Staff Bios
Terri Watson, the Executive Director for FMSA, has two strong career tracks, non-profit 
environmentalism and aviation. Her non-profit leadership experience includes Executive Director and Flight Operations Director of LightHawk (where she still serves as the Aviation Chair on the Board of Directors), as well as Branch Director, Operations Manager, and Senior Field Instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School. She is a current Instructor for NOLS' Wilderness Medicine Institute. Her commercial flying career began as an Army Aviation Intelligence Officer, and spans 27 years, over 10,000 flight hours in airplanes and helicopters both internationally and in the Rocky Mountain West. She is thrilled to be living out a lifelong dream of living aboard an ocean going sailboat and exploring the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary firsthand.
Terri has a B.S in Geology and Sportsmedicine from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, an M.S. in Computer Information Systems from the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering, and has completed PhD coursework in Remote Sensing/GIS Integration in Geoscience Applications at Oregon State University.
Terri's Links: LightHawk, National Outdoor Leadership School,
the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Wilderness
Medicine Institute
Susanna Beck is the Foundation Relations Manager for FMSA. In 2001, Susanna graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in History and minors in Environmental Studies and Critical Gender Studies. Susanna has been involved with several international development organizations around the globe and most recently comes from Maine where she worked with Sustainable Harvest International. As a Bay Area native, however, Susanna says it is good to be back home.
Susanna's Links: Sustainable Harvest International and World of Good
Amy
Dean is the Education Manager for FMSA. She manages
the LiMPETS program for the Sanctuary, leads
teacher workshops, and develops curriculum for middle and high school
students. Amy earned a Masters Degree in Marine Biology from San
Francisco State University and has ten years of experience teaching
environmental science to students of all ages.
Amy's Links: Bernese Mountain Dog Club, Los Farallones Blog
Dru
Devlin is a Research Associate for the Farallones Marine
Sanctuary Association. She assists with the management of volunteers,
surveys, data and quality control. Ms. Devlin has years experience
developing and implementing marine and environmental education programs
for adults and children and was the associate director for the Tarlton
Institute for Marine Education. She earned both her Master's of
Public and Business Administration, and B.A. in Social Ecology from
the University of California at Irvine.
Dru's Links: Seafood
Watch and Surfline
Women
Shannon Lyday is the Beach Watch Manager. She coordinates Beach Watch, a long-term monitoring program that utilizes the expertise of over 100 citizen scientists to collect data along the coast. Shannon started out with FMSA as the Education Specialist implementing the high school sandy beach and rocky intertidal monitoring programs. After graduating from the University of Colorado in Environmental Science she worked as a Wolf Project Intern for the Sierra Club and as a Marine Conservation Intern for the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) in the Florida Keys.
Shannon's Links: Kirkwood Snow Report and Tagging of Pacific Pelagic
Ingrid Overgard is the Public Outreach Coordinator for FMSA and manages the membership program. She has volunteered at the Marine Mammal Center since 2000 and is an avid surfer. In 2009, she completed her M.A. in Geography with a concentration in Resource Management and Environmental Planning at San Francisco State University. She also has a B.A. in Photojournalism and History from Syracuse University.
Ingrid's Links: The Marine Mammal Center and Surfrider
Adrian
Skaj is a native San Franciscan who graduated from
San Francisco State University with a BA in Women's Studies and
a Minor in Holistic Health. She is happy to use her administrative
skills to support the fine work accomplished here at FMSA where
she serves as the Finance Officer and Whale Watch trip coordinator.
Adrian is also a Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher and teaches at Iyengar
Yoga Institute, YMCA, ClubOne and the USF Koret Center in San Francisco.
Adrian's Links:
Iyengar
Yoga Institute of SF, Vipassana
Meditation and Station
46026 - 18NM West of SF
Peter
Winch is the Visitor Center Naturalist and assists
with the running of the visitor center and their educational program.
He has a BS in Environmental Science from Plymouth University, England,
and has a background as a scientist and as an educator. He
has studied seabirds in Alaska, Hawaii, Baja Mexico and Oregon for
US Fish and Wildlife and The Island Ecology Group, and worked as
a naturalist for Oceanic Society Expeditions on Whale Watching Trips
off California for five years. A self confessed ocean addict, Peter
surfs and dives, and is excited to be doing outreach and education
for such a remarkable marine sanctuary.
Peter's Links: Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society and Research
Vessel Tiburon
Rudyard
WaIIen is the accidental webmaster for the Farallones
website. A high school drop-out, he cut classes to go exploring
or to read at the library. Please contact him for questions, comments,
email issues, or to send updates or suggestions. Rudyard's favorite
things on the planet include Araceae,
moss piglets
and other
critters, celestial
and atmospheric
phenomenon, cooking, the number 32.7272..., traveling, little
things, and tending his carnivorous
plants (the newest from BACPS).
All while stumbling through the art
of living.
Alison Young is the Education Specialist for FMSA. She teaches middle, high school, and college students to participate in the LiMPETS program. She also coordinates summer camp. Alison
earned her B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and recently completed
a Masters in Biology at Humboldt State University where she studied effects of climate
change on rocky intertidal mussel bed communities. Between undergrad and grad school,
Alison taught outdoor education for Bay Area fifth and sixth graders in the Santa Cruz
mountains for six years. She is very happy to be working at FMSA where she can combine
her marine ecology background with her love of teaching.
Alison's Links:
Exploring New Horizons Outdoor School , PISCO and Blue Turtle Seduction
