Board of Trustees

The Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory (FSUCML) is pleased to announce the development of their first Board of Trustees.

I am excited about the individual skills and passion for the marine environment that they bring to the lab and this marvelous part of the world.

FSUCML Director

Michael M. English (Tampa, FL)

Michael English is a long term Florida resident, growing up in Sarasota, and residing in Tampa for the past 30+ years. Trained as an urban anthropologist, he is currently Vice President for Community and Regional Planning at WilsonMiller, a Florida-based multidisciplinary consulting firm, for which he has directed many significant urban planning, redevelopment, and master planning projects. He has extensive expertise in historic preservation, transit planning, sustainable growth policy planning, real estate development, eminent domain litigation, and public policy. His professional commitment to improving urban environments has led him to investigate the connections between land use, transportation, and the natural environment. His interest in the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory and its critical research date to his youth spent in the Gulf of Mexico and college-related experiences on Apalachicola Bay. Spanning both the public- and private-sectors, his career includes several years as an award-winning urban-infill land developer, and appointments as Associate Director of the Florida Center for Urban Design & Research and Associate Professor at the University of South Florida (Tampa) School of Architecture. He has played an active role in shaping the Tampa Bay community’s future, serving generously on numerous community and civic boards, including the Hillsborough County Planning Commission (5 times as Chair), the Tampa and Ybor City Street Railway Society Board (8 times as chair), and the Board of the Tampa Historic Streetcar, Inc., the corporation overseeing the funding and operations of the TECOLine Streetcar System. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, and holds a B.A. degree from Florida State University and M.A. from the University of South Florida.

 

Manley Fuller (Crawfordville, FL)

Manley Fuller is President and CEO of the Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF) and a registered lobbyist with both the Florida Legislature and the Executive Branch of state government working on behalf of FWF. He completed his undergraduate degree at Duke University with dual majors in Zoology and History, and received a Master's Degree from North Carolina State University in Wildlife Biology. His primary interests are in wildlife and habitat conservation throughout the southeastern United States, for which he has received numerous awards, including the National Wildlife Federation's Charlie Shaw Award, the Wildlife Society Florida Chapter's Dr. Herbert Kale Award, and the joint Nature Conservancy-U. S. Forest Service Conservation Certificate for his successful efforts to significantly increase conservation lands in Florida's national forests. His interests in climate change led Governor Crist in 2007 to appoint him to the Energy and Climate Action Team. Mr. Fuller has a particular fondness for crocodilians, resulting in his involvement with the Crocodile Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and his participation in censusing the American crocodile.

 

Rear Admiral H. E. “Rick” Grant, USN Ret. (Tallahassee, FL)

Rick Grant's long and distinguished career includes both military and business service coupled with a long list of civic activities and motorcycle racing. Following graduation from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1966, Rick flew A-4 Skyhawk aircraft from carriers stationed in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic. He later earned a law degree from the FSU College of Law (1974) under the Navy's Excess Leave Program. From then until 1993, he served in a number of positions in the Navy, including program manager of the Judge Advocate General's Corps, Commanding Officer of the Naval Legal Service Office in Norfolk, Commander of Naval Investigative Service Atlantic (jurisdiction from Iceland to the Caribbean), Commander of Naval Legal Service Command with 40 offices around the world, and Executive Director of the Expanded International Military Education and Training Program (EIMET), a State Department democratization initiative. He served as the 35th Judge Advocate General of the Navy from 1993 through 1997, a position in which he provided daily legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations and was responsible for setting legal policy for the Department of the Navy.

While in the Navy, he developed a keen interest in racing motorcycles, and was captain of the Navy's off-road cross-country motorcycle racing team. He still races today on the Hercules Silver Frame vintage motorcycle racing team.

His business career includes having served as a senior advisor at GlobalOptions, a company providing risk mitigation services to corporations, governmental organizations, and others; and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Municipal Code Corporation, a Tallahassee-based company that publishes codes and charters for local governments. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Naval Aviation Museum Foundation in Pensacola and the Tallahassee Museum, and the Board of Directors of Applied Fiber Holdings LLC of Havana, FL. He is President of the Military Officers Association of America, Tallahassee Chapter Scholarship Foundation, serves on the Blueprint 2000 Citizens Advisory Group, and is a member of the Entrepreneurial Steering Committee of the Economic Development Council.

 

Michael J. Greenberg, Ph. D. (St. Augustine, FL)

Dr. Greenberg is Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Florida, which he served for 15 years as the third director of its Whitney Laboratory of Marine Bioscience in the town of Marineland, where he developed a strong program in cell and molecular biology and -- with the help of Patrick S. Hamilton -- developed a highly effective board of trustees. Before that, he was, for 16 years, a faculty member at Florida State University in the Department of Biological Science and served as director the FSU Marine Laboratory from 1978 through 1980. Greenberg has extensive experience of marine laboratories in the United States and abroad, including the MBL at Woods Hole, where he has been a summer researcher, a course instructor and director, and editor-in-chief of the Biological Bulletin, a journal published by that institution.

 

 

Patrick Hamilton (St. Augustine, FL)

Mr. Hamilton is an environmentalist and the owner of Southern Realty of St. Augustine and Crescent Beach, which specializes in conservation lands and waterfront property. He currently serves as President of Genung's Fish Camp, Inc., a 1940-s era marina preserved in Crescent Beach. He also co-chaired the Scenic and Historic Highway Committee which resulted in a Federal Scenic Byway designation in coastal St. Johns County. For over a decade, Mr. Hamilton worked with various committees and agencies in the State of Florida to establish the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve in St. Johns and Flagler counties. Currently, he is spearheading an effort to obtain Special Basin Designation for the Matanzas River. The Board of Trustees of the University of Florida's Whitney Laboratory for Marine Biosciences was formed under his leadership, and he served as the Board's Chair for five of his fifteen-year tenure. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the FSUCML.

 

William F. Herrnkind, Ph. D. (Tallahassee, FL)

Dr. Herrnkind is the R. K. Godfrey Professor (Emeritus) in the Florida State University Department of Biological Science. He is a marine biologist whose career research involved field and laboratory study of the behavior and ecology of the Caribbean spiny lobster, a very valuable commercial and recreational species in Florida. He helped pioneer scientific diving training and techniques as an Aquanaut researcher operating from manned undersea "habitats". He has advised productions for J. Y. Cousteau, the BBC, and National Geographic. In 1984, while Director of the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory, he co-developed an award-winning, hands-on program in marine science for middle school students, "Saturday at the Sea," in which he continues to remain active. He also co-developed the Marine Certificate Program in Marine Biology, with the aim of providing research experiences for undergraduate students. He has received numerous awards for outreach and environmental education, as well as undergraduate teaching.

 

Marcella Matthaei (St. Augustine, FL)

Marcella Matthaei received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing from The International College in 1983 under a unique tutorial arrangement with the late poet, Kenneth Rexroth, and received her Masters in Creative Non-fiction from Sarah Lawrence in 2006. A collection of her early poems, Past Pygmalion, was published by Cadmus Editions in 2004. She has sold rare Native American art in New Mexico, represented a variety of authors as a literary agent in upstate New York and archived an extensive portfolio of vintage photographs, while living in northern California. Originally from Manhattan, Marcella moved to St. Augustine in 2004 and fell deeply in love with the coastline and its natural inhabitants. She is actively involved with the preservation of the North Atlantic right whales and their critical habitat and is working with the Ocean Conservancy on the First North Atlantic Right Whale Festival. She is a member of the St. John's County Sea Turtle Patrol and a Paul Harris Fellow.

Ron Piasecki (Shell Point, FL)

Ron Piasecki retired from the Federal Government in 1997 after 17 years in the Senior Executive Service (SES). While there, he worked for the Secretary of the Department of Interior as Director of the Office of Acquisition and Property Management; and in the U. S. General Services Administration as Director of the Office of Transportation Audits and, during his last 4 years, as the Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Emerging Technologies and Network Applications. Prior to entering federal service, Ron worked as the Manager of Purchasing at the University of Maryland, the Manger of Purchasing Development at Southern Railroad, and as an assistant purchasing agent with Western Electric both at their corporate headquarters in New York and at their Lee's Summit, Missouri, manufacturing facility.

Upon arriving in Wakulla County, Ron became very active with the Coast Guard Auxiliary and in 2007, was elected Commander for Flotilla 13 at Shell Point. His association with the Friends of Wakulla Springs resulted in his being elected to the Board of Directors In 2007, and President of the Board of Directors in 2008. He also serves as the Vice Chairman of the Wakulla County Citizens Infrastructure Committee and Chairman of the Wakulla County Code Enforcement Board. Ron's concern about water quality throughout Wakulla County and particularly in Wakulla Springs led him to become involved in several groups addressing the issue through Waste Water Treatment programs, the development of special policies and ordinances concerning septic systems, and upgrading and expanding the installation and use of state-of-the-art sewage treatment systems. This is an area with which he will continue to be involved far into the future.

 

Michael S. Putland, M.D. (Tallahassee, FL)

Dr. Putland earned a B.Sc. (double major in Chemistry and Biochemistry) in 1988 from the University of Victoria. In 1990, he earned a M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry (synthetic organic and natural products) from the University of British Columbia, and in 1994, completed a M.D. from the University of British Columbia followed in 1996 with a Family Medicine Residency at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

He practiced as a locum tenens in British Columbia and Newfoundland, where he acquired a diversity of experience in urban and rural practice, including service as a flying physician providing care to isolated coastal regions as well as routine office and emergency services. In 2001, Dr. Putland accepted a position in Tifton, GA, with a multi-specialty group. In 2003, he moved to Tallahassee to join the Medical Group of North Florida working as a Family Physician. He currently provides care including Hyperbaric Medicine through the Capital Regional Medical Center. He serves as Medical Director for the Tallahassee Developmental Center, Gentiva Health Services, and Woodmont Assisted Living Community. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor at Florida State University in the Faculty of Medicine and currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Capital Medical Society.

 

Ricardo Schneider (Tallahassee, FL)

Ricardo Schneider is the President & CEO of Danfoss Turbocor, a Tallahassee based company that designs and produces a family of revolutionary centrifugal oil-free high efficiency compressors for Commercial Air Conditioning systems. Ricardo holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.S. from UFRGS-Brazil, and International Management education from INSEAD, London, and Executive education from Harvard Business School, where he has been an active Alumni Member since 2005. He joined the Danfoss Group in 1993 and has held several different positions in three different countries. Ricardo started as Regional Sales Manager, and then moved on to be a General Manager, and most recently has been the Global Vice President of Danfoss Air Conditioning leading the organization to succeed in the competitive global air conditioning market by growing the business by 4 times in less than 5 years. This success was achieved by executing innovative strategies on product development and acquisitions to address global climate and energy challenges while increasing market share and profitability for Danfoss. Prior to Danfoss, Ricardo led the R&D and Engineering teams of one of the largest refrigeration companies in Brazil. One of his main achievements was transferring technology to Brazil from Stall, a Swedish Screw Manufacturer, and Sutrak, a German Transport Refrigeration Company. 

Ricardo has been an active member of Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) since 2000, holding a Chairman position of the Automatic Controls Section from 2006 to 2008 and member of Board of Directors. Ricardo has Papers published at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

 

Arthur Stern III, Esq. (Tallahassee, FL)

Arthur Stern is a graduate of Harvard College (1962) and Harvard Law School (1965). After practicing for many years in the Northeast (including a position in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., the General Counsel's office at Eastman Kodak Company, and thereafter many years in private practice in Rochester, New York), he was finally fortunate enough to marry a Florida native and move to Tallahassee in 1993. He is the father of five (ages 10 through 34), continues to practice law full time (how else does one afford college tuition?), and concentrates in the areas of wills, trusts and estates, as well as tax and corporate planning, including the counseling of tax-exempt organizations. He is also a Trustee of a modest family foundation (not his own) that provides support to organizations involved in environmental endeavors, and which, over the years, has supported Florida State University, including the College of Music, a professorship in Holocaust education, and now the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory.

 

Catherine Wannamaker, Esq. (Atlanta, GA)

Catherine Wannamaker is currently a Staff Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) in Atlanta, GA . She is a graduate of Hollins University and received her Master’s in Zoology from North Carolina State University, where she worked on hypoxia issues affecting the North Carolina coast. Prior to attending law school, Catherine served as a member of the professional staff of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Oceans and Fisheries. She attended Stanford Law School and served as President of the Stanford Environmental Law Society. At the conclusion of law school, Catherine served as a law clerk to the Honorable Patrick Michael Duffy of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. Prior to joining SELC, Catherine was an honors attorney with the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, DC.

 

Dr. John Winchester (Tallahassee, FL)

Dr. Winchester is currently Professor Emeritus in the Florida State University Department of Oceanography. He received his A. B and S. M degrees at the University of Chicago in physical chemistry, followed by the Ph. D. in 1955 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in nuclear and physical chemistry. Thereafter he spent one year as a Fulbright researcher at the Institute for Nuclear Research, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and returned to become an assistant professor of geochemistry at M.I.T. Ten years later he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of Meteorology and Oceanography. During these years his teaching emphasized both chemical principles as they can be applied to the geosciences and the current literature on research advances in earth and space science. His research emphasized application of nuclear methods to the study of a variety of geochemical problems, including rare earth elements in igneous petrology, chemical processes at the sea surface, and the chemistry of fine particles in the marine atmosphere.

In 1970, he joined FSU to head its then new graduate Department of Oceanography where he helped to strengthen its faculty and graduate teaching and research programs and added undergraduate classes to its mission. For his research he established collaboration with the Van de Graaff accelerator laboratory of the FSU Department of Physics. His teaching emphasized linking different disciplines to understanding global environmental change and its human dimensions. During his career, he taught and conducted research abroad which focused his attention on global environmental change from scientific and societal perspectives.