Current PCO Staffers

Beth Dieveney

National Ocean Service (NOS)

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Beth Dieveney has been with the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program for the last four and a half years, serving as the lead staff coordinator for the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force and coordinating the CRCP’s effort to develop strategic goals and objectives for reducing the impacts of land-based sources of pollution. Before coming to NOAA, Beth lived in California where she worked for a small non-profit that supports the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

She received her Master’s Degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island. While working towards her degree, Beth worked at the Coastal Resources Center, where, in collaboration with environmental managers and scientists, she helped write a Coastal Zone Special Area Management Plan. Beth has sailed over 30,000 nautical miles while teaching oceanography to college students through the Sea Education Association and has lived in the Caribbean where she taught high school science and worked with the island’s community on coastal and marine environmental issues.

Kelly Denit

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

EDUCATION

Kelly earned a B.S. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Yale University in 2000. She was a member of the Yale Women’s Basketball team throughout her time there and earned various honors including MVP and being named Captain in her senior season. After graduating, Kelly went to the University of Miami Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) where she earned an M.S. in 2002 in coral reef and larval fish ecology. Her graduate work focused on the age and growth of juvenile gray snapper.

EXPERIENCE

Prior to coming to PCO, Kelly worked as a Foreign Affairs Specialist in the NOAA Fisheries Office of International Affairs. She received a Knauss Fellowship in 2005 and was hired by the Office of International Affairs when she finished her fellowship. The main focus of her work was the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing, and the negotiations to form a South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) for non- highly migratory species. Before coming to NOAA and after graduate school, Kelly served as the lab technician for the larval fish ecology lab at the University of Miami where she used to get paid to go SCUBA diving in the Florida Keys. It was a tough life and she has the pictures to prove it.

Daniel Muller

National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)

EDUCATION

Daniel graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, with a B.A. in German studies. After graduating from Wesleyan, he completed a semester of study at Humboldt University in Berlin and worked as an intern in the German parliament. Following a brief period teaching in Philadelphia, Daniel completed an M.A. in European studies at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. Upon completion of his graduate degree, Daniel was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow and joined in NOAA in July of 2005.

EXPERIENCE

Prior to coming to the PCO, Daniel was an International Relations Specialist in the Office of International and Interagency Affairs (IIA) in NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. In IIA, he focused on coordinating NOAA’s environmental satellite programs with European partners and multilaterally through organizations such as the World Meteorological Organization and the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites. As part of the Presidential Management Fellowship program, Daniel also completed a developmental assignment at the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of International Affairs.

Jeremy Potter

NOAA Research

EDUCATION

Jeremy earned a B.S. in biology from Davidson College in 1995. He went on to graduate studies at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, receiving his Master's of Environmental Management degree in 2003. Jeremy’s graduate research focused on international fisheries policy involving Japan and the United States. He was specifically interested in the long-line tuna industry, Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

EXPERIENCE

Immediately after college, Jeremy ran off to Alaska to work as an observer on Bering Sea crab catcher boats. After Alaska, Jeremy was a marine ecology instructor and school bus driver at the Wallops Island Marine Science Consortium. He ended up postponing graduate school for three years to teach English in a remote Japanese fishing village on Tsushima Island. His fascination with the deep sea led him to NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration (OE), where he spent 2002 as a Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. At various times between 2002 and 2007, Jeremy supported operations, science, data management, education, outreach, and administrative functions at OE. While serving as the OE Expeditions Coordinator, Jeremy was instrumental in preparation and execution of 10 deep-sea expeditions in the Arctic, South Atlantic Bight, and the Gulf of Mexico. He started at PCO in February 2008.

LCDR Bill Mowitt

Office of Marine and Aviation Operations

EDUCATION

Bill received B.A. in History from Williams College in 1993. While at Williams he participated in the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program, where he developed an interest in a career doing science at sea. He went on to graduate studies at the University of Maryland, earning an M.S. degree in 1999 in Marine Environmental Science. His graduate research focused on how anchovies structure Chesapeake Bay ecosystems.

EXPERIENCE

Before joining the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, Bill worked as an environmental consultant and at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. He accepted a commission in the NOAA Corps in 2000. His experience in the Corps has been primarily with ships doing fisheries research, first in Hawaii as a Junior Officer and Field Operations Officer on the NOAA Ships Townsend Cromwell and Oscar Elton Sette. He then served as Officer-in-Charge of the R/V Harold W. Streeter and as a Staff Scientist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. More recently he sailed as the Executive Officer of the NOAA Ships David Starr Jordan on a multi-month cruise assessing dolphin abundance in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. His last assignment was as Executive Officer of the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson surveying fish populations in the Bering Sea. He started at PCO in April of 2009.

Annie Sawabini

Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship

EDUCATION

Annie earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University in 2000. After working as an engineer for several years she returned to school earning a M.S. in Marine Science from the University of Massachusetts, School of Marine Sciences in 2009. Her graduate work is focused on how physical factors in estuaries effect dissolved oxygen levels that many cute and tasty critters need to survive.

EXPERIENCE

After graduating from college Annie went to work for Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, CT. She did systems engineering work modeling heat transfer on several jet engines for commercial airliners. After two year Annie moved to Fort Worth, Texas to work for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. In Texas she continued to work on systems engineering building a rather large heat transfer model of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a new airplane for the US Air Force, Navy, and Marines. After 3 years she decided to apply the systems engineering skills to environmental problems and moved to New Bedford, MA for graduate school. Her research work looks at dissolved oxygen dynamics in estuaries around southeastern Massachusetts including Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard. In February 2009 she received a Sea Grant Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship and started in PCO.

John Juskie

National Weather Service

EDUCATION

John attended Parks College of St. Louis University and Western Illinois University. He received a B.S. degree in Geography, with an emphasis in Meteorology, from Western Illinois University in 1990.

EXPERIENCE

Upon completion of his undergraduate degree, John began working for the National Weather Service in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a Meteorologist Intern. John spent several years in Wisconsin, gaining experience through assignments in Milwaukee and Green Bay. John was promoted to General Forecaster in 1994 at the Weather Forecast Office in Minneapolis, MN. Four years later, John was promoted to Lead Forecaster at the Weather Forecast Office in Sacramento, CA. During his time in Sacramento, John served as a Corporate Recruiter for the Department of Commerce. After spending 5 years in Sacramento, John was selected as the Science and Operations Officer (SOO) for the Weather Forecast Office in Sacramento, CA in the spring of 2004. John comes to PCO after serving as the SOO in Sacramento for five years.