This past December, Fred Dobbs of Old Dominion University was elected as the new Chair of CRC’s Board of Trustees. Dobbs will replace John Wells of VIMS, who held the position for the past 9 years. Wells has served as VIMS representative since 2004, and will stay on in that role after Dobbs becomes Chair. Dobbs has served on the board since early 2017, when he replaced Rodger Harvey as the representative to ODU. “The rewarding part of serving on the Board is also the interesting part.  The quarterly meetings provide the opportunity to learn more not only about CRC functions, but get a glimpse of goings-on at the member institutions,” Dobbs explained.

The Board is charged with managing the affairs of CRC, and some of their responsibilities can include amending CRC bylaws, appointing and evaluating Executive Directors, approving the annual budget, and adding new Consortium member institutions. They meet in the first quarter of the year and then three more times throughout the year on an as-needed basis. The Chair of the Board works with the Director to set the agenda for quarterly meetings, and also solicits thoughts and opinions from other Board members. This year, the Chair will be responsible for steering the advertising and selection of the next Director of CRC, as Bill Ball is stepping down (see our CRC Director page for more information on the position).

The Chair and the Secretary of the Board are elected by all of the members. They are elected at the annual meeting at the beginning of the year, and serve until the next year or until somebody else is elected, but many Chairs and Secretaries stay on until they step down. Anson “Tuck” Hines, of SERC, has been Secretary for about 14 years. “I like that, by working with CRC partners, we are making progress in using good science to guide restoration of the Bay – an enormous and complex challenge, but I have increasing optimism for success,” he said.

CRC’s Board is made up of one member of each of the seven research institutions. Current board members include:

  • Fred Dobbs, Chair of Board, Professor and Chair of the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University
  • Anson Hines, Secretary of Board, Director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
  • Peter Goodwin, President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (Board Representative for the University System of Maryland)
  • Larry Nagahara, Associate Dean of Research at the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University
  • Saied Mostaghimi, H.E. and Elizabeth F. Alphin Professor and Director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech
  • Matthew Royer, Director of the Agriculture and Environment Center at Pennsylvania State University
  • John Wells, Dean and Director of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science

The Board is also made up of “Alternate Trustees” that can vote on behalf of Trustees in their absence. 2019 Alternate Trustees include:

  • Brian Benham, Virginia Tech
  • Edward Bouwer, Johns Hopkins
  • Denise Breitburg, SERC
  • William Dennison, UMCES
  • John Klinck, ODU
  • Mark Luckenbach, VIMS
  • Lara Fowler, Penn State

There have been several recent changes to the Board, bringing in fresh perspectives. Mostaghimi joined the Board in 2017 as the representative for Virginia Tech, replacing Brian Benham, who served as interim representative as Virginia Tech was on-boarded as a Consortium member in 2016 (see benefits to membership (PDF)). Dobbs also replaced veteran Board member Roger Harvey as the representative for ODU, which corresponded to Dobbs taking over as Department Chair in Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences. Later in the year, Goodwin replaced Don Boesch as the University System of Maryland representative, corresponding with Boesch’s retirement and Goodwin’s emplacement. In 2018, Royer replaced Rob Brooks as the Penn State representative, as Brooks was retiring.

Now, with Dobbs as Chair and good mix of new and old Board members, the CRC Board has a lot to look forward to. “The Board of Directors is passionate about Chesapeake Bay and the role that they play as members in helping ensure that science is available to, and indeed underpins, important management decisions,” said Wells. “The scientific knowledge among the member institutions is vast, and the board freely shares new developments, opportunities for collaboration, upcoming workshops, and institutional updates. Their insight is invaluable.”