Welcome to our new 2021-2023 Board!

Congratulations and welcome to our new Board members and officers! We want to thank all of our candidates for their support and willingness to serve our SoCal SETAC Regional Chapter.

Our new elected 2021–2023 SoCal SETAC Board Members are:

Academic: Andy Gray (UCR)

Public: Ochan Otim (City of LA)

Private: Meagan Rivera (née Morgan) (Physis Environmental Labs)

NGO*: Caroline Moore (SD Zoo Wildlife Alliance)

NGO*: Maggie Stack (SDSU Research Foundation)

Student: Nancy Torres (USD)

They will join our 2020-2022 SoCal SETAC Board Members:

Academic: Varenka Lorenzi (CSULB)

Public: Leslie Nanninga (City of San Diego)

Private: Barbara Orelo (Enthalpy Analytical, San Diego)

Student: Kara Wiggin (SIO/UCSD)

We are pleased to introduce our new SoCal SETAC Vice President and Newsletter Editor, Andrea Bonisoli-Alquati (Cal Poly Pomona). Andrea is an Environmental Toxicology Professor who researches the distribution and effects of a wide variety of contaminants mostly while using birds as models. He served as an Academic Board Member last year and we are excited that he will continue his service as our new Vice President. Karin Wisenbaker (Aquatic Bioassay & Consulting) will progress from Vice President into the role of President and serve as our fearless leader this season. Nick Hayman (NIWC Pacific) will also progress from President to Co-Past President and lead our 2022 Annual Meeting in the Spring.

We are excited to announce that Leslie Nanninga of (City of SD) will start her 1st year as our webmaster while Joe Freas (Aquatic Bioassay) will charge into his 11th year as our Treasurer. Misty Mercier (Physis Environmental Labs) will begin her 6th year sharing the sizeable role of Co-Secretary and we welcome Amanda Russell (POSD Sea Grant Fellow) who will begin her 1st year as Co-Secretary.

We want to thank outgoing Board Members Kate Buckley (Wood) and Ashley Parks (SCCWRP) for their valuable help these past 2 years. We also want to send a HUGE thank you and farewell to Violet Renick (OC Sanitation District) who, over the past 5 years as webmaster, has transformed our website to the masterpiece that it is today. Another HUGE thank you goes to Alvina Mehinto (SCCWRP) who has dedicated the past 3 years as our esteemed Co-Secretary, a role that would not exist if it wasn’t for her. Lastly, we want to bid a fond farewell to our outgoing Past-Presidents (yes 2) Erika Holland (CSULB) & Chris Stransky (Wood) who navigated us thru months of uncertainty and managed to collaborate on a stellar virtual Annual Meeting in the process. Thank you all for your many years of dedication and service to SoCal SETAC!