Dr. Samuel G. Pooley earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawaii with a dissertation on macroeconomic decision-making, and a Masters in Economics from the University of Birmingham in England. He began working in 1981 at what was then the Southwest Fisheries Science Center‟s Honolulu Laboratory (HL), later the Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center. During his career with NMFS, he served in many roles including acting Regional Administrator, acting chief scientists, and finally Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Director for 10 years. Dr.

Dr. Sheila Stiles was born in Memphis, Tennessee. As a young child she developed a love for nature which led to her focusing on science in college. She majored in biology at Xavier University, New Orleans. After graduation, she had the opportunity to work at the Milford Laboratory for the summer and was asked to stay on at the end of the summer. She was the first full time African American woman to be hired at the Lab. She credits her many mentors and her love of biology as the reason for her long, successful career. Dr.

Dr. Steve Turner was born on May 23, 1949 in Providence, Rhode Island. He began working in 1974 at what was then the Mid Atlantic Fisheries Science Center at the Sandy Hook lab which was merged into the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. He received his PhD from Rutgers University in 1986. He moved to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center from 1984, and is currently the Fisheries Statistics Division Chief at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami.

Dr. Susan Abbott-Jamieson is a retired anthropologist with the Social Sciences Branch of NOAA, where she worked as the Senior Social Scientist in the Office of Science and Technology in the National Marine Fisheries Service. She joined the Air Force after high school, and later received a B.A. from Idaho State University and a Master’s and PhD. in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Thea Johanos has been a research wildlife biologist with the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (and its precursor, the Honolulu Lab) since 1982. She grew up in both Texas and Pennsylvania, and did her undergraduate and graduate work at Penn State University. After graduate school, she applied for work in Hawaii, as her family had just moved there. Her first job in Hawaii was with the US Forest Service working with Hawaiian honeycreepers and other forest birds.

Dr. Thomas Noji grew up on Long Island. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Earlham College, and completed his Master’s degree and Ph.D. at the University of Keele in Germany. Dr. Noji worked in Germany and Norway for 21 years, returning to the United States in 2001 to work at the Sandy Hook Lab of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. As of this recording in 2016, he is the Ecosystems Processes Division Chief.

Tiffani Marsh was born in Warren, Ohio in 1956. She received her B.A. in Zoology from Miami University. She began her career at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in 1990 studying salmon migration patterns. She is now a Supervisory Research Fishery Biologist in the Fish Ecology Division.

Vincent Guida received his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1970. He earned his PhD in Marine Science and Zoology in 1977 from North Carolina State University. As a post-doc Fellow at Lehigh University's Institute for Pathobiology he studied mollusks. He then was a research scientist at the Center for Marine & Environmental Studies and became Director of the Wetlands Institute at Lehigh University. In the mid-1990's, he joined the staff of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, J.J. Howard Lab.

Walter Blogoslawski was born in New Britain, Connecticut on February 8, 1943. He received his Bachelor's from Fairfield University, a Master's in Marine Science at Long Island University, and later a PhD. at Fordham University in 1971. He began working at Milford Laboratory in 1971 as a microbiologist and is retiring this year.

Dr. Walton "Walt"Dickhoff was born in Wisconsin in 1947. He received his Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of California Berkeley in 1976 and joined the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in 1986 working in the Coastal Zone and Estuarine Studies Division. Dr. Dickhoff is the Division Director of the Environmental and Fisheries Science division, and his research focuses on salmon growth and development.