Advisory Board

George Cummings
WFCRC Mission Blue Ocean Ambassador for United Nations SDG14

UN SDG14 Ocean Ambassador. He has the passion to make a small difference for the sustainable use of our worlds marine ecosystem. Provide visual expertise to assist groups of marine scientists with their quest to explore and discover better marine system practices.
His boots on the groundwork in the Caribbean and Bismarck Seas. WFCRC mission is to advance the understanding, use, and conservation of coral reefs and coastal environments. WFCRC teams are gathering and sharing eco-science data with local and global ocean stakeholder. His and our team is comprised of educational partnerships of concerned citizen science divers, multi-disciplined scientists, conservationist that are connected to the entire eco-science community. His primary goal is enhancing and empowering local island governments and stakeholders to use the “Blue Economy” to sustainably protect their vital limited marine resources. He utilizes his 30+ years of underwater projects.
“People protect what they LOVE” Jacques Cousteau
More info about George: www.wfcrc.org

James Gormley AEE
Scientist / Inventor

James Gormley AEE is a scientist / inventor holding many patents in the area of electrochemistry, material science, electronics, energy storage / harvesting, mechanics etc. Mr. Gormley was awarded a US Congressional Citation in 2009 for his work in energy storage. He has done confidential work for the Missile Defence Agency, Army Research Labs, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Wright Patterson base, TASER, INTEL, Raytheon etc.
Mr. Gormley was in charge of the R&D and testing of the Hyperloop Propulsion / Levitation system.
Currently Jim is the staff scientist for Wolverton Bailey home of the Center-poise engine and TBT Group inc.
“My plan is to create technology teams that problem solve environmental issues and enable all of Earths inhabitants to have better lives through science.” JG
Click here to get his LinkedIn profile

Melody Saunders Brenna
Coral-Reef Expert

Melody Saunders Brenna, CEO of Reef Life Restoration, a company specializing in oceanic infrastructure, using Nano-technology and Nano-science to rebuild the Ocean’s bone structure, and CEO and Co-Founder of Vicon Eco Systems Global Cellular Concrete Construction, a building materials nano technology company.
Restores damaged coral reefs, creating new engineered reef structures with breakthrough science and nanotechnologies, fostering the fastest growth possible. Their biocompatible surface textures and mineral formulations mimic the complex structure and composition of natural coral reefs.
These innovations have been developed over the past 12 years using nano materials research, bringing new reef solutions to this critical global problem. Solutions Partner: Sea Legacy https://www.sealegacy.org/

James A.R. MacFarlane
President, McFarlane Marine Services.

Mr. McFarlane’s early career was spent manufacturing underwater vehicles at International Submarine Engineering Ltd. (ISE) in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. He spent time at sea in the offshore oil and gas industry in Canada, Norway, Scotland and the United States operating Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) for various international commercial diving companies. Subsequently, he worked with the US Navy developing mine countermeasures robotics systems and methodologies. In 1987 he joined Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) as Chief ROV Pilot and departed in 2002 as one of the Institutes Directors. He was Vice President at Sound Ocean Systems in Redmond, Washington from 2007 until 2009 while maintaining and operating his marine consulting company. In September 2009 he was appointed as the Head of the Office of Resources and Environmental Monitoring for the International Seabed Authority. In this capacity, he was responsible for the management of all deep ocean mineral resources in the Area. In September of 2011 he returned to ISE as Executive Vice President and in March of 2018 he re-opened McFarlane Marine Services a boutique consulting company focused on the subsea marine marketplace.

His career has included international ocean policy creation, undersea systems development, oceanographic research, manufacturing, marine operations, training and management for a broad range of customers. These efforts were for academia, offshore oil and gas, military and educational programs. He was seconded from MBARI to train and lead Canadian Navy forces for wreckage recovery from the Swissair 111 disaster off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1998. His experience in all facets of subsea development, research and operations have provided him with a unique perspective on oceanographic endeavors and the marine environment. Mr. McFarlane is an experienced ROV pilot and has logged over 10,000 hours of piloting time, primarily for oceanographic research.

He was the co-chairperson of the National Science Foundation, National Visiting Committee, for the Marine Advanced Technology Center (MATE) for education from 1999 to 2009. He has also been directly involved in numerous film, television, and documentary programs highlighting oceanographic research, education and current news. He is active in the scientific oceanographic community and is an active speaker at workshops and conferences internationally. He is a Member of the Marine Technology Society, a Fellow National (’97) of the Explorers Club and is a member of the American Bureau of Shipping Underwater Vehicles and Systems Special Committee.
Click here to get McFarlane Marine Services company profile

Orren D. Schneider Ph.D, P.E.
Water Quality Industry Leader
www.h2oschneider.com 

Innovation – Research – Invention – Technical Expertise

Dr. Orren Schneider is currently the proprietor of his own LLC where he focuses on the optimization of water treatment plants and commercialization of innovative technologies in the municipal water treatment sector. Previously, he had worked for American Water as the Manager of Water Technology and the Research and Development team, where he was involved with research leading to the optimization of water treatment and distribution systems operations. Dr. Schneider has primary expertise in the evaluation and implementation of advanced water treatment technologies, to include coagulation/clarification/filtration, oxidation/disinfection, algae control, absorption, and membrane technologies. He has extensive experience with pilot plants specializing in collection and analysis of data for scale-up to full-scale operations.

Dr. Schneider has made numerous presentations at local, national, and international conferences; while also being a published author and co-author on many research reports and peer-reviewed journal articles.

He holds a BS in chemical engineering from Cornell University, and an MS and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is a member of AWWA, IWA, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has served as the chair of the AWWA National Plant Operations Research Committee as well as the NJAWWA Research and Technical Transfer Committee. Moreover, he is also a member of multiple local and national AWWA committees.
Click here to get Mr. Orren D. Schneider linkedin profile