page_title: Seacology
section_title: Leadership
hierarchical_section_title: Seacology / Leadership
caption_attribution_description: English: Duane Silverstein, Executive Director of Seacology, at the 2009 Seacology Prize Ceremony in San Francisco, CA.
context_page_description: Seacology is a nonprofit 501 charitable organization headquartered in Berkeley, California, that works to preserve island ecosystems and cultures around the world. Founded in 1991, it began with the work of ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox, who researched tropical plants and their medicinal value in the village of Falealupo in Samoa during the mid-1980s. When the villagers were pressured into selling logging rights to their rainforest in 1988 to build a new school, Cox and his wife offered to help secure funds for the new school in return for an agreement with the villagers to protect their forest. With the help of his friends and family, Cox secured the funds within six months, later earning him and the village chief, Fuiono Senio, the Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts. Word spread throughout the islands, and with increasing demand for similar projects, Cox, along with Bill Marré and Ken Murdock, decided to form Seacology and expand their work internationally. For the first few years, the organization operated on a volunteer basis. Duane Silverstein became the first employee in 1999, and headquarters were relocated to Berkeley, not far from his residence.
context_section_description: Seacology is governed by its board of directors, which consists of corporate leaders who share a commitment to island conservation and the preservation of island cultures.  Paul Alan Cox is the Chairman of Seacology.  He received his PhD from Harvard University, and served as a professor at Brigham Young University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and Uppsala University.  Cox served as the Director of the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) for seven years, and as of 2011, he is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethnomedicine, which is affiliated with the NTBG.  His research interests include island plant ecology and ethnobotany of island cultures, and he has published more than 150 scientific papers and reviews.  For his research on new medicinal plants, he was named one of eleven "Heroes of Medicine" by Time magazine.  Cox is an advocate of indigenous peoples, and has learned several island languages.
  The Executive Director of Seacology is Duane Silverstein, who for 18 years prior to joining the organization acted as the Executive Director of the Goldman Fund and headed the Goldman Environmental Prize.  He has written articles that have appeared in Asian Geographic as well as various scuba diving magazines, and he is a National Fellow of The Explorers Club.  Silverstein has met with heads of state around the world, including several presidents of the United States, as well as several Secretaries-General of the United Nations.  In addition to having his work covered in newspapers and periodicals, including Time magazine, the Bangkok Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle, he was also selected as an "All-Stars Among Us" in People magazine, for which he was honored at the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.  In 2008, Silverstein and Seacology were briefly featured alongside several organizations in the music video for "What About Now" by the American rock band Daughtry.  In 2010, Silverstein was awarded the one of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service and also was given the 2010 Coastal Hero Award by Sunset magazine.
  The vice chair of Seacology is Ken Murdock, who also founded the herbal company Nature's Way after his mother was cured of a serious illness with an herbal medicine.  Murdock played a key role in the creation of Seacology, and Nature's Way covered Seacology's administrative costs for three years.  Murdock has volunteered in Samoa, during which time he resided on Manu'a and learned the local language.
  The Scientific Advisory Board of Seacology includes island biodiversity specialists, whose research focuses on the conservation of oceanic and terrestrial island ecosystems.  The Scientific Advisory Board generates recommendations for new conservation projects based on the latest research available.  Among the eleven members are researcher and Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond, entomologist and evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson, and oceanographer Sylvia Earle.  As the founder of Seacology, Cox is also a member of the advisory board.
  Job-search website Talentdesk ranked Seacology the fourth-best American nonprofit organization to work for in 2018.
caption: Duane Silverstein joined Seacology in 1999 as the Executive Director.
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