Speakers

 

Speakers during our special cruise to Bermuda!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lis Mullin Bernhardt - Programme Officer, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
 
Currently working with the Rotary Adopt-a-River in East Africa. After the ambitious and holistic 2030 Agenda was put into place, Lis shifted her efforts to add coherence and “wo”manpower to the implementation side, in particular SDG 6 for water and sanitation. In the four years since she joined UNEP,
 
Lis has been hard at work linking freshwater topics across the house, including to issues such as coasts, oceans, security, forests and other SDGs. This includes the creation of UNEP’s Freshwater Strategy 2017-2021, firmly focused on UNEP’s water-related mandated in the SDGs, taking a lead role in the 2018 World Water Day campaign on Nature-based Solutions for Water, acting as lead author for the 2018 World Water Development Report and SDG 6 Synthesis Report for the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), and leading on water-related issues at UNEA 3 and UNEA 4.  You can read her complete biography at this link.
Past Rotary International President, Barry Rassin, Rotary Club of East Nassau, will share his passion for the sustainable use of our oceans and the importance of caring for our planet “There is no Plan B”.
 
Barry is the first Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives in The Bahamas and retired as President after 38 years with Doctors Hospital Health System in Nassau, Bahamas, where he remains a Director.
 
He has been a member of the Rotary Club of East Nassau since 1980, President in 1987- 88, District Governor for 4040/7020 in 1991-92, Rotary International Director for 2006-08, a Trustee of The Rotary Foundation for 2016–17, and Vice Chairman in 2017. He has served on many initiatives in The Bahamas and is currently Chairman of Volunteer Bahamas, a national program to create a culture of volunteerism in the country.
 
He has served both Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation in many capacities such as Chairman of the Rotary International Finance Committee, and as RI training Leader and Seminar Trainer for Training Leaders.
Dr. Chris King, whose topics is Threats of Climate Change to Peace.   Dr King is a retired Brigadier General with over 32 years of active service in the United States Army. His military service included assignments in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and Afghanistan. His last military assignment was as Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at the United States Military Academy.
 
For ten years Dr. King served as Dean of the US Army Command and General Staff College at Ft.  Leavenworth, our Nation’s premier graduate military studies college. He represents the US on an international military advisory council dealing with security and climate change.  He is an authority on the impact that climate change, water scarcity, and other related environmental issues will have on National Security and International Stability. Dr. King holds a Ph.D. in environmental engineering, a master’s degree in strategic security studies, and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.

C. Mark Eakin, Satellite Oceanography & Climatology Division, Marine Ecosystems & Climate Branch
Coordinator of NOAA Coral Reef Watch

A coral reef specialist, with a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami, Dr. Eakin is Coordinator of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch program, an effort focused on the monitoring of coral reef ecosystems through satellite, in situ, and paleoenvironmental observations. In particular, Coral Reef Watch is a part of the NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research and uses NOAA satellite data to monitor environmental conditions that lead to coral bleaching. NOAA's Coral Reef Watch provides the only source of satellite-based monitoring, alerts, and warnings of upcoming coral mass bleaching events.

Dr. Eakin has worked for NOAA since 1991. From 2000-2005, Dr. Eakin directed NOAA Paleoclimatology (part of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center), and was Director of the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology in Boulder, CO. Prior to that, he was a program manager for the NOAA Office of Global Programs in Silver Spring, MD, funding and coordinating research to improve our understanding of climate variability in the past, how to predict it in the future and the influence of climate variability and change on the marine environment.

Vic Grosjean, MEng, MSc, CEng, NER, Chartered Engineer, Oceanographer, One of Australia's Most Innovative Engineers.
, speaking on the topic of Mangrove Restoration
 
Principal consultant at OceanX Group in Engineering Consultancy specializing in developing Environmental Monitoring Solutions. 
As a leader and community educator, he strives for projects to reduce water pollution on a global scale and make a long-term difference for humanity. His career focus is to build collaboration between organizations in order to advance Engineering and preserve the Environment with the ultimate goal of Saving our Oceans.
 
Vic has developed cutting edge technology to monitor and remove pollution from waterways and clean up our oceans. His environmental project, called ‘The Ocean CleanX’ was awarded at the United Nations in 2018 for his approach in stopping the pollution at its sources.
 
Vic is also promoting the work of other ‘Ocean Innovators’ worldwide through weekly portraits of Social and Technological entrepreneurs.  Having an innovative approach to clean water and ocean protection, this project is supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).