Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation

Leslie currently is the Advisory Council Coordinator at the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in San Francisco. She is the recipient of a Switzer Leadership grant this year, to coordinate a stakeholder process focused on reducing the risk of shipstrike on endangered whales off the coast of California. Last year, Leslie was a NOAA Sea Grant Legislative Fellow with the Senate Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard. The committee provides oversight to NOAA and the USCG on issues such as: oil spills, fisheries management, endangered species protection, marine spatial planning, ocean acidification, marine debris, commercial shipping, Arctic issues and offshore renewable energy. Leslie received her Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara in 2009, with a specialization in Coastal Marine Resource Management. While at UCSB, Leslie worked with the NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary to protect large cetaceans from fatal ship strikes in Santa Barbara channel. She has also worked in Prince William Sound, Alaska for the Oil Spill Recovery Institute, assessing the predictive capabilities of weather and oceanographic circulation models for oil spill response. Leslie’s background also includes time as a professional mariner, diver and outdoor educator. She spent seven years working for non profits such as Outward Bound, Sea Education Association and the Los Angeles Maritime Institute, sailing along both coasts of the United States, the Caribbean islands, Mediterranean Sea and twice across the Atlantic. She also spent 1½ years on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hydrographic research vessel RAINIER, where she worked as a Seaman Surveyor throughout Southeast Alaska and down the Aleutian Island chain.