Dr. Richard Merrick is Chief Science Administrator and Director of Scientific Programs at NOAA Fisheries. He has a B.S. and Master’s from Clemson University, two Master’s from Oregon State University in Marine Resource Management and Biological Oceanography, and finally a PhD in Fisheries from the University of Washington in Seattle. Merrick began his career with NOAA as a contractor in 1983, working in Alaska and the Arctic. He then moved to the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and continued working for the conservation of marine mammals.

Mr. Rauch is Deputy Assistant Administrator for regulatory programs of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. After receiving a B.A. from the University of Virginia, he received a M.S. from the University of Georgia with the goal of becoming a forest ecologist scientist. He then earned a J.D. from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College and worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office on the spotted owl litigation team. He was transferred to NMFS where he first worked on salmon cases before becoming Assistant Section Chief where he oversaw all NMFS litigations.

Donna Wieting currently serves as the Director of the Office for Protective Resources at NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. She has a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Massachusetts and a Master’s in Marine Science from Louisiana State University. She has been at the agency since 1989 in various roles. 

In 2004, Steve Murawski left his job as long-time chief the fish population dynamics group at the NEFSC to take on the leadership role at NMFS Office of Science and Technology. Within a very short time, he moved again, to his current position as the Agency's Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor for NOAA Fisheries, a position formerly held by NEFSC alum Michael Sissenwine. Indeed, Murawski is the third in a line of top fishery scientists from the NEFSC who have been tapped in recent years to serve leadership roles at the Agency's headquarters.