  {"id":173214,"date":"2023-02-24T12:54:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T22:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=173214"},"modified":"2023-02-24T12:54:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T22:54:12","slug":"sea-grant-darren-lerner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/02\/24\/sea-grant-darren-lerner\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai\u02bbi Sea Grant director elected president of national association"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_173223\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-173223\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/manoa-sea-grant-lerner-d.jpg\" alt=\"man smiling\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-173223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/manoa-sea-grant-lerner-d.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/manoa-sea-grant-lerner-d-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/manoa-sea-grant-lerner-d-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-173223\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Darren Lerner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Darren T. Lerner<\/strong>, director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Sea Grant College Program<\/a> <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">(Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Sea Grant), has been elected president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/sga.seagrant.org\/\">Sea Grant Association<\/a> (<abbr>SGA<\/abbr>), a nonprofit organization that sets priorities for the 34 Sea Grant programs across the U.S. and provides a unified voice on issues of importance toward increasing the sustainability of the oceans and coasts and resilience of coastal communities.<\/p>\n<p>The two-year term spans 2023&#8211;24 and marks only the second time in the 45-year history of the <abbr>SGA<\/abbr> that the president has been elected from <span aria-label=\"Hawaii.\">Hawai&#699;i.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lerner\u2019s role provides a unique opportunity to elevate issues of critical importance to <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> and the Pacific such as Indigenous knowledge, stewardship, aquaculture and coastal resources, coastal hazards, building resilient communities, environmental and climate justice, the impacts of tourism on the economy, culture and environment and more.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I have known Darren for many years and am thrilled to be working alongside him as the new president of the Sea Grant Association,&rdquo; said Jonathan Pennock, director of NOAA\u2019s National Sea Grant College Program. &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/seagrant.noaa.gov\/\">The National Sea Grant Office<\/a> and the Sea Grant Association provide distinct and important leadership roles for the National Sea Grant College Program. I look forward to continuing the strong partnership between our office and the Sea Grant Association under Darren&#8217;s leadership as we work together to develop creative and impactful solutions to support coastal communities and advance coastal science.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In his new role, Lerner is ensuring <abbr>SGA<\/abbr> delegates have direct engagement with island communities, universities, state, federal and nonprofit experts in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> and the Pacific region to learn about cutting-edge research and education activities addressing climate change and promoting resilience.<\/p>\n<p>Lerner noted, &ldquo;As a nonprofit organization, the <abbr>SGA<\/abbr> has an important responsibility to represent the interests of the 34 Sea Grant programs and engage directly with members of Congress, the White House, U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA and other executive branches of the federal government. That said, this is a great opportunity to utilize this platform to bring the knowledge and understanding of issues facing <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> and the Pacific region front and center on a national scale, and provide an opportunity for communities to share their stories directly to help shape meaningful coastal and ocean policies.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu\/news-and-events\/darren-lerner-elected-president-of-sga\/\">For more information, see the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Sea Grant website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8211;By Cindy Knapman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Sea Grant Director Darren T. Lerner has been elected president of the Sea Grant Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[598,1314,635,73,438],"class_list":["post-173214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-manoa-sustainability","tag-sea-grant-college-program","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-sea-grant","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173214"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173227,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173214\/revisions\/173227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}