New leadership is coming to the North Pacific Research Board in Anchorage on Nov. 21, when international lawyer Betsy Baker signs in as executive director.
Baker, who has lived in Alaska since 2014, has credentials in academia, law of the sea, and environmental and marine policy.
Even before moving to Alaska, Baker was focusing on marine Arctic issues for the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission, Arctic Council, Inuit Circumpolar Council, U.S. State Department and the Alaska regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Baker will fill the vacancy being left by the departure of Denby Lloyd, who has served as the executive director of the NPRB since the autumn of 2013.
Lloyd brought to the research board nearly 40 years of experience in research and management of Alaska’s natural marine resources. During his career he has also served as a fisheries consultant for the city and borough of Kodiak and as an adviser to the Aleutian King Crab Research Foundation. Prior to that, Lloyd worked for several state, local and federal agencies, and as the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
She is a tenured professor at the Vermont Law School, an affiliate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Washington, as well as a member of the Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences and of the Science Steering Committee of SEARCH (Study of Environmental Arctic Change).
Prior to her work in Alaska and Vermont Law School, Baker ran the graduate program for international lawyers at Harvard Law School and was the associate dean for international programs at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Baker earned her bachelor of arts degree at Northwestern University and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
She also has advanced law degrees from Christian-Albrechts-Universitat in Germany.
The NPRB supports an annual request for proposal process dedicated to marine research in Alaskan waters. The program is structured to address both pressing fishery management issues and ecosystem information needs as prioritized by the board’s science plan.
Proposals are geographically centered in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, and Arctic Ocean ecosystems.
With several sponsors, the NPRB also hosts annually the Alaska Marine Science Symposium, which is considered the state’s premier marine research conference.
The gathering each January includes presentations from numerous researchers on marine science findings from the Arctic, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska.
Information on the 2017 Alaska Marine Science Symposium Jan. 23-27 in Anchorage is online at www.amss.nprb.org
