Public is invited to lecture by ocean conservationist Julie Packard, executive director at Monterey Bay Aquarium: Feb. 27, UH Hilo
Julie Packard is a leading voice for science-based policy reform in support of a healthy global ocean.
Julie Packard, the founding executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA, will present a lecture on “Charting a Course for the Future of the Ocean,” Feb. 27, 7:00 p.m., at the Performing Arts Center, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
“This is a momentous time in the life of our planet,” Packard says. “The fate and future of eight billion people hinge on decisions we make in the next few years.
“For most of human history, we’ve acted like the ocean has endless capacity to feed us and be our dumping ground. Now we know that’s a dangerous assumption. We need to act as if our lives depended on the health of the ocean. Because they do.”
Packard’s presentation is the second of the Rose and Raymond Tseng Distinguished Lecture series supported by an endowed started by UH Hilo Chancellor Emerita Rose Tseng who served at the university between 1998 and 2010.
Julie Packard
Packard is a leader in ocean conservation worldwide and brings a lifelong passion for the natural world to her service with many organizations dedicated to conservation activities. She is equally a strong advocate for advancing equity and diversity in the sciences, including the endowment of scholarships at UC Santa Cruz that support individuals from historically marginalized communities, and of aquarium programs that help young women develop confidence and identity in the sciences.
She is a trustee of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and chairs the Board of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, a world leader in deep-ocean science and technology.
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she’s the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the Audubon Medal for Conservation, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the California Coastal Commission’s Coastal Hero award. In 2013, she was appointed to California’s Parks Forward Commission to craft a vision and blueprint for the future of a state park system serving 38 million Californians.
She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a focus on marine algae.
In 2019, Packard became only the second woman in the marine sciences and conservation — along with Rachel Carson — to be the subject of a commissioned portrait for the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Rose and Raymond Tseng Distinguished Lecture
The Rose and Raymond Tseng Distinguished Lecture series is supported by an endowed fund started by UH Hilo Chancellor Emerita Rose Tseng. The purpose is to inspire dialogue in areas that were important to Tseng during her tenure as chancellor: local entrepreneurship, international women’s leadership, global technology, the integration of science and culture, and indigenous language and cultural issues.
Jennifer Doudna, a pioneer in genome editing and recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was the inaugural speaker of the series in September 2018.
For disability accommodation at the Feb. 27 event, contact Lei Kapono, interim executive assistant to the chancellor, by Feb. 20.
