SNI Chapter Leadership
Georgia
Savannah
Bill Maples, Chapter President, completed Open Water certification in 2018 and is currently pursuing Advanced Open Water. He is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and a 21 year veteran of the Marine Corps. He is a Production Test Pilot for Gulfstream Aerospace and enjoys running, cycling and SCUBA diving with his daughter Maddie.
Jessica Wertz serves the Savannah Chapter in both science and dive safety roles and helped launch the Savannah Chapter in 2020. She has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Southern University. Jessica grew up near the beach and has always loved the ocean. She began diving in college and became a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor in 2019. She was certified as an SSI Open Water Scuba Instructor in 2021.
Florida
Crystal River
Juli Jacobs, Chapter President, became certified with her daughter in summer of 2021. When her daughter fell in love with diving they got as much experience as possible in a short time. From diving springs to Jupiter, the Keys, Cozumel, and even the Cenotes within 6 months, she loves new diving adventures, especially the reefs! Experiencing what Scubanauts does made her fall in love with the science just as much as the diving and she was anxious to bring Scubanauts to Citrus County.
Angelique Hickman, Science Coordinator, has a passion for citizen science and education. While homeschooling her son, they became involved in multiple projects with The Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont including Monarch tagging, parasite testing, seasonal change documentation, taking water quality measurments, and salamander monitoring. When they moved back to Crystal River in 2019, she and her family became involved with Save Crystal River, a group are responsible for the seagrass restoration in Kings Bay along with Sea and Shoreline. Angelique has been helping with education for Save Crystal River at festivals, The Book, Line, and Thinkers program and library outreach and has been a certified diver since 1997.
Tampa
Marc Blander, Dive Safety Officer, is a PADI Instructor who began diving in California in 1994. He started volunteering with the Tampa Chapter in 2018. When not diving with the SCUBAnauts, he can often be found as a Divemaster at the Florida Aquarium. Marc has a Master’s in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance and works as a Financial Analyst.
Lauren Twele, Science Coordinator, is a graduate of The University of Tampa where she studied Marine Science and Biology. Having always been passionate about conservation education and inspiring youth about protecting our ocean habitats, she has worked at several organizations as an informal science instructor including The Florida Aquarium, Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, and Seacamp Association, Inc. Currently, Lauren works on several eco-tourism boats around the Tampa Bay area where she combines her favorite things- working outside on the water and educating the public about marine wildlife! Lauren was certified as a diver in 2014, and now currently is pursuing her Divemaster certification. Lauren is one of the Scientists for the Tampa SNI Chapter, and is excited to be involved in more Scubanauts trips in the future!
Victoria Scriven, Science Coordinator, has served as the Tampa Chapter Scientist since 2020, hoping to inspire a love of Oceanography and science diving. She has a bachelor’s degree in Oceanography from Texas A&M University and is currently working on her Masters at the University of South Florida. Victoria conducts deep-sea research using MBARI’s ROVs to understand and quantify the predator-prey relationships of deep-sea ctenophores. Growing up in the desert of West Texas, Victoria had to find creative ways to get in the water and once she became SCUBA Certified in 2010 she hasn’t left the water since. She is able to use science diving in her academic research and hopes to continue mentoring and working with young students with a passion for the ocean. When she is not in the water or in the lab Victoria can be found kayaking, painting, camping, volunteering, and spelunking. She is happy to mentor and guide Nauts who are navigating their way through the college application process and looking for careers in marine science.
Tarpon Springs
Brandy Muentes, Chapter President, and her daughter Sage joined SCUBAnauts in 2020. In addition to her leadership role with SCUBAnauts, she has been a Baycare essential team member for 6 years. When not fulfilling her responsibilities, Brandy and her husband Sam, an 18 year veteran to the United States Coast Guard, can be found participating in various activities within their community.
Reese Hanifin-Hernandez, Science Coordinator, started volunteering with Scubanauts in 2019. She teaches Biology, Forensics, and Zoology Honors at Alonso High School in Tampa, Florida. She began diving in Arizona in 1994 but took a long break, as there are not a lot of oceans in Arizona! She became passionate about the sport again in 2012 after moving to Florida and participating in a Whale Shark research project off the coast of Mexico. Her next goal is Divemaster and Instructor, when she’s off from school in the summers. SCUBAnauts combines Reese’s love of diving, research, conservation, and teaching. Reese has a Masters of Environmental Planning from Arizona State University and worked as an Environmental Planner for large scale engineering projects before changing careers to teaching in 2012.
Michael Brooks, Dive Safety Officer, is a PADI Divemaster and Dive Medical Responder who has been diving since 1996. He joined SNI with his daughter, Audrey, and started volunteering with the Tarpon Springs Chapter in 2020. Brooks served for 8 years in the U.S. Army as a Tactical Radio Operator, served in the U.S. Navy for 4 years as a Submarine Communications Electronics Maintenance Technician, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Technical Management, and works as a Public Safety Communications Specialist.
Sarasota
Buck Moffett, Chapter President, completed his Open Water Certification in February of 2022, and has been involved in Scubanauts with his son, Graham, and his daughter, Sarah, ever since! Buck holds a B.S. in Biology from Oakland University in Rochester, MI and has a 30+ year career in Human Resources. He currently works for Amazon in Employee Relations. When not working, you can usually find Buck with his family on the water, in the water, near the water, or thinking about the water. Although both Buck and his wife Rachael are native Michiganders, they reside in Cape Coral, FL with seven of their children still at home.
Laura Morris, Dive Safety Officer has been an active parent within SNI since 2014. She began Scuba diving while in college and has renewed her passion with an active role in SNI that has provided her the opportunity to share it with her son, Zack. Currently, she is providing support within SNI as the Sarasota Chapter Dive Officer and also as a grant writer. She is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a B.S. in biology and holds an M.S. in restoration ecology from the University of Florida. She has worked as an ecologist throughout Florida for over 20 years and has a broad background in freshwater wetlands and wildlife. Currently she is a reclamation supervisor with Mosaic.
Dr. Sara Williams, Science Coordinator, joined SNI in 2021 and is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Mote Marine Laboratory in the Coral Health and Disease Program. She completed her PhD in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at Northeastern University and her research uses network science and modeling combined with field work and physiological experiments to understand problems facing coral reefs. Dr. Williams learned to SCUBA dive in high school and has since completed certifications up to PADI Dive Master and AAUS Scientific Diver. When not underwater or in the lab, Dr. Williams spends her time spoiling her puppy, Poppy, and exploring the many state parks and beaches in Florida.
Orlando
Cameron Harrell, Chapter President, has a Professional Commercial and Recreational dive career that spans three decades with multiple continents and oceans. His twin daughters, Abigail and Camille, were open water certified at 10 years old in April 2022 and the family officially joined Scubanauts in January 2023. His wife Myla has been certified since January 2000 and his family tries to enjoy every diving opportunity that comes along. Cameron’s educational journey includes Graduate coursework in Business and Organizational Management, a B.S in Technical Management and an A.S. in Marine Technology. He trained professionally and was certified as a Commercial Saturation Diver and Hyperbaric Medical Technician, graduating from Oceaneering/National University Polytechnic. After graduation, he enjoyed a global career working on subsea engineering projects, salvage operations, ran hyperbaric chamber operations for both dives and medical treatment, performed environmental offshore oil and gas pipeline inspections, provided the occasional sea turtle capture and relocation away from offshore oil platforms (one of his most enjoyable activities) and served as a Chief Dive Safety Officer over Saturation Dive and Flight Operations (his most stressful position). Cameron in the professional recreation dive world has been a certified PADI Divemaster for over 3 decades, is a PSS Assistant Dive Instructor and a DAN Instructor. He also served 4 years in the U.S. Marine Corps as an EOD/Hazardous Materials and Logistics Specialist. His goal with Scubanauts is to support the core mission with our youth and also have them spiritually and intellectually inspired with the underwater world.
Stacy Ramsey, Chapter Membership Coordinator, is a lover of oceanography and marine biology, her background is actually in film and TV production, where she was able to focus on Underwater Cinematography as an Assistant Cameraman in Los Angeles. She received her Open Water certification back in 1990 through PADI while living in California and moved to Florida in 1998 to work in warmer waters! She met her husband and never returned to CA. Fast Forward to 2020 and her love of all things ocean is now shared with her husband and two teen SCUBAnaut boys. “I wish I would have found a program like SCUBAnauts when I was growing up. The knowledge, leadership and connections are invaluable for all professions in life. The ability to learn, conduct and submit scientific research, participate in meaningful conservation, build bridges and friendships all while diving and doing what I love is an incredible opportunity. How could I not, want to be involved!!! It’s my pleasure to be here and I look forward to contributing and being part of this wonderful program. I hope you’ll join us!”
Sarah Vinson, Science Coordinator, serves the Orlando Chapter in both science and dive safety roles. She has a bachelor’s degree in Biology with a focus in Marine Science from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Sarah grew up in Pinellas county Florida and has always wanted to work in or around the water. She began diving since 2015 so she could join SCUBAnauts as a naut. She actively participated in SSI as a naut until 2019, when she became an adult leader. She was certified as an SSI Open Water Scuba Instructor in 2019 and a DAN Instructor in 2018. Sarah attributes a lot of her current success to being in SNI and wants to continue giving that opportunity to future nauts.
Management & Leadership Team
Chief Operations Officer & Dive Safety Officer
Katie Shoultz Cooper is the chief operations officer and works within the dive safety and science education teams. She began volunteering with the St. Petersburg chapter in 2012 and helped launch the Tampa Chapter in 2014. She has a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Arizona State University where she focused on marine ecology and received her masters in business administration through the University of Florida. Katie fell in love with the ocean at a young age and began diving at the age of 12. She loves working with SCUBAnauts to build their diving and science skills and encouraging them to use their talents to mentor each other and improve their communities.
Chief Science Officer
Tricia Kramer holds a Master of Science in biological oceanography, a Bachelor of Science in marine science and a Bachelor of Arts in English. Ms. Kramer has held positions in her science career ranging from lab technician to director and founder. Some of her work has involved assessments of coral reef communities, surveys of terrestrial and wetland environments including tropical hardwood hammocks, fresh and salt water marshes, mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs, surveys to determine the abundance and distribution of endangered and threatened species, water quality monitoring, reproduction of marine invertebrates, and radio tagging and telemetry of manatees. She maintains several director and board positions, but finds her most important role is as the mother of three and through homeschooling shares her love of learning with them daily.
Kate Dubickas, M.Sc., has volunteered with SCUBAnauts International (SNI) as a Chapter Scientist from 2014 to present. During her time with SNI, Kate has helped develop annual in-class curricula and underwater dive labs, mentored Masternaut and Summer Research projects, and acted as Scientist in Charge on numerous dives. She holds Bachelor degrees in Marine Science and Environmental Studies from Stony Brook University, and both a Master’s of Science and a teaching certificate from the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science. She has had experience working in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, as well as the Gulf of Mexico. Kate’s continued volunteerism and support of SNI’s mission is strongly linked to her passion for youth education in ocean science and seeing the formative role SNI has played in her students’ lives.
Website Design and Development
Wendy Westbrook was introduced to SCUBAnauts through her work with Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge. She was happy to help them get their website set up so they could share their projects, discoveries, and knowledge with the world. Wendy owns Damsel Branding, and provides website hosting, design and ongoing development of the website.
Board of Directors
Dr. Michael P. Crosby came to Mote Marine Laboratory following his appointments as Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development at George Mason University, and Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Hawai’i – Hilo. Prior to those appointments, he served in a federal Senior Executive Service position as Executive Director of the National Science Board in Washington, DC; the Senior Advisor for International Science Policy and Executive Director for the Science Advisory Board of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dr. Crosby obtained a Master of Science in biology, with honors, from Old Dominion University and a Ph.D. in marine-estuarine-environmental sciences at the University of Maryland. Dr. Crosby is currently on the Boards of, and has served as President for, several national and international science societies. In May 2013, after serving for 3 years as Mote’s Senior Vice President for Research, Mote’s Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Crosby as President & CEO of Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium.
Dr. Teresa Greely provides expertise in the areas of biological oceanography, ecological physiology, marine fishes, and ocean science education. She has broad research interests which encompass teaching and training about the ocean sciences in three areas: graduate and undergraduate education, teacher education, and ocean literacy amongst youth. She currently coordinates four education programs: The Oceanography Camp for Girls (OCG), the In-service Teacher Oceanography Workshops (In-TOW), the National Ocean Science Bowl’s regional Spoonbill Bowl competition, and the OCEANS Teaching Fellowships. In addition to teaching natural sciences and science education courses, Dr. Greely, also developed a series of graduate courses focused on teaching and communicating ocean sciences. Programs and courses are designed to teach science parallel to the way science is practiced in a research setting: courses are inquiry based, experiential, and learner guided. Dr. Greely’s current research encompasses ocean literacy and reasoning about ocean issues by determining the influence of content, experience, and morality. The objective is to determine what youth around the world know about the ocean, what their attitudes are about ocean stewardship, and what they think about ocean issues.Laura Morris has been an active parent within SNI since 2014. She began Scuba diving while in college and has renewed her passion with an active role in SNI that has provided her the opportunity to share it with her son, Zack. Currently, she is providing support within SNI as the Sarasota Chapter Dive Officer and also as a grant writer. She is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a B.S. in biology and holds an M.S. in restoration ecology from the University of Florida. She has worked as an ecologist throughout Florida for over 20 years and has a broad background in freshwater wetlands and wildlife. Currently she is a reclamation supervisor with Mosaic.
Previous Members of the Board
Ben Hayes is the son of SMSGT Ben Hayes Jr., USAF (deceased), a recipient of a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, and who served with the Air Force Security Forces for 26 years.
Ben has worked in professional baseball for 32 of the past 38 years, and has been a Florida-licensed and practicing attorney for the past 24 years. Ben pitched 9 years in professional baseball, of which 2½ seasons were in the Major Leagues with the Cincinnati Reds. Ben was General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of Minor League Baseball from 1993 to 2000 and, from May 2001 to the present, has served as the President and Chairman of the Board for the New York-Penn League, the oldest, continuously-operated CLASS A league in professional baseball. He also served as the President and Chairman of the Board of the New York-Penn League Charitable Foundation since 2002, and currently serves as the Vice Chairman of Minor League Baseball’s Council of League Presidents and as the Chairman of Minor League Baseball’s Charities Committee.
Captain David R. Olson retired from the U.S. Navy in 2009 and has remained active in the local community. He started a Boy Scout Troop for his local church and served as Scoutmaster of another. He founded SCUBAnauts International in 2001, a marine sciences program that introduces young men and women, ages 12-18, to informal science education through underwater exploration and has led over eight underwater research expeditions with SCUBAnauts throughout the Florida Keys, Bahamas and Hawaii.
In 2010, David founded the non-profit Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge program to improve the lives of our wounded and injured military veterans through rehabilitative, high-adventure challenges, and therapeutic outdoor recreational activities while conducting scientific research studies to speed their recovery and that of their families. He has led over twenty-five expeditions to further this research and treatment associated with prosthetics, Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
David has also served as a Naval Academy Blue and Gold Officer, providing admissions guidance to high school candidates interested in pursuing a degree from the U.S. Naval Academy with a commission as an officer in the Navy or Marine Corps. He also serves on both Florida Senator Bill Nelson’s and Congressman Gus Bilirakis’ Naval Academy nomination screening boards.
Dr. Teresa Kennedy served on the SNI Board of Directors from 2006-2016. Highlights during that time include serving as an educational advisor during student annual summer diving challenges off Key West and attending Combat Wounded Warrior Diving Challenges; facilitating student Blogs documenting SNI’s Operation Deep Climb expedition in Hawaii (2007) to summit Mauna Kea and visit the undersea slopes of Hawaii in Pisces IV and V submersibles; and working with SNI Board members and NOAA National Marine Sanctuary leadership to create the Ocean for Life program, an international ocean science and cultural exchange program created to inspire a more peaceful world, dawning from the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Ocean for Life brought together GLOBE students from the Near East North Africa Region and North America to study at U. S. National Marine Sanctuaries (2009; 2011; 2013). Teresa is a Professor of International STEM Education at the University of Texas at Tyler and holds a joint appointment in the College of Education and Psychology School of Education, and in the College of Engineering. She currently serves as Vice President of the NGO UNESCO Liaison Committee, also serving as their liaison to the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) on activities related to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).