President Leonel Fernandez
President of the Dominican Republic and Honorary President of the GFDD/FUNGLODE

Sylvia Earle
Dr. Sylvia Earle Founder and Chair of The Sylvia Earle Alliance

Sylvia A. Earle, called Her Deepness by the New Yorker and the New York Times, Living Legend by the Library of Congress, and first Hero for the Planet by Time Magazine, is an oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer with experience as a field research scientist, government official, and director for corporate and non-profit organizations including the Kerr McGee Corporation, Dresser Industries, Oryx Energy, the Aspen Institute, the Conservation Fund, American Rivers, Mote Marine Laboratory, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Rutgers Institute for Marine Science, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Research, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Ocean Futures, and Ocean Conservancy. | read more

Idelisa Bonnelly

Idelisa Bonnelly de Calventi is a retired profesor at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, and is
honored for her extraordinary contributions to the development of policy and management strategies that
promote marine conservation in the Caribbean region. Prof. Idelisa Bonnelly is the mother of marine
conservation for the Dominican Republic. She has made strong contributions to the advancement of sciencebased
conservation in this country by helping to usher through environmental laws, designate several
protected areas, and teach two generations of conservation biologists within the country. She has also been an
avid promoter for woman in sciences and has been a role model for hundreds of young Latin American
researchers. (Source: Society for Conservation Biology)

Charlotte Vick
Content Manager for Google Earth's "Explore the Ocean" layer