Who we are

 

Building, supporting, and nourishing movement infrastructure does not happen on its own, overnight, or for free. The movement builders among us are integral to enacting impactful, lasting progress and also safeguarding democracy and our most vulnerable friends, family, and community members. That is what the Healthy Ocean Coalition does.

We are movement builders, bridging the gap between local leaders, frontline communities, small-to-midsize nonprofits, students, business owners, and teachers who have been intentionally excluded over time, silenced, and underrepresented in the policymaking space.

Since 2009, we have been building shared power through information and resource sharing, advocacy training programs, communications support, collective amplification of initiatives, and organizing advocacy opportunities for a community of more than 300 ocean and climate justice leaders around the country. The members of this community are like family to us. Their health, well-being, trust, and safety are the foundational pillars on which we build our bridge from local advocates and experts to the halls of Congress, federal agencies, and the large environmental nonprofits embedded in D.C.

OUR VALUES

  • We prioritize collaboration


    The HOC is only as strong as our members. We work to develop strong, transformational relationships based on time and trust.

  • Our members guide our work


    HOC members have vast and varying knowledge of their communities’ and coastline’s needs. Their expertise guides our offerings and advocacy.

  • We center just and equitable solutions

    For far too long, people living in purposefully uninvested communities haven’t seen themselves or their needs reflected in federal policies. We are working to change that.

OUR COMMITMENTS

●  We commit to focusing on ocean conservation policies that center the ocean and people in the fight against climate change.

●  We commit to lifting the voices of the HOC members closest to the impacts of climate change and the burdens of past ocean policies.

●  We commit to centering the solutions of these community members, ocean and climate scientists in HOC priority issues.

●  We commit to enhancing our long-standing promise to remove barriers that keep people from becoming ocean advocates by keeping every HOC training free of charge and providing resources to network members.

●  We recognize the historical and current inequities found within the ocean conservation community.

●  We commit to doing our part to rectify these inequities both within the HOC and the ocean conservation community.

●  We commit to infusing the principles and ideas of ocean justice into the HOC’s goals and strategies.

meet OUR TEAM

Our Advisory board

 

Sarah Winter Whelan

Sarah is a Midwest native who fell in love with the ocean at an early age. For twenty years she has worked to protect the ocean as a lawyer, advocate, and researcher. Today, Sarah is happy engaging ocean lovers to educate people in power by raising and amplifying the voices of ocean lovers who know why it is so important that we protect the ocean from the worst impacts of climate change.

Since trading cornfields for coastlines, Sarah has lived in South Carolina, Florida, Vermont, Oregon, and now calls Boston home alongside her husband and two children. Sarah has her Juris Doctorate and Masters in the Study of Environmental Law from Vermont Law School and Bachelor of Science in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina.

When Sarah isn’t working to protect the ocean, she’s exploring New England beaches with her family - yes, even during winter - reading chapter books with her kids, surviving a global pandemic, and contemplating her next ocean tattoo.

 
 
Contact Sarah
 
 

Jennifer Felt

Jennifer is the HOC's Senior Strategist and Conservation Law Foundation's (CLF) Ocean Campaign Director. In this position Jennifer works to build and expand a diverse, multi-stakeholder network for regional ocean planning across New England.. Prior to CLF, Jennifer was at the Marine Conservation Institute, where she worked for five years in Washington, D.C. and New Hampshire. Previously, she worked for Humane Society International in Latin America and the Caribbean and served in the Peace Corps in Honduras.

Jennifer is a native of Maine, a proud graduate of the University of Vermont and lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

 
 
 

Mac cardona

Harnessing her background in wildlife biology, science and nature storytelling, and Latinx community engagement, she founded cWave Labs to help empower Latino communities in the wildlife filmmaking space.  Mac serves dual roles at the HOC. She is a communications consultant, where she produces our podcast, the Salt Line, and advisory board member.

Although Mac had always loved films, it had never occurred to her to become a filmmaker herself. Initially, her path led her to a career as a wildlife biologist. While studying wildlife biology at Cal Poly Humboldt, she noticed a clear disconnect between scientists and their local communities and became troubled by the lack of Latino representation in the classroom and administration. She became increasingly aware of how many scientists were mainly focused on communicating to other scientists, instead of making the information accessible and inclusive. She began exploring how the power of storytelling could help connect local communities with nature and science. This experience sparked Mac’s drive to lean in to this interdisciplinary path of utilizing films as a tool to communicate science, and led to the creation of cWave Labs.

 
 
 

Casey Willson

Casey is is the HOC’s Policy and Training Manager where she contributes to the planning and facilitation of the Healthy Ocean Advocacy Academies and supports the HOC as a federal Ocean Policy expert. Before coming to the HOC, Casey completed a prestigious Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where she helped move federal efforts forward at the intersection of science and policy supporting the resilience and adaptation of coastal communities as they brace for the impacts of climate change.

Casey also worked as Communications and Outreach Organizer at the North American Marine Alliance (NAMA), where she worked alongside fishermen to support small and medium-scale fishing while blocking the development of industrial finfish aquaculture and the expansion of corporate dominance of US fishing fleets.

 
 

Hermina Glass-hill, MHP

Hermina Glass-Hill is Director of the Susie King Taylor Ecology Center and Women’s Institute in Georgia.

Hermina is a writer, historian, preservationist, and sustainability advocate who has been a voice for environmental justice and human rights for more than twenty years. Hermina founded the Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center to honor this Gullah Geechee freedom seeker and to provide educational programming on the influence of coastal ecology in the lives of enslaved and free women. In 2019, she received the Georgia Governor’s Award for Arts and Humanities for her service in preserving African American history and culture.

 

Jenna Valente

Jenna Valente is a professional photographer, published author, and community advocate.

Jenna’s connection to the sea goes back generations and runs so deep that stewarding the planet in some way, shape, or form is central to her and her family’s identity. Some of her relatives are or were ship chandlers, members of the U.S. Coast Guard, game wardens, watermen and women, regenerative farmers, and environmental policymakers.

Between growing up surrounded by people with incredible environmental knowledge and being raised in Hawaii, Washington State, and Maine, following a path that led to a career in ocean advocacy feels like destiny. Jenna joined the Healthy Ocean Coalition team in 2015 as our Coalition Coordinator, and then served as the Director of Advocacy until 2025.

 
 
 

David Riera, M.Sc., ed.s

David is an environmental scientist, educator, and advocate with 15 years of leadership experience, academic, and research training.

David is a United States Marine Combat Veteran and First-Generation Afro-Hispanic college graduate who is driven daily to tackle various social and environmental issues. He is an Adjunct Professor and a McKnight Doctoral Fellow at Florida International University David holds a Master of Science - MS focused on Agroecology, Sustainable and Urban Agriculture, Plant Biotech, & Natural Resource Conservation Management.

David is the embodiment of the adage, "don't talk about it, be about it". David is bilingual and has worked in service of his communities for over 25 years. He is an experienced Researcher with a demonstrated history of field and laboratory work, skilled in Veterinary Medicine, Microsoft Word, Heavy Equipment, Gardening, and Molecular Biology.

 
 
 

Dr. Priya shukla

Priya is an ocean and climate scientist and science communicator. Priya holds her PhD from U.C. Davis studying how climate change affects shellfish aquaculture operations within the coastal ocean.

Priya is also a contributor for Forbes Science, writing about ocean and climate science. She also writes and speaks about civically engaged science and the need for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Public scholarship and activism are core components of her work to communicate climate and ocean science, while amplifying marginalized voices and perspectives. Priya also participates in the Point Blue Science Advisory Committee and published a children's book in 2022.