Contact: Sherry Flumerfelt, Program Manager
Phone: 888-CORAL REEF ext. 306
Email: sflumerfelt@coral.org [1]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, CA - January 13, 2006 - The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) announces the appointment of Liz Foote as CORAL’s Hawaii Field Representative. Liz will support CORAL’s efforts to establish sustainable coral reef tourism on Maui and in Kona through education, good environmental business practices, and collaborative conservation projects.

As field representative, Foote will act as CORAL’s primary liaison in Hawaii, helping with the organization and delivery of CORAL’s projects, and helping ensure that they incorporate the needs and realities of Hawaii’s communities. “We were drawn by Liz’s deep commitment to community-based conservation,” said Rick MacPherson, CORAL Program Director. “She will be an invaluable asset to our programs.”

Foote resides on Maui, where she manages a variety of coral reef conservation efforts. In 1999, she founded the Maui-based nonprofit organization Project S.E.A.-Link, and currently serves as its executive director. Project S.E.A.-Link seeks to encourage and inspire marine science education and promote local stewardship through community-based reef monitoring, marine naturalist volunteer trainings, and other education and outreach projects. Before settling on Maui, Liz worked as a whalewatch naturalist in Massachusetts, volunteered at aquariums in Connecticut and California, taught coral reef ecology aboard a schooner in the Virgin Islands, studied orcas in British Columbia, and assisted reef researchers in the Florida Keys.

Liz attended the University of California, San Diego, where she received a B.S. in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution and worked in research laboratories at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. After shifting her main focus from marine research to marine education, she obtained her M.S. from Oregon State University in Science Education.

The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) is an international nonprofit, member-supported organization, dedicated to keeping coral reefs alive around the world. CORAL works to build sustainable coral reef destinations by enhancing the conservation management of marine parks, fostering best environmental practices in the tourism sector, and building community understanding of and connection to the reef.