Co-Founders of Heal the Ocean

Featured

President and Executive Director

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.

Heather Hudson

Event Manager

Heather Hudson is a film producer living in Santa Barbara, California. The one constant in Heather’s life is her absolute love for surfing and the ocean. She begins most of her days with a surf session at a world class surf break in south Santa Barbara County, where she is known for her graceful longboard style. After receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from UCLA in 1984, Heather worked in advertising until she became a full-time mother in 1991. In 2007, she started her film production company, Graciegirl LLC, and created the groundbreaking documentary surf film, “THE WOMEN AND THE WAVES.” In 2016, the follow-up documentary THE WOMEN AND THE WAVES 2" was released to the delight of audiences worldwide! In 2020, Heather released “93 - LETTERS FROM MARGE,” a film documenting the life stories of Surf Pioneer and Icon, Marge Calhoun.

Heather has been a part of Heal the Ocean since its beginning & she is committed to ending ocean pollution. In 2012, she was named to the Heal the Ocean Board of Directors. Currently she heads up Fundraising and Events.

Jean-Michel Cousteau

Jean-Michel Cousteau is a world-renowned ocean explorer, producer of over 80 underwater adventure films, and founder and president of Ocean Futures Society. Jean-Michel is an explorer, environmentalist, educator, and film producer, and for more than four decades, he has dedicated himself to communicating to people of all nations and generations his love and concern for our ocean.

Thomas Dabney

Treasurer

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.

Charles Vinick

Board of Director

Charles Vinick has been a friend of HTO since our beginnings. He set up our 501c3 under the wing of the Jean-Michel Cousteau Institute in Santa Barbara (before it became Ocean Futures) so that we could hit the ground running with non-profit status in 1998. He was on the Board of HTO for 12 years, then took a break to head up a number of environmental non-profit organizations focusing on ocean policy, environmental policy and solutions and marine energy technology development. Charles gives us strong guidance!

Jonathan Wygant

Board of Director

Jonathan Wygant is CEO and founder of BigSpeak, Inc. the largest business-oriented agency/consultancy in North America focused on serving the Fortune 1000 and multinational companies worldwide. BigSpeak addresses the needs of corporations, associations, non-profits and government agencies by providing inspirational speakers, thought leaders and subject matter experts. Jonathan draws on his more than 30 years of hands-on business experience and extensive research into the best practices of visionary leaders and successful companies. His expertise is in understanding his client’s needs and matching them with speakers and trainers who will best deliver inspirational messages and support lasting positive organizational change.
Before founding BigSpeak, Jonathan was the CEO and co-founder of Iris Arc Crystal, an Inc. 500 international giftware manufacturing company headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. While at Iris Arc, he built the company to 5000 accounts, 120 employees and 135 sales reps nationwide.

Tom White

Board of Director

Tom White is well-known in Santa Barbara as the owner, with his son, Adam, of the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company, the Boat House (at Hendry’s Beach); the FisHouse Restaurant on Cabrillo, and Casa Blanca Restaurant on lower State Street.

He’s been involved with the ocean for many years – as a fisherman, surfer, sailor. When Heal the Ocean formed in 1998, Tom commissioned a thick glass backboard to the Oyster Bar at the FisHouse, into which the Heal the Ocean logo is etched in full. Tom has always advocated fresh fish at his restaurants, and his motive for having this piece created was to emphasize that fresh fish need a clean ocean.

Tom White’s background includes a degree in Social Science with minors in Biology, Chemistry, and Anthropology from UCSB. He continued his education with a year abroad at the Sorbonne, University of Paris, (Civilization de Francaise), after which he did a brief study term at Cambridge University in Biological Sciences. He has been a long-time Santa Barbara resident (1969) where he started a string of successful fish restaurant operations, beginning with Shellfish on the Wharf (1980), the FisHouse on Cabrillo Blvd, (1998), and the Boathouse on Hendry’s Beach (2012).

Tom is an avid sports participant and engages in surfing, skiing, sailing, and tennis. He and his wife Cynthia live in Montecito and are longtime members of the Tennis Club of Santa Barbara. They are also current members of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club and the La Cumbre Country Club.

In Memoriam

Featured

John Robinson

John Robinson, a national figure in U.S. space and ocean programs, is at the heart and soul of Heal the Ocean, and will always be.

Following a distinguished career with NASA (he was part of Mission Control during the Apollo 11 moon landing). From there, he moved to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he established an intergovernmental program called the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) in response to the Arab Oil embargo that rocked the world in 1973 following the Yom Kippur War

In 1999 he was introduced to Heal the Ocean co-founder Hillary Hauser by the celebrated ocean explorer Sylvia Earle, and with his characteristic Can-Do spirit, he immediately applied his brilliant engineering mind to solving Santa Barbara ocean pollution problems.

HTO cherishes every one of our members, and we are sad when we lose those who are dear to us. We are honored to memorialize these wonderful peoples’ lives as we work for the ocean they loved.

Ingrid O & Earl (Bud Armstrong)

Craig Barilotti

Fred Benko

Eric Brown

Joshua Canning

Maxine Knight Clark

Chris Cutler

Tim Cutler

Georgia Funsten

George Gaynes

Zeuf Hesson

Marcie Kjoller

Frank Louda

Frank Magid

John Miko, Jr

Zach Miller

Hughes Morton

Carolyn Ann Roche

Jim Ryerson

Sherilyn Scranton

Courtney Lodge Seeple

Carol Houck Smith

Eric Sutherland

Win Swint

George Turpin

Paul Hunter Turpin

Lanny Wright

Brandon Yates

Karin Young