continue
serving its membership into the future.
1.
In
what direction should the AAUS be heading in the
next decade?
The present is a very
exciting time for the AAUS and our scientific diving community. With so many
new developments and initiatives coming to fruition, this is truly a
galvanizing time for the Academy and its membership. The next decade should be
characterized by two phases. The first phase is defined by the goals outlined
in the remaining 4 years of the current strategic plan and a commitment to
AAUS’s core values. Through pro-active and diligent leadership, the Academy
has, or is in the process of delivering on many of the plan’s objectives. High
quality programs such as our E-Learning platform, comprehensive credentialing
mechanisms like ASDI, Accreditation for Organizational Members, dive logging
and reporting systems that provide informed metrics, and a suite of new
symposium workshops and trainings are just a few items on the growing list.
These successes should not overshadow the important developments in our
relationship with our federal regulators and on the world stage, or the hard
work being done in the background to maintain the human and financial resources
necessary for the security and efficacy of our organization. The next 4 years
should remain focused on the continued execution of these goals while expanding
capacity for outreach and engagement to better support membership in the
participation and benefit of these services.
Phase two should
prioritize the evaluation and refinement of the existing and newly installed
programs as well as development and execution of the next phase in strategic
planning. In recent years, the Academy has improved its messaging and
communication campaign. This is evident through increased member outreach
surveys, hosted Town hall meetings, and the continued quality of E-Slate
publications. Expanded opportunities for engagement both at the OM and
membership level should provide the necessary feedback to shape our path ahead.
Personally, I would like to see better participation at the incoming scientific
diver level. This can be achieved primarily by guiding membership towards
existing services as well as development of effective new programs. Regional
and local events can help develop relationships at the community level and
raise awareness. There should also be expanded efforts in reducing the barrier
to entry into scientific diving. At my own institution we have seen significant
growth in student participation through the increasing accessibility of
snorkeling and breath-hold diving. AAUS should continue to develop guidance for
these types of activities to increase membership scope and broaden diversity.
2.
Describe your scientific diving
experience and indicate its relevance to AAUS governance.
In
addition to the personal diving history in the bio above, I will share the 2
most notable experiences I’ve had that are valuable in terms of AAUS
leadership. The first was my participation in a Serious Accident Investigation.
In August of 2019, we experienced the worst case scenario; a diving fatality in
an extremely remote location. The project was a collaboration between UCSC and
USGS and occurred in Glacier Bay National Park, thus the resulting
investigation was conducted under the established DOI procedure for such an
incident. The lessons learned from the investigation process, and resulting
administrative reviews and policy changes form the foundation of the SDAI
workshop that is available at the AAUS symposium today.
The
second experience was a front row seat to the AAUS Accreditation and resulting
programmatic changes at UCSC. In 2021, the University of California embarked on
the process with a system wide approach. Leadership at each campus were asked
to address the recommendations returned by the audit. Among the various points
raised were concerns about the staffing and financial resources available to
support these programs. In short, the Accreditation process was able to succeed
where years of independent reviews and internal requests had failed. The result
was a significant increase in staffing and program funding at all 6 of the
participating UC campuses. I can be a strong advocate for the Accreditation
program and perhaps advise participating OMs on how best to utilize this
resource.
3.
What relationships/networks/professional
contacts/nonprofit board experiences do
you have that will benefit AAUS by electing you to the
AAUS BOD?
My experience within the
marine science community has afforded me the opportunity to develop a diverse
network of quality professional and academic relationships through associations
such as the University of California systemwide Dive Safety Workgroup (DSW),
the Scientific Boating Safety Association (SBSA), the Diving Officers of
California (DOCAL) and within the Aquarium diving community. Outside of the
AAUS, I continue to build on professional relationships within NAUI, the
freediving community, local dive shops and equipment manufacturers. Over time,
I have gotten to know many of you through my 14-year membership with AAUS.
Recently, I have been able to work closely with more of the AAUS community
through my participation in the AAUS Snorkel & Breath-hold diving ad-hoc
committee and by helping develop the SDAI workshop alongside my
colleagues from NPS, USGS, and the UC Dive Consortium.
Seeing
the AAUS community reunited in Galveston last year with significant progress
made on so many fronts was truly energizing. I felt more immersed in the
Academy’s business with a true stake in the outcome. As a relatively new DSO with
a long-standing relationship with AAUS, I see an opportunity to offer my
knowledge and experience to assist in what has clearly been a monumental amount
of work by the AAUS Board of Directors and everyone else that helps out. I
would be honored to serve in the role of Director-At-Large and thank you for
your consideration.