Seattle, WA

Interviewee Sort descending Collection Description Interviewer Date of Interview Location of Interview Affiliation
Floyd McLaughlin Mount Mitchell Oral History Project

Interview with Floyd McLaughlin

Matthew Forrest Seattle, WA NOAA's Office of Coast Survey
Gary Shigenaka NOAA Heritage Oral History Project

Gary Shigenaka is a third-generation Japanese American born and raised in Lake Forest, Illinois.  During World War II, Gary's father, other relatives, and over 100,000 other Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated and incarcerated in internment camps. Following the war, Gary's father and mother moved to Chicago's suburbs, where Gary grew up.  Gary studied oceanography at the University of Washington, graduating in 1976.

Molly Graham Seattle, WA NOAA Heritage Program, National Weather Service
Gina Ylitalo Voices from the Science Centers

Gina Ylitalo is an environmental chemist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington. She was born in Yakima, Washington in 1957, and has been interested in a career in science since junior high.She attended Yakima Valley Community College for two years before transferring to Western Washington University and receiving a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. She earned her Master of Science in Chemistry from Western Washington University and was hired by National Marine Fisheries Service in 1989.

Maggie Allen Seattle, WA NOAA-NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
James Hastie Voices from the Science Centers

James Hastie received a PhD in Resource Economics in 1987 from Oregon State University and immediately began working for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. Jim has been on the Pacific Council’s groundfish management team since 1993 and has served as co-chair from 2000 to 2003. He is currently the Program Manager for the Population Ecology Program and the Fishery Resource Analysis and Monitoring Division at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Maggie Allen Seattle, WA NOAA-NMFS
Kurt Fresh Voices from the Science Centers

Kurt Fresh was born in 1953. He attended the University of the Pacific for his undergraduate degree and received his Master's in Fisheries Science from the University of Washington in 1979. He began his career at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1978. He moved to the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in 2002. Kurt’s focus has long been on salmon life histories and ecology as well as estuarine habitats. At the time of this interview, he was the Estuarine and Ocean Ecology Program Manager at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Maggie Allen Seattle, WA NOAA-NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
Linda Park Voices from the Science Centers

Linda Park is a research geneticist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences and genetics from Cornell University and a PhD in population biology from Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked for NOAA for 26 years, and is currently the team leader of the molecular genetics laboratory.

Maggie Allen Seattle, WA NOAA-NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
Linda Rhodes Voices from the Science Centers

Linda Rhodes was born in Fort Eustis, Virginia in 1952. Linda moved to the Seattle coast in 1974. She earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Washington in 1993. Linda has done work as a histopathologist and zoologist. She began working for the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in 1976 and has been a microbiologist since 2007. She enjoys in her leisure time participating in citizen science projects in her county. As of this interview, Linda lives on Whidbey Island, Washington.

Maggie Allen Seattle, WA NOAA-NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
Michael Ford Voices from the Science Centers

Michael (Mike) Ford was born in Colorado in 1967. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and his PhD in Population Genetics from Cornell University in 1991. In 1995, Mike began working at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center as a national research associate where he studied the local adaptations of Chinook salmon using molecular genetic data. Since 2003, Mike has been the Director of the Conservation Biology Division at the Center.

Maggie Allen Seattle, WA NOAA-NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
Michael Rust Voices from the Science Centers

Michael Rust is an aquaculture science advisor for NOAA in Silver Spring, Maryland and has spent the last two decades conducting aquaculture research at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. He received his undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Colorado. He then served two years in the Peace Corps in the Philippines before returning to the United States. Rust pursued two Master’s degrees at the University ofCalifornia, one in International Agricultural Development and one in Animal Sciences. He also has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Maggie Allen Seattle, WA NOAA-NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
Nir Barnea NOAA Heritage Oral History Project

Nir Barnea was born in Israel in 1956. Nir’s father, Daniel Barnea, survived the Holocaust, while his grandparents were deported and killed in Auschwitz in 1945.  Nir graduated in 1974 from Har Vagai High School in Upper Galilee, Israel, and served in the Israel Defense Forces until 1977.  Nir immigrated to the United States and earned his BS in Microbiology from the University of Washington, in Seattle.  He continued his graduate education at UW, earning a master’s degree in Environmental Health.  Nir is also a Certified Industrial Hygienist. From 1992 until his retirement in 2020, Mr.

Molly Graham Seattle, WA NOAA Heritage Program, National Weather Service