The Salish Sea Institute Presents: Successes, Challenges and Maintaining Hope for Salish Sea Restoration and Protection

Patti Gobin has over 25 years of Community Development experience with the Tulalip Tribes.  Presently, Ms. Gobin is with the Natural Resource Treaty Rights office working with state, local and federal agencies regarding those issues that impact the life ways of the Tulalip Tribes.  In addition to her years of experience, Ms. Gobin is a member of the Tulalip Tribes and is well versed in the culture and history of her people. Her personal goal is to invest in the future of the Coast Salish community, helping to affect a sustainable future for the next generations to come.

Lovel Pratt is the Friends of the San Juans’ Marine Protection and Policy Director. Lovel served on the San Juan County Council for one term and represented WA State counties on several regional and state-wide oil spill prevention committees. Lovel also served on the Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force Vessel Working Group, and the VTRA (Vessel Traffic Risk Assessment) 2010 and VTRA 2015 Working Groups. Lovel is the environmental representative on the Puget Sound Harbor Safety Committee, and a member of the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve Implementation Committee, and the San Juan County Marine Resources Committee.

Julie Watson is Killer Whale Policy Lead at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife since 2016. Julie received her PhD in Geography and MS in Water Policy and Management from Oregon State University, and is originally from Pennsylvania, where she received Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Julie has taken on a variety of regional and agency leadership roles, including chair of the Puget Sound Ecosystem Coordination Board, co-chair of the 2022 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference, and co-chair of WDFW’s Diversity Advisory Committee. 

Dr. Beatrice Frank is a conservation social scientist who has worked over the past 15 years with a range of rights-holders, including Indigenous groups, governmental agencies, not-for-profit organisations, stakeholders and the general public on human-wildlife interactions and area-based conservation. Beatrice serves as the Executive Director of the Georgia Strait Alliance, which uses an environmental justice informed approach to protect the Salish Sea.  

Dr. Chloe Robinson (she/they) is an applied ecologist and conservationist. Chloe joined Ocean Wise in 2021, after spending three years leading a nationwide citizen science DNA monitoring project as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Guelph (Canada). They obtained three degrees from Swansea University (UK) – BSc in Zoology, MSc in Environmental Biology, and PhD in Environmental DNA. Chloe is the Director for the Whales Initiative where they lead cetacean-focused ocean science initiatives, including the WhaleReport Alert System (WRAS), with a focus on developing and applying innovative tools to tackle the many threats that cetaceans face both in Canada and worldwide.

Ginny Broadhurst is the Director of the Salish Sea Institute at Western Washington University. She was hired in 2017 and has led the publication of the State of the Salish Sea report, the creation of the Salish Sea Fellows program and a Salish Sea Studies minor. She has been working on Salish Sea protection and restoration in various capacities for over 25 years. She has a BS in Environmental Conservation from Univ of New Hampshire and an MMA from Univ of Washington.