This year’s Blue Water Ball will celebrate Channelkeeper’s 25th anniversary with a program that honors all those who have contributed to protecting and restoring the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds.

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This year’s program will feature remarks by The Honorable Jane Lubchenco, PhD, world-renowned marine ecologist, environmental scientist, and champion for ocean conservation whose work has shaped how we understand and protect the Earth’s ocean. She has spent her career in academia and government integrating science, policy, and action to find lasting solutions to complex environmental challenges.

Photo: Oceanário de Lisboa

Dr. Lubchenco made history when she became an inaugural member of President Obama's “Science Dream Team" and served as the first woman to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2009-2013). When introducing her to his colleagues for her confirmation hearing in 2009, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden called her the ‘bionic woman of good science.” And she delivered.  During her tenure, she introduced pioneering policies that enabled the recovery of fisheries, guided the country through major environmental challenges like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and historic extreme weather disasters, and she helped shape the first U.S. National Ocean Policy that established a science-based blueprint for sustainable stewardship of the country’s ocean and coasts.

Later, as the first U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean (2014 - 2016), she served as a science diplomat in Asia and Africa. Most recently, she led the Climate and Environment team at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2021-2025), crafting historic climate, ocean, and nature policies, including the world’s first Ocean Climate Action Plan.  The throughlines running across all of these efforts are science and community-led action.

She is one of the most highly cited ecologists in the world. Her scholarship spans biodiversity, climate science, ocean acidification, and sustainable fisheries, with much of her research focusing on the connections between environmental health and human well-being. She currently serves as Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University.

When asked about her proudest achievements, she highlights her students, her government service, and the multiple organizations she co-founded, including the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, a long-term research consortium focused on the nearshore ecosystems along the U.S. West Coast; COMPASS, a science-communication organization that trains scientists to be more effective communicators; Climate Central, a nonprofit that provides credible and useful information about climate change; and the National Ocean Protection Coalition, a partnership that promotes effective ocean protection in U.S. waters. 

Dr. Lubchenco has received an impressive array of honors and awards, including two dozen honorary degrees, a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, and the highest awards given by the National Academy of Sciences (Public Welfare Medal), the National Science Foundation (Vannevar Bush Award), and the U.S. Coast Guard (Public Service Medal). 

Today, as we look to the Santa Barbara Channel, a globally significant biodiversity hotspot and a living laboratory for climate resilience, Dr. Lubchenco’s leadership feels especially resonant. She has helped build foundations upon which local marine science and monitoring now stands. We are honored to welcome Dr. Lubchenco, whose vision so clearly reflects our own commitment to safeguarding the Santa Barbara Channel for current and future generations.