Joshua Stoll, PhD — University of Maine; Founder, LocalCatch.org

Raised on the rocky coast of Maine, Joshua’s interests and his perspective are rooted in his connection to the coast. Joshua has spent the past ten years working with small-scale fishermen across North America, exploring ways to increase communities’ economic, social, and stewardship capacity and is the founder of LocalCatch.org. Much of what he has learned about the challenges and opportunities associated with creating local markets for small-scale fishermen has come from his direct and continued involvement with the Walking Fish Cooperative, a fishermen’s cooperative that he helped establish in 2009. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bates College and a Masters of Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Joshua recently finished his PhD at the University of Maine, where his research focuses on community-based fisheries governance.  He also owns and operates Georgetown Island Oyster Company. Contact Joshua: joshua.s.stoll@gmail.com

Kelly Harrell — Chief Fisheries and Sustainability Officer, Sitka Salmon Shares

Kelly hails from Anchorage and is a proud booster of small-scale fisheries. She is dedicated to applying her educational and professional background in policy, social entrepreneurship, and organizational management towards shifting seafood value chains to support local fishermen, communities, and conservation. She is an Alaskan by choice, having resided at the epicenter of our nation’s wild fisheries since 2005, and east coaster from coastal Virginia by birth. She currently serves as Chief Fisheries and Sustainability Officer for the community supported fishery, Sitka Salmon Shares. She previously served as Director of Fisheries and Coastal Communities for Ecotrust and as Executive Director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC). She helped spawn AMCC’s award-winning community supported fishery and also catalyzed the creation of the Alaska Young Fishermen’s Network. She can be reached at kelly@sitkasalmonshares.com

Brett Tolley — Community Organizer, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance

Brett Tolley is the Community Organizer for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance. NAMA is a fishermen-led organization building a movement of community-based fishermen and allies to rebuild and protect marine biodiversity and fishing communities through policy and market changes. In winter 2007/2008, NAMA and the Port Clyde, Maine community pioneered the Community Supported Fishery (CSF) model, which has since grown to 50 + across the Americas and Europe through the L0calCatch.org network. Brett comes from a four-generation commercial fishing family out of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He has worked in the fishing industry hanging nets, crewing boats of various gear-types, and commercially shellfishing. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the Farm to Institution New England network. Before coming to NAMA Brett worked as an advocate and community organizer in New York City, fighting in housing court for low-income tenants and organizing campaigns around immigrant and human rights. He wrote and produced an award-winning documentary about the migrant experience along the U.S./Mexico border titled, “Dying to Get In”. He was also selected to the We Are All Brooklyn Fellowship Program and completed the Rockwood Leadership Institute’s ‘Art of Leadership’ program. Contact Brett: brett@namanet.org 

Stephanie Webb — Independent fisheries consultant

Stephanie is passionate about sustainable food systems and immerses herself in understanding various hurdles within our seafood supply chain and how to overcome them. She has dedicated her professional endeavors towards addressing injustices within our seafood system by bringing several years of corporate finance to fishing dependent communities in search of economic solutions that illuminate their selective fishing practices and iconic commercial fishing heritage. Her work focuses on organizational development, finance, raising capital, business and sustainability planning, traceability, and marketing to stimulate vital local food systems and ecosystem-based eating. She co-founded the Port Orford CSF and has been instrumental in developing sustainability standards and digital inventory management and traceability for Real Good Fish. Currently she is working on business and sustainability planning for the Bodega Bay Community Fishing Association and is enrolled as a PhD student at University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research interests are local food systems, the seafood supply chain, consumer behavior, ecosystem based eating, political ecology, private governance, production limitations and opportunities, and spatial assessment of physical infrastructure. Contact Stephanie: stephanie.fisheries@gmail.com or swebb1@ucsc.edu.

Erik Chapman, PhD — Interim Director, New Hampshire Sea Grant

Erik Chapman is the Interim Director at NH Sea Grant/UNH Cooperative Extension.  He has a MS in Wildlife Ecology and a PhD in Oceanography.  Since he joined Sea Grant, he has worked extensively with the NH fishing industry and with University researchers on projects designed to support sustainable marine fisheries.   These projects range in focus from marine ecology and fishing technology to marketing and branding of locally harvested seafood.  His work includes gear research designed to improve selectivity of NH fishermen, a project that engages fishermen in the study of climate impacts on fisheries, and pilot projects to assess opportunities and to develop alternative markets for undervalued, but abundant species.  Prior to his work in NH, he worked in the Antarctic studying the influence of a changing climate on penguins and on farms in Wisconsin studying the influence of alternative farming practices on wildlife.  His work overall focused at the interface between human use of natural resources and ecology and is based in Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic that extends our concept of community to include the ecosystems on which we depend. Contact Erik: erik.chapman@unh.edu

Taylor Witkin — Strategic Planning and Development Associate

Born, raised, and educated in New England, his interests stem from years of exploring coastlines, marine habitats, and local seafood dishes. Taylor holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colby College and a Masters of Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, where he studied the social and ecological roles of community supported fisheries, the drivers behind the local seafood movement, and the potential for a farmed seaweed market in southern New England. Prior to earning his masters degree, Taylor worked in Washington, DC at Oceana, helping launch Global Fishing Watch, a technology platform that tracks industrial-scale fishing fleets, shining a light on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing practices. He has also worked on the supply side of the seafood supply chain, as a fish vendor at farmers markets, and has a background in science communications. He has been an active member of the Fish Locally Collaborative and Local Catch networks, as a consultant for Eating with the Ecosystem, volunteer for NAMA, and in his role as a student and researcher. Contact Taylor: taylor.witkin@maine.edu or SustainFish.com

Lisa Campbell, PhD — Professor of Marine Affairs and Policy, Duke University

Lisa is the Rachel Carson Professor in Marine Affairs and Policy, in the Nicholas School of Environment, Duke University. She has been working with local communities in Eastern North Carolina since 2008, as a researcher and as an advisor to Saltwater Connections, a regional collaborative of community members and organizations united by a shared common interest in building stronger communities along the Outer Banks National Scenic Byway.  She has also conducted research on Walking Fish, North Carolina’s first CSF, and continues to advise students working to support Walking Fish. Contact Lisa: lisa.m.campbell@duke.edu
|

Sonia Strobel — Co-founder and Managing Director, Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery

Sonia and Shaun Strobel founded Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery to help connect conscientious consumers to local fishermen and their sustainably harvested catch. The CSF now supports roughly 15 independent fishermen and delivers sustainable local seafood to over 1,200 families. In 2014, Sonia left her teaching career to devote herself full time to running the CSF and to advancing the CSF movement. Contact Sonia: sonia@skipperotto.ca

Niaz Dorry — Coordinating Director, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance

Niaz is the Coordinating Director for NAMA, based in Glouceter Massachusetts. She has been working with small-scale, traditional, and indigenous fishing communities in the U.S. and from around the globe, advancing the rights and ecological benefits of the small-scale fishing communities as a means of marine biodiversity and fishing as a livelihood. As of May 1, 2018 Niaz has begun serving as the executive director of the National Family Farm Coalition as part of a new shared-leadership model. Contact Niaz: niaz@namanet.org