Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration Gulf of Mexico Regional Marine Research
Program.
As Executive Director of the Texas State Aquarium in 1985, Dr. Dokken directed
the efforts to establish the newly formed nonprofit
facility in Corpus Christi, Texas. With a full-time
staff of 78 and more than 1,000 volunteers, Dr.
Dokken directed the aquarium through its first year,
when the $32 million facility opened its doors to
over 700,000 visitors who came to view and marvel
at the living wonders of the Gulf of Mexico.
As a marine scientist, Dr. Dokken has an extensive
publication record relating to the study of the ecosystems
and fauna of the Gulf of Mexico. As Executive Director
of the Gulf of Mexico Regional Marine Research Program,
he has led his professional peers in developing priorities
for marine research in the Gulf of Mexico, a daunting
task in the face of declining research dollars. He
is the founder and coordinator of the Flower Garden
Ocean Research Program which integrates the efforts
of institutional science and the offshore oil and
gas industry to expand opportunities for marine research
in the most cost-effective manner. View Dr. Dokken's
Resume.
Bobbi Reed
Executive Assistant
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: bobbi@gulfmex.org
Bobbi Reed works on special projects, government contracts,
and as program assistant to the executive director of
the Gulf of Mexico Foundation. She recently retired
from the federal government after more than 30 years
of service.
Mrs. Reed began her career in Washington, DC with
the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of
Reclamation. She served as Special Assistant to the
head of that agency until the late '70s when she moved
to Texas with her husband. Since that time she has
worked with other natural resource agencies, including
the US Geological Survey’s Office of Marine Geology
and the Minerals Management Service. Her work
experience has been predominantly in the fields of
administration, management, and coordination.
Mrs. Reed has many years of experience in meeting
planning, meeting management, team building, and
facilitation, and has led workshops on those topics
for both governmental and nongovernmental entities.
Her hobbies include fiction writing and caring for her
golden retriever and five cats.
Ryan Fikes
Restoration Program Manager
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: ryan@gulfmex.org
Ryan Fikes manages the grants and activities of the
Gulf of Mexico Community-based Restoration Partnership (GCRP).
He receives incoming projects reports, prepares outgoing reports for granting agencies, and conducts routine site visits
to check on project activities. Additionally, Ryan assists in coordinating activities of the Habitat Conservation and
Restoration Team (HCRT) of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA). He assists in developing documents such as the Gulf Action Plan,
coordinates meetings and team conference calls, and prepares reports for granting agencies. Ryan also manages the office and daily
activities, including many of the online resources found on our website.
Originally from San Antonio, Ryan received his bachelor’s degree in biology from TAMU-CC in 2004 and his master’s degree in
biology in 2008. His thesis research, conducted out of the Center for Coastal Studies, looked at first-year colonization
of the rocky jetties of Packery Channel. His research interests include marine community ecology and conservation biology.
Before coming to the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, Ryan worked at the
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies.
There he carried out yearly expeditions to Mexico, where he conducted scientific diving and research in the Sian Ka'an
Biosphere Reserve. He has also worked for TPWD’s Office of Coastal Fisheries, the Pollution Prevention Partnership at TAMU-CC,
and Bellaire Environmental. In 2008 he was chosen as one of 12 short-term fellows at the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago in Panama, where he participated in taxonomy training for tropical algae.
Richard Gonzales
Project Leader
Aransas Pass, Texas
Email: richard@gulfmex.org
Richard Gonzales is the director of
the Gulf of Mexico Foundation's multicultural outreach program, which uses science education to
bring students in Texas together with students south of the border. Entitled the "Gulf of Mexico Science and Spanish
Club Network" the program is funded through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program grant from the Texas
General Land Office and the NOAA.
As program director, Gonzales spends much of his time in the
field with students, engaged in activities such as
dragging seine nets through bay waters to learn
firsthand what lives beneath the surface, kayaking
through wetlands to monitor animal and plant life,
cleaning up trash along coastal areas, and
following a river upstream to understand how fresh
water makes its way to the Gulf and how human
impact affects the environment.
A native of Texas, Gonzales has operated New America Marketing
since 1996 in Aransas Pass, providing photography, publishing, and creative services to clients throughout South
Texas. His educational background includes a BBA and an MBA from Texas A&M University
Corpus Christi. Fluent in both Spanish and English, he
fosters relations with Mexico, particularly
between Tamualipas and Texas. His hobbies include raising his dogs and working on a ranch
in Gonzales County on weekends.
Mikell Smith
Project Manager
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: mike@gulfmex.org
Mikell (Mike) Smith is a GMF Project Manager currently focused on the stakeholder component of a Southeast Aquatic Resources (SARP)
initiative in the Sabine and Red River basins. He develops contacts and compiles information
for SARP to use for their
adaptive management process in the 13 states that make up the SARP region.
Smith came to GMF from the
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (HRI), where he researched marine policy fostering collaborative, science-based governance of the Gulf of Mexico. He compiled content, built a database and conceptualized
a strategy which resulted in
InfoHub, an information resource made publicly on
GulfBase and
maintained through a partnership with the National Sea Grant Law Center. At HRI, Smith also assisted with lab analysis of photosurveys
of chemosynthetic communities in the Gulf and did a stint as a surveyor on an economic study of freshwater inflows on the Texas coast.
After prior careers in television and property management, Smith obtained a master's in Environmental Science at TAMU-CC in 2008
with an eye toward integrating environmental and economic interests. He achieved his goal of working along the interfaces of
sustainability when he came on board at GMF in April 2009.
Laura Bodenheimer
Development Officer
Houston, Texas
Email: Bodenlm@aol.com
Laura Bodenheimer is the Development Officer for the Gulf of Mexico Foundation.
She works with the
Board of Directors
and
Quenton Dokken on building
relationships with corporations and on finding
support for GMF programs from stakeholders in the
Gulf of Mexico region. She
brings more than 20 years of experience working with corporations,
foundations and individuals developing support for nonprofit organizations. Her experience includes strategic planning, annual fund,
corporate sponsorships, direct mail, planned giving, endowment and capital campaigns for educational, conservation, animal protection,
social services, and visual and performing arts institutions.
Previous work experience includes the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera,
Hermann Eye Fund, Citizens for Animal Protection and the Hobby Center, for which she directed the 96 million dollar capital campaign.
Laura served as the Assistant Dean for Development for the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois.
Before working in development, she taught at the University of Wyoming and at the College of Health Sciences in Bahrain and worked in the
energy sector in government affairs and philanthropic giving.
Franklin Viola
Media Advisor
Houston, Texas
Email: franklin@gulfmex.org
Franklin Viola, a professional photographer, has
worked with the Gulf of Mexico Foundation as a
volunteer on diving expeditions for several years. Viola has received numerous
national and international awards for his underwater photography over the past two decades. After receiving a BS in Marine Science & Marine Transportation at Texas A&M University at Galveston in 1982,
Viola served four years in the U.S. Merchant Marine, sailing aboard huge cargo ships as a U.S. Coast Guard Licensed Third Mate (Unlimited Tonnage).
Returning to terra firma (“the beach”) in 1986, he focused his love of water -- salt or fresh, ocean or pond, river or lake -- through the optics of a camera.
Viola produces still photography and digital video for clients who use water to tell their story or to sell their product. His clients include Audubon,
National Geographic, Travel Holiday, Islands, Discovery Channel Online, Sport Diver, The Nature Conservancy, American Express, Epson, BP Oil & Gas, Turner Broadcasting,
Hitachi and Delta Airlines. To view Franklin’s photography visit
violaphoto.com.
Carrie Robertson
Webmaster & E-Newsletter Editor
Corpus Christi, Texas
Email: carrie@gulfmex.org
Carrie Robertson is the Gulf of Mexico Foundation's
webmaster, photographer and electronic
newsletter editor. Ms. Robertson received a bachelor's degree in
communications from the University
of Texas in Austin in 1984. She started her career
as a newspaper staff photographer, then began freelancing for
travel and outdoor magazines and working as a webmaster.
Find her website at: Third Coast Photo & Web.
Before returning to her native Texas in
2002, Ms. Robertson lived in Oregon, Hawaii and
Mexico, working as a dive master, marine naturalist
and windsurfing instructor. She is conversationally
fluent in Spanish, gained from her five years living
in Mexico. Carrie spends her free time enjoying the
Gulf of Mexico through windsurfing, kayaking and sailboating. Carrie and her husband Pete Meyer have a
four-year-old son named Kai which means "sea" in Hawaiian.
Doug Weaver
DUOY Coordinator
Corpus Christi, Texas
Doug Weaver is GMF's Coordinator for the Down Under, Out Yonder program, which educates teachers about the reef by taking
them scuba diving. Weaver is a Ruth Campbell Fellow working in the laboratory of the Harte Research Institute on the
community ecology and habitat association of coral reef fishes.
Before moving to Corpus Christi in 2008, Weaver
worked as an expedition scientist and biologist with the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
He has expertise in reef fish biology, particularly in those species that inhabit deep-water reef communities in the
Florida Keys and Gulf of Mexico. He has conducted a variety of coral reef surveys and has mapped both shallow
and deep-water coral and hardbottom communities.
Weaver also is adept in the field of computer graphics and digital video
and has assisted with image production and video analysis for the 2002 Sustainable Seas Expeditions. During the expedition,
he used the DeepWorker submersible to explore and characterize the deep-water communities of the southern regions of the
Tortugas Ecological Reserve, especially the deep-water habitats surrounding Miller's Ledge and Riley's Hump. Weaver
has also explored deep water regions and pinnacles off the coast of Mississippi and Alabama and in the northwestern
regions of the Gulf of Mexico.
Dr. Quenton R. Dokken
