About Us

National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence Dr. 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, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and Ocean Futures.

Formerly Chief Scientist of NOAA, Dr. Earle is the Founder of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc. (DOER), Founder of the Sylvia Earle Alliance (S.E.A.) / Mission Blue, Chair of the Advisory Council of the Harte Research Institute, inspiration for the ocean in Google Earth, leader of the NGS Sustainable Seas Expeditions, and the subject of the 2014 Netflix film, Mission Blue. She has a B.S. degree from Florida State University, M.S. and PhD. from Duke University, 27 honorary degrees and has authored more than 200 scientific, technical and popular publications including 13 books (most recently Blue Hope in 2014), lectured in more than 90 countries, and appeared in hundreds of radio and television productions.

She has led more than 100 expeditions and logged more than 7,000 hours underwater including leading the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970, participating in ten saturation dives, most recently in July 2012, and setting a record for solo diving in 1,000 meters depth. Her research concerns marine ecosystems with special reference to exploration, conservation and the development and use of new technologies for access and effective operations in the deep sea and other remote environments.

As Executive Director, Laura works with Mission Blue’s Board of Directors and staff to implement the strategic goals and objectives of the organization. Laura provides direction and leadership toward the achievement of the organization’s philosophy, mission, strategy, and its annual goals and objectives. She joined the foundation in September 2009 as Chief Operating Officer and most recently served as Acting Executive Director.

With more than 15 years of experience in the technology industry working for companies such as NeXT and Apple, Laura brings expertise and a fresh perspective on strategy, programs, and partnerships. In 2002 she and her family moved to Switzerland where she worked for the secretariat of IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). There she spent four years working on a capital campaign for IUCN’s new sustainably-designed headquarters. With issues such as energy and climate change at the initiative’s core, she interfaced regularly with IUCN’s key programs to bring specific conservation issues to light for private sector support and partnerships. With our ocean resources rapidly diminishing, she is wholeheartedly engaged in developing strategy and programs that support the foundation’s mission to raise awareness about the plight of our ocean and catalyze action for its protection. She lives in Napa with her husband and 2 children

As Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Sylvia Earle Alliance / Mission Blue, Deb is responsible for strategic planning and forming new alliance relationships to generate cooperative programs and projects to increase ocean conservation. She works with SEA’s Executive Director, Board of Directors, partners and staff to ensure that results and outcomes are in accordance with the organization’s mission and goals.

Deb joined the Sylvia Earle Alliance in 2010 and served as Director of Communications for six years, developing communication strategies to broaden the impact of Mission Blue’s programs and partnerships, after which she served as Chief Operating Officer. She has also served as Board secretary for five years

Deb’s life and professional career have centered on the ocean, from teaching scuba diving to working in the yachting industry. She has been a marketing consultant for world-class sailing races and has sailed her own yacht in Europe, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and Mexico. When not immersed in Mission Blue business and ocean advocacy, Deb tends her organic vegetable garden and plans where her next scuba diving vacation will take her. Currently, Deb lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and their border collie, Sophie.

Brett directs Mission Blue’s communications program as well as shoots video for the expeditions program. As the son of an original national organizer for Earth Day, Brett grew up in a family dedicated to preserving the integrity of our environment. Brett graduated from Tufts with a degree in International Relations and has focused his career on producing communications strategy, content marketing and video production for organizations that better our planet. Having signed on over 200 Mission Blue partners since 2012, Brett continues to grow the network. Brett plays professional jazz piano and enjoys hiking and sailing in the Bay area.

Susan Racanelli Susan joined the Mission Blue team in early 2019 and brings her development expertise and enthusiasm for global conservation to the organization. She holds a BA in French Language and Literature from San Jose State University and attended the Leavy School of Business at Santa Clara University. In addition, she is a graduate of the Protocol School of Washington, certified to consult in international protocol and etiquette. She has led marketing for high tech, luxury hotels and real estate firms throughout her career. In 2004, Susan found her passion advocating and fundraising for endangered species and environmental causes working with an island conservancy. Her work has taken her all over the world – often with groups of donors – to help indigenous people preserve and restore their historic cultures and precious habitats. On a trip to Fiji in 2015, Susan finally became dive certified. There her love for the ocean and its magical world was fully ignited, much to the delight of her husband, a master diver. Susan enjoys skiing, snorkeling, diving, and cooking exotic cuisines, inspired by her travels, for friends and family. She and her husband live in Baltimore, MD. She also takes pleasure in planning trips to meet up with their son, who currently resides in Tunis, Tunisia.

Shannon oversees the Hope Spots Program working with Mission Blue’s Hope Spot Champions and the Hope Spots Council. Shannon grew up as an ocean lover spending many days at the beach. She began to travel regularly to the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii throughout her teenage years where she grew even fonder of the ocean and its creatures. Her love and passion for the earth and its animals led her to a degree in Environmental Studies and Planning. She began working for the Regional Water Quality Control Board out of college and then transitioned into business management.

Throughout the years she witnessed the changes to the reefs and wildlife in the Caribbean and decided that she wanted to rejoin the environmental field and contribute to helping protect the ocean and its amazing creatures. Shannon is a former collegiate soccer player and enjoys playing soccer, dancing and participating in other athletic activities. She teaches dance to kids and adults with special needs in her free time and travels with her dog A.J. any chance she gets. They recently went to Baja Mexico where A.J. got to meet her first whale shark while on a boat ride.

Maximiliano Bello is an international ocean policy expert who has worked in the environmental arena for over 2 decades to advance marine conservation priorities. He has worked for non-governmental organizations in Chile and the United States including The Pew Charitable Trusts, Oceana, World Wildlife Fund, Island Conservation and the Blue Whale Center, among others. Mr. Bello has operated with a wide array of international fora including the United Nations and its various conventions and bodies. Additionally, Mr. Bello has worked directly with governments in Latin America and around the world to establish marine protected areas. Of note, Mr. Bello was instrumental in securing protections for over 2 million km squared of countries’ territorial waters. His work at Mission Blue is focused on securing and elevating global marine conservation targets, engaging local and national governments in protecting their own waters and advancing marine conservation priorities in various international multilateral fora. Mr. Bello is a veterinarian by training with advanced degrees and diplomas in natural resource management, protected areas and economics, including a MSc from the University of Edinburgh.

• International Ocean Policy Expert
• UNFCCC CoP25 Presidential Committee Ocean Representative
• UNFCCC CoP26 Ocean Champion
• Global Fellow Wilson Center
• University of Edinburgh Fellow

As Communications Strategist, Avrah works to produce press releases announcing Hope Spot launches, creates Mission Blue’s monthly newsletters and has aggregated content for Google Earth. Avrah earned a degree in Journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she spent much of her time exploring and reporting on the tide pools and rolling dunes of Montaña de Oro State Park, Morro Bay and Cambria. Avrah spends her free time hiking, reading and documenting the wonders of California through photography and watercolor.

Robin’s background has been in Accounting & Finance for the past 20 years as well as human resources. She decided to leave the corporate world of finance and help in any way possible for our oceans around the world, this is her passion as she has seen what effects have taken place in the ocean since she started diving twenty-three years ago. Robin was born and raised in Southern California where she spent many hours and days at the ocean, Robin has held many underwater clean-ups at local lakes in the Northern California area. She hopes that we see a difference in our oceans in her lifetime.

Charlotte’s fascination with sea life began when she was in elementary school. She loved to sneak down to a quarry and lake near her home to collect what she learned were fossils. These giant white chalky versions were really big. This was her personal introduction to the history of the ocean and modern crustaceans — the brachiopods, clams, snails, and related organisms we know today.

Her professional life was transformed by working in Washington, D.C. in the Ford Administration with US territories – all of which were islands. There she began a 40-year interest in the UN Convention on Law of the Sea that led to a long string of projects relating to the economic, social, legal, oceanographic and technological aspect of oceans and islands. She worked in many locations in the Pacific region and other regions and continues to be interested in issues of effective management, oceanographic exploration, mapping and research. She believes emerging technologies and approaches needed in the 21st Century coupled with dispelling ignorance can reverse the tide for our oceans.

Joining Dr. Sylvia Earle and others in 2008, she seeks to facilitate, collaborate, support and fund ocean exploration, education, mapping, policy advocacy and whatever moves positive action on ocean health, restoration and policy. She has worked with Dr. Earle in many capacities and is currently the Mission Blue Director of Engagement working with staff, partners and her personal network of friends to protect and restore the “Blue.”

Caro Dratva’s greatest passion is the ocean. After falling in love with the sea as an avid scuba diver, she decided to leave the development, marketing, and graphic design roles in a major San Francisco architectural firm to completely dedicate her life to advocating for the ocean. She volunteers for several organizations such as The Marine Mammal Center, and she is also a member of Reef Check California, and GUE (Global Underwater Explorers). She received her Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from San Francisco State University, and studied Psychology at Stanford University. She pursued her passion for ocean exploration by taking Marine Biology courses at City College of San Francisco. She enjoys her free time scuba diving, photographing underwater critters, and land-based nature. She is also an avid surfer, and looks forward to sailing, paddle boarding, or kayaking, when the winds visit beautiful San Francisco & Monterey Bays.

With a Master of Arts in environmental studies from Brown University, Courtney has a deep understanding of marine conservation science and policy—particularly regarding coral reef ecosystems—and believes in finding creative ways to bring ocean issues above the surface to inspire conservation. Courtney joined the Mission Blue family in 2012 and today consults on special projects for the organization.

Courtney is also an internationally recognized environmental artist and her large-scale ceramic sculptural works have been exhibited at notable science and art venues, including the Washington, D.C. headquarters of NOAA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center in South Florida and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, in an effort to unite art and science to promote awareness for the protection of coral reefs and Mission Blue Hope Spots.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Courtney grew up exploring the ocean and became an avid scuba diver at age 18. In 2008 she completed an interdisciplinary BA in sculpture and marine ecology at Skidmore College with coursework at James Cook University in Australia, where she studied coral reef ecology and fell in love with the Great Barrier Reef. She then spent a year as a fellow at the Harvard Ceramics Program before graduate school. She lives and works in Los Angeles. www.courtneymattison.com

Award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and explorer Kip Evans has led or participated in more than sixty expeditions throughout the world, including recent assignments in Antarctica, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, and the Galapagos Islands. In 2008 Kip joined Mission Blue as the Director of Photography and Expeditions, documenting “hope spots,” critical areas around the world’s ocean that need protection. As a photographer, he has worked on dozens of National Geographic Society projects since 1998, including the five-year Sustainable Seas project where he spent over 300 hours diving submersibles at depths down to 1,800 feet. Kip’s images have been featured in hundreds of books, exhibits, travel guides, advertisements, and magazines worldwide including, Alert Diver, Huffington Post, National Geographic Magazine, Patagonia, Outside, Rolex and Coastal Living to name a few. He has been a photo expert with National Geographic’s expeditions program since 2006.

As a cinematographer, Kip’s films have been featured at film festivals around the world and he has shot for several natural history networks including National Geographic, PBS and Discovery Channel. His Mission Blue documentary, “Isla Holbox – Whale Shark Island,” won best non-broadcast documentary at the 2010 BLUE Film Festival. In addition to his photography experience, Kip has worked as a naturalist and an educator for the National Marine Sanctuary Program. As a diver and submersible pilot, Kip holds a number of certifications including PADI Scuba Instructor, Diver Medical Technician (DMT,) and Scientific Research Diver. Kip has also logged nearly 4000 hours underwater, mostly during research and photographic expeditions, including a 17 – day assignment where he saturated at the Aquarius Habitat as part of Mission 31. From 1996 – 2008, he served as a volunteer rescue swimmer and diver with the Pacific Grove Ocean Rescue Team. In 2002 he received a commendation for saving the life of a young teen that had been swept out to sea. Kip was recently honored as the 2017 Ocean Champion by the San Francisco International Ocean Film Festival for his work in ocean conservation. Kip graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990, with a degree in Environmental/Marine Studies.

In his role as Science and Exploration Fellow and Advisor to the Chairman, Jonathan engages broadly in Mission Blue activities from strategy to field expeditions. His expertise keeps him at the frontier of beyond the horizon technologies while providing insight on the evolving role of applied innovation to science and exploration. He is a creative thinker who researches the intersection of technology and global trends, bringing the arts and science together, while connecting people and ideas. Jonathan collaborates with engineers, scientists, educators, and others seeking to create a better world. A respected voice on future trends, long-range vision, and creating the preferred future, Jonathan counsels start-ups, global business leaders, policy makers, and tier-one academics around the world. An active diver for over 40 years, with a focus on ocean science, climate change, robotics, and biotechnology, he participates in fieldwork with others across the globe to help solve some of the world’s most complex challenges.

With more than 20 years of experience in Silicon Valley, Jonathan has held senior positions at Apple and Adobe. He currently serves as Explorer in Residence and is the Diving Safety Officer at Autodesk and sits on the boards of several ocean and education focused organizations.