Hillary has been a writer/journalist/news reporter since 1968, with published books about the sea and underwater exploration, and magazine articles including National Geographic, Geo, Islands, The Surfer’s Journal, Reader’s Digest and the Los Angeles Times. From 1969 through 1977 she was West Coast stringer for Ocean Science News, Washington D.C., and from 1981-1986 was ocean/marine reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press. She also was the former music critic for the Santa Barbara News-Press and is a long-time classical pianist.

Marco is a cofounder and partner of Coast Law Group LLP in Encinitas, California, where his practice area focus includes environmental law, land use, water quality and natural resource advocacy and litigation. Prior to founding Coast Law Group, Mr. Gonzalez was the Senior Attorney with San Diego BayKeeper, and Chairman/Legal Counsel for the Surfrider Foundation, San Diego. He is a frequent lecturer on environmental issues, land use and planning regulation, desalination, Mexico-U.S. border water quality issues, and the role of non-governmental organizations in environmental enforcement.

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Ava Everett is HTO’s public outreach coordinator. She worked with HTO as “office” administrator in the very first days of HTO when we didn’t even have an office, and now she is the one you’ll see at HTO tables at every public event, working side by side with Ruston Slager, who has also been with HTO since its beginnings.

RUSTON SLAGER has been with HTO since the beginning days, and in fact can be credited with “starting” the organization, because he organized the public demonstration on the steps of the County Administration Building after Hillary’s “Genesis” article came out, lamenting the problem of Santa Barbara beaches being closed because of pollution. You will always see Ruston alongside Ava Everett at public events where HTO is involved – Earth Day, the Harbor Festival, and of course our own events. Ruston instructs adults and children with learning and developmental disabilities in community and school settings. He is a local musician and landscape artist.

MJ Bakove (in pink hat) helped HTO in 1998, setting up our database! She is back helping us, volunteering in office administration, and seen here with California senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson during California Coastal Cleanup Day in October 2011!

Hillary has been a writer/journalist/news reporter since 1968, with published books about the sea and underwater exploration, and magazine articles including National Geographic, Geo, Islands, The Surfer’s Journal, Reader’s Digest and the Los Angeles Times. From 1969 through 1977 she was West Coast stringer for Ocean Science News, Washington D.C., and from 1981-1986 was ocean/marine reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press. She also was the former music critic for the Santa Barbara News-Press and is a long-time classical pianist.

Leslie Brice, a Santa Barbara investor, marketing consultant, part-time business entrepreneur who was President and Co-founder of Gateways Research Institute/No. American Gateways, in Ojai, Calif., which had $38m of annual sales in self-improvement/personal development programs; Co-producer and scriptwriter of several
successful direct-marketing television shows including the pioneering hour-long documentary-style “Mind Power” show which became one of the longest-running (1988-1991) “infomercials” ever produced; Cofounder and Executive Director of the Institute of Human Development, Cincinnati, OH/Ojai, CA, from 1980-1989.

Francesca Cava, a longtime friend and supporter of HTO (and wife of John Robinson, who was on the HTO Board until he passed away in February 2011) has served since July 2009 as Arctic Policy Program Manager to the Aspen Commission on Climate Change. She developed the National Geographic Society’s Education and Children’s Programs, was project manager/education program manager for The Sustainable Seas Expeditions, a 5-year, multi-agency program to promote ocean conservation and increase public recognition of the importance of marine protected areas worldwide, and was also a California Coastal Commissioner (1995-1999). Francesca also served as this country’s director of the National Marine Sanctuary and National Estuarine Research Reserve Programs and is the first woman to attain the rank of Captain in the NOAA Corps. She was also the first Sanctuary Manager for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (1987-1989).

Jean-Michel has spent his life with his family exploring the world's oceans aboard the research vessels Calypso and Alcyone, communicating to people of all nations and generations his love and concern for our water planet. The eldest son of the late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel is President of Ocean Futures Society, where he continues his life's work of educating, especially the young people of the world, to foster a conservation ethic for our water planet.

Thomas Dabney is a native Santa Barbarian and lobster fisherman with deep appreciation for the ocean and all it affords, and comes to Heal the Ocean with valuable directorial experience as a long time board member of his family foundations.

Dick Lamb, a HTO director from 2001 to 2008, has rejoined the Board to help executive director Hillary Hauser restructure the organization and fine-tune HTO’s future strategy. Dick was a windsurfing champion (owned Windsurfing International from 1976 to 1983), an Olympic judge and sporting goods manufacturer who in 1992 teamed with Thomas Davidson to create the Balance Bar Company. Balance Bar, which was at first bought by subscription (not in stores) sold in January 2000 to Kraft Foods for $268 million. Dick then went to work with a team of Harvard scientists on the benefits of flavonoids for human health, specifically the Free Radical Scavenging (FRS) components of quercetin (found in the skins of apples, onions and red grapes) and in 2004 founded New Sun Nutrition to produce the FRS energy drink with these properties. As CEO of New Sun Nutrition, Dick co-founded the FRS Company, which now has a board of directors that includes Lance Armstrong, and in 2007 the New Sun Nutrition name was changed to the FRS Company. These days, Dick travels to Third World countries to teach business principles, and we’re really, really glad to have him back aboard to help us!

Francoise is an artist and author of cookbooks and children's books who worked many years in real estate in Santa Barbara and Malibu. She is devoted to community service in Santa Barbara -- in addition to serving on the Heal the Ocean board, she serves on the board of Girls, Inc. and Direct Relief International.

Sam Scranton, who was for over 30 years the moving force behind the Santa Barbara Bowl (Manager 1978-1980; Founding Board Member (with Steve Cloud and Patrick Davis) of the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation (1980); General Manager (Feb 91-Feb 94); Executive Director Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation (Feb 94-Dec. 31, 2010). As the Foundation’s executive director raised $25 million for Bowl renovation and improvement. He has built and operated a number of music production companies (i.e. Full Circle Productions, and founded the shows that evolved into the Christmas Unity events and telethons. In 1990 Sam became artist manager for Christopher Cross, and as a musician himself, he has performed with Kenny Loggins, Jim Messina, Joe Walsh, Joe Cocker and others in New Years Eve parties he organized to raise funds for the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation. Sam has many ocean connections (including being on HTO’s advisory board for many years), but one outstanding feather in his cap is that he was, in the early 1970s, the personal assistant to Elisabeth Mann-Borgese, director of Planning Council, International Ocean Institute, Malta, and in this position, Sam did the preliminary editing of text and photographs for Elisabeth Mann-Borgese’s historic book, The Drama of the Oceans.