Dr. Margaret Leinen New Chair of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel (ORAP)

The National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) office would like to welcome Dr. Margaret Leinen, Executive Director of Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, to her new role as Chair of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel (ORAP). Dr. Leinen takes the reigns from retired Vice Admiral Paul Gaffney, current President of Monmouth University. Mr. Gaffney provided excellent leadership of the ORAP and will remain as a member of the ORAP. Dr. Steven Ramberg of the National Defense University will continue as ORAP Vice Chair and a second Vice Chair will be elected at the next ORAP meeting.

In addition to her post at FAU, Dr. Leinen is also the founder and president of the Climate Response Fund, a nonprofit established to foster discussion of climate engineering research. Before that, she spent two years as the chief science officer of Climos, Inc., and prior to these posts, Dr. Leinen served at the National Science Foundation.

The ORAP is a congressionally established panel of experts, which provides independent advice and recommendations to the federal government on interagency efforts in the areas of ocean research, resource management, and education. Under the Administration’s new National Ocean Policy, the ORAP is designated to provide independent advice and guidance to the National Ocean Council. The ORAP is comprised of a diverse membership with representatives drawn from industry, academia, non-profits, and state government (see https://nopp.org/committees/orap/ for a current list of members).

The next ORAP meeting will be 25-26 April 2011 at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington, DC. The meeting is open to the public. The meeting agenda will be available at https://nopp.org/committees/orap/orrap_meetings/.