Dorothy Childers, a consultant with the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, was awarded the Walter and Ermalee Hickel Lifetime Achievement Award by the Alaska Sealife Center, in Anchorage on Feb.12.
The award recognizes an individual who has made exception contributions to management of Alaska’s coastal and ocean resources for more than 20 years.
Childers, the former executive director of AMCC, has served on the North Pacific Research Board since 2004.
She is currently working with AMCC on an ocean acidification project.
Childers’ contributions to management of Alaska’s coastal and ocean resources have included tireless work of an exceptional quality as program staff, executive director and as a Pew Marine Fellow with AMCC, SeaLife officials said.
Childers has devoted her career to protecting the long-term health of Alaska’s oceans and to ensuring a voice for those Alaskans whose economy and culture depend on the long-term health of ocean resources.
She was instrumental in the North Pacific Fishery management Council’s promulgation of a northern bottom trawl boundary in the Bering Sea, a collaboration with Bering Sea Elders Group on the publication of “The Northern Bering Sea: Our Way of Life” to inform conservation decisions, and production of the “Faces of Climate Change” DVD featuring climate scientists and Alaska Native observers. She has been a catalyst for ongoing efforts to bring together Western science and traditional knowledge for continued understanding of climate change and its consequences for marine life, ocean habitat, communities, and cultures.
