An illustrated lecture by Chantal E. Collier
Director, Long Island Sound Program
The Nature Conservancy
Sunday, August 12th, 2012. Time: 4 p.m. Place: Union Chapel.
Spanning 600 miles along the coasts of New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, Long Island Sound is a unique and extraordinary place. Designated an Estuary of National Significance, the Sound supports a rich and diverse community of marine and coastal habitats, plants and wildlife. Long Island Sound also provides an invaluable resource for recreation, fisheries, commerce, education, scientific research and human inspiration, generating nearly $9 billion annually for the local economy. Yet, despite significant efforts to improve its health, global and local pressures on this ecosystem continue to mount, and enhanced action to conserve the Sound and bolster its resilience is needed now. We depend on a healthy, productive Long Island Sound; and the health of the Sound depends on us.
Chantal E. Collier
Director, Long Island Sound Program, The Nature Conservancy
Chantal Collier is the Director of the Long Island Sound Program for The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut and New York. In this capacity, Chantal works closely with partners to advance science, policy and management that will improve the health and resilience of Long Island Sound’s marine and coastal habitats and communities. She directs planning and research to improve understanding of ecological relationships and acquire the necessary knowledge for informed conservation decisions and successful ecosystem restoration.
Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, Chantal established and managed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), where she led the implementation of the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative and facilitated coordination of CRCP activities with Florida’s statewide network of Aquatic Preserves, National Estuarine Research Reserves, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and other coastal management programs. As the State of Florida’s Point of Contact to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force and the U.S. All Islands Committee, she worked to improve interagency coordination and strengthen policies and legislation to protect coral reef resources. A certified scuba diving instructor and scientific research diver, she also served as the State’s Miami Unit Diving Safety Officer, directing coral reef damage assessments, benthic habitat monitoring and data collection for a variety of projects and natural resource injury cases in southeast Florida.
In earlier work with the California Coastkeeper Alliance, the Channel Islands National Park, and the Catalina Island Conservancy, Chantal led a regional kelp forest restoration program and conducted numerous kelp forest and intertidal research and monitoring projects. She maintained marine collections and taught scientific research diving at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), investigated queen conch reproductive patterns and coral spawning as a Perry Research Fellow at the Caribbean Marine Research Center in the Bahamas, and was instrumental in all phases of program development, exhibit design, the grand opening and management of the UCLA Ocean Discovery Center. Chantal earned a B.S. summa cum laude in Zoology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and completed graduate coursework in Marine Ecology at San Francisco State University and the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida.
