Board of Directors
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Laura Bertone - Treasurer
CFO, Pax Scientific
Laura is CFO for Pax Scientific, a preeminent scientific and engineering firm that is translating nature's efficiencies into innovative technology applications. She joined PAX after 18 years in the banking industry. During her tenure as an auditor with Bank of America, she managed the Global Capital Markets/Investment Banking Group, Retail Audit Group, and Development and Training Teams.
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Jim Cummings, M.A. - President
Executive Director, Acoustic Ecology
Jim Cummings is a writer, editor, and father. An eclectic and devoted listener, in 1999 he founded EarthEar, a record label and online catalog of environmental sound art. From the start, EarthEar was meant not as escapism into recorded phantasms of nature, but as a means toward deeper listening to the living world around us. This focus expanded, eventually spawning the Acoustic Ecology Institute in 2004; AEI works largely on the news, policy, and science aspects of acoustic ecology. Jim received a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1979 and a M.A. from John F. Kennedy University in 1987.
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Steven Lutz - Board Member
Ocean Policy Analyst, Marine Conservation Biology Institute
Ocean Policy Analyst (Washington DC) -Steven Lutz received his Master's Degree in Marine Affairs and Policy from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. His Master's project involved assessing boating damage to corals of the Florida Keys. Prior to joining MCBI, Steven was researching deep-sea corals of the Wider Caribbean.
His past research includes: community socioeconomics and perceptions of marine policy in The Bahamas; socioeconomics of California purse seine fishermen; coral reef health (Florida Keys, Bahamas, and Barbados); coral reef education and outreach; international coral reef conservation; integrated coastal zone management (European Commission, Brussels, Belgium); and fisheries data collection (US Virgin Islands).
Steven has published papers in the Bulletin of Marine Science and the Bahamian Journal of Science and has authored chapters in the Coral Reef Restoration Handbook and in an upcoming NOAA report titled The Status of Deep Water Corals of the US. While working in the USA and Caribbean, Steven enjoys sailing on clean waters, catching conch and lobster, and spear fishing.