Julie Packard is the Executive Director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which she helped found in the late 1970s. She is an expert in the field of ocean conservation, and a leading voice for science-based policy reform in support of healthy oceans.

Rosa Tuirán is an award-winning Mexican filmmaker, photographer, and journalist based in San Francisco, California. Tuirán was a part of the COVID-19 California reporting initiative with The New York Times and the Investigative Reporting Program. Her work has been featured on PBS Frontline, PBS NOVA, Vice News, National Geographic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and OceanX. She was recently honored with a Northern California Area Emmy, Science and Technology, 2023-2024

Fiorenza Micheli (she/her) is a marine ecologist and conservation biologist conducting research and teaching at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, where she is also the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science and the Director, with Jim Leape, of the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. Micheli’s research focuses on the processes shaping marine communities and incorporating this understanding in the management and conservation of marine ecosystems. Her current research projects investigate social and ecological drivers of the resilience of small-scale fisheries to climatic impacts in Baja California, Mexico, the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of coastal hypoxia and ocean acidification in the California Current large marine ecosystem, the ecological role and spatial ecology of parrotfish and reef sharks in the coral reefs of the Pacific Line Islands, the effects of ocean acidification on seagrass, rocky reef and kelp forest communities, and the performance and management of marine protected Areas in the Mediterranean Sea. She is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment.

David Parekh, Ph.D., is the chief executive officer of SRI, a leading research and development organization serving government and industry. Parekh has more than 30 years of experience leading research for industrial and academic research organizations. Parekh serves on the Board of Trustees of the Connecticut Science Center and served as a board director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. He joined SRI in December of 2021.