Board of Directors

Now in our 33rd year as a nonprofit organization, Pacific Whale Foundation is a 501(c)(3) IRS tax exempt charitable organization dedicated to protecting our oceans through science and advocacy. We are proud to be an innovative, entrepreneurial organization with a self-sustaining revenue model.

Pacific Whale Foundation is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors -- visionary leaders who are committed to Pacific Whale Foundation's mission and share our commitment to nonprofit excellence. Our board members bring real world skills and experience in science, education, conservation, finance, business management, entrepreneurship, legal governance and non profit leadership. Most of all, our board members are committed to make a difference on behalf of whales, dolphins and our oceans.

Meet our Board of Directors:

Mark Orams, JP, PhD, MSc, BRP(Hons)

"My role as part of the governance team for the Pacific Whale Foundation is to ensure that the organisation builds on its success over the past three decades. This legacy is impressive and my hope is that the foundation continues to make an important contribution to an improved future for cetaceans and the marine environment on which they depend. This improved future will be achieved through effective and credible research, active conservation work, education and advocacy and financial sustainability."

Professor Mark Orams is a respected researcher with interests in marine science, coastal and marine recreation and tourism, sport management and sustainable development. He is based at the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute and the School of Hospitality and Tourism at AUT University in New Zealand. Mark holds a Bachelor’s degree in environmental planning, a Master of Science and completed his PhD in 1995 at the School of Marine Science at the University of Queensland in Australia. His doctoral research focussed on marine mammal tourism. He has published three books, including the first published text on marine tourism, and over 60 scientific papers and book chapters related to the subject. He serves on the editorial boards for the international journals Tourism in Marine Environments and Coastal Management.

Mark is currently co-chair of the International Coastal and Marine Tourism Society. He is the chairperson of Project Litefoot, a charitable trust that inspires sustainability using the inspiration of sport, he is a trustee for the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education and Recreation Centre and also serves as trustee for the Air New Zealand Environment Trust (incorporating Kids Restore New Zealand).

Mark also has a background in competitive yachting. He was a coach for the 2012 New Zealand Olympic sailing team, has won four world masters championships, numerous New Zealand titles and was a member of Sir Peter Blake’s crew onboard Steinlager 2, the winner of the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. He also worked assisting Sir Peter as part of Team New Zealand’s successful defence of the America’s Cup in 2000 and was an onboard scientist during Blakexpedition’s voyage up the Amazon River in 2001. He has authored a book on Sir Peter’s leadership entitled “Blake: Leader. Leadership lessons from a great New Zealander” which was published in 2009.

Mark is particularly passionate about coastal and marine conservation and recreation and the important contribution it makes to a better world. He is a proud Kiwi, born in Taranaki, New Zealand, is married to wife Renee and they have two children, Daniel and Brianna and the family live at Waiake Beach on Auckland’s North Shore in New Zealand.

Mark also has a background in competitive yachting. He was a coach for the 2012 New Zealand Olympic sailing team, has won four world masters championships, numerous New Zealand titles and was a member of Sir Peter Blake’s crew onboard Steinlager 2, the winner of the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. He also worked assisting Sir Peter as part of Team New Zealand’s successful defence of the America’s Cup in 2000 and was an onboard scientist during Blake expedition’s voyage up the Amazon River in 2001. He has authored a book on Sir Peter’s leadership entitled “Blake: Leader. Leadership lessons from a great New Zealander” which was published in 2009.

Dan Kuhar
Dan was born and raised on the Gulf Coast of Florida as the middle of three brothers. He received his Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Masters in Science Education, both from the University of Florida. He is credentialed in the State of Hawaii in Secondary Science. Before joining Kihei Charter School, Dan worked as a marine science educator in the Florida Keys, a lifeguard, high ropes instructor, ski boat driver, and as a Curriculum Developer at Pacific Whale Foundation. He has experience captaining boats and facilitating outdoor educational experiences for both children and adults. Dan joined Kihei Charter School in July 2003. During his years at KCS Dan has worked as the high school science facilitator, STEM Middle School Lead Facilitator, and STEM Middle School Site Administrator, prior to being promoted to his current position of Director. He has presented at a variety of national conferences, and has attended educational trainings at both Stanford and Harvard. Dan loves travel and adventure and is an avid outdoorsman. He especially enjoys freediving, spearfishing, sport fishing, surfing, scuba diving, stand-up paddle boarding, hiking, and camping. He is also a sports enthusiast, and plays every manner of sport; basketball is his favorite. He enjoys being an uncle to his two nephews and one niece, and relaxing at home.

Carole Carlson, PhD

“As a member of the Board of the Pacific Whale Foundation, it is my goal to encourage and facilitate a continued legacy of innovative education, outreach and research in a collective effort to promote the protection and conservation of cetaceans and marine environments for future generations.”

A Director of Research and Education for the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch, Research Associate at the College of the Atlantic (COA) and Adjunct Scientist at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS), Carole avidly is committed to developing education and research programs for cetacean conservation. An acknowledged expert on photo-identification techniques, humpback whales and whale watching, she received her doctoral degree in Biology and Ecology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and has spent over thirty years studying large cetaceans off the east coast of the United States, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic and the Eastern Caribbean.

She developed an interactive education/conservation and data collection program for the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch that is the prototype of the NMFS and Whale and Dolphin Conservation’s “Whale Sense’ Program for the Gulf of Maine and a collaborative internship program with colleagues at the PCCS and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The internship program offers experience in conservation education and messaging, opportunistic data collection, research protocols and data base management and has trained several students and researchers nationally and internationally.

Working within the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) community, Carole, in collaboration with regional NGO’s in Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, developed a program to increase awareness of the marine environment and conservation issues, promote responsible, sustainable whale watching, train local scientists in large whale research protocols and promote local and national marine sanctuaries for the conservation of cetaceans.

Carole is an active member of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission, presently serves as Co-chair of the Sub-committee on Whalewatching and helped to facilitate the Antarctic Humpback Whale Catalogue, archived at and maintained by the COA. She has organized and conducted five international and many local and regional whale-watching workshops and operators training programs and assisted in the development of whale watch guidelines and regulations for Puerto Rico, Bonnaire, Dominica, Iceland, St Lucia, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and the USA.

Carole continues to work actively on the promotion of the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) of the Cartegena Convention of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and helped to draft its Marine Mammal Action Plan. She co-organized its workshop for operators of the Wider Caribbean Region. She has authored many scientific papers as well as education materials for distribution in the United States, the Wider Caribbean Region, Japan, Taiwan and South America.

Born in Massachusetts, Carole lives in Provincetown, MA, a place with harbor, bay, ocean and dunes that she has loved since her first visit at the age of 5. Here, she has followed at least 4 generations of humpback whales that return each year to feed in the rich waters of her backyard. She loves to walk the winter beach, sail the seas, swim, play tennis, dance to a lively salsa or merengue and spend quiet moments on the dunes.

A scientific advisor for the Cetacean Society International, Centro de Conservation Cetacea, Right Whale Project of Uruguay, Whale Conservation Institute, Argentina, Brazilian Right Whale Project, UNEP and Executive Director of the Peaked Hill Trust, an organization that promotes and conserves a Natural Heritage Cultural Community of Dune Shacks in the National Seashore, she is passionate about marine conservation and the importance of grass roots efforts to train local scientists, guides and educators in coastal communities.

Greg Kaufman

Greg Kaufman is the founder and Executive Director of Pacific Whale Foundation and author of numerous books, scientific and popular publications. A pioneer in noninvasive humpback whale research in the mid-1970s, Greg founded Pacific Whale Foundation in 1980, and committed his new organization to educating the public, from a scientific perspective, about whales and their ocean habitat. Greg oversees the longest running humpback whale research programme off Australia (began in 1984), and has studied humpbacks in Hervey Bay since 1987. Greg is a world leader in addressing whale protection issues, and has pioneered responsible whale- and dolphin-watching programmes throughout the Pacific. He is widely acknowledged as an innovator and leader in marine ecotourism. Greg is an Invited Participant to the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee and is a contributor to the subcommittees on Whalewatching, Southern Hemisphere Whales and Bycatch, serves on the Hawaiian Island Humpback National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Committee, and recently co-led the United Nations Environmental Programme's Regional Workshop on Marine Mammal Watching in the Wider Caribbean Region.