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Women4Oceans
London Event March 2017

​Women4Oceans held its first ever networking event in London on March 30 at the Library Club.

Whilst the evening was guided by panel of speakers, the event itself sought to be inclusive, giving everybody the chance to speak. We allotted time for mini-presentations of up to two minutes and the opportunity of doing short interviews-to-camera in the networking breaks.

For more pictures and feedback on the event check out the blog.

Panelists

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Lauren Weatherdon is an interdisciplinary marine scientist and a passionate traveller, with a love for design and learning. She holds a BA in English literature and an MSc from the Fisheries Centre (now Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries) in Vancouver, where she researched the impacts of climate change on coastal indigenous communities’ access to culturally- and nutritionally-important fisheries resources. She currently works as a Programme Officer at the United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) in Cambridge, UK, where she specialises in communicating scientific knowledge in ways that can be used to inform policy- and decision-making. This work spans many topics, from effective approaches to monitoring the status of marine and coastal habitats globally to ways to develop online tools that communicate biodiversity information effectively. She is excited to share experiences and to generate ideas for how Women4Oceans can empower women globally by increasing awareness and dismantling both the visible and invisible barriers to achieving equal engagement and opportunities in marine conservation.
Emily Penn is an oceans advocate, skipper and artist; a graduate of Cambridge University with a degree in Architecture. She has organised the largest ever community-led waste cleanup from a tiny Tongan island, trawled for micro plastics on a voyage through the Arctic Northwest Passage, rounded the planet on the record-breaking biofuelled boat Earthrace, and worked on a sailing cargo ship trading western supplies for coconuts. Emily was recently honoured with the Fitzroy Award at the 2016 Ocean Awards and is also the youngest and only female recipient of both the Yachtmaster of the Year, awarded by HRH Princess Royal, and the Seamaster of the Year award. She splits her time between leading expeditions and running Pangaea Explorations, the organisation she established to enable scientists, filmmakers and everyday people gain access to the most remote parts of our planet; collecting data on global issues. Emily has spoken around the world at conferences, universities and global companies, sharing both her adventures and an understanding of the issues relating to our oceans, human mindset and future society.

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Morven Robertson was born in Scotland but spent her childhood and school years in Gabon, Malaysia and Singapore, where she first experienced work in the marine world at a fish farm as a hatchery technician. She has a BSc (Geography) from Keele University and an MSc (Marine Environmental Management) from the University of York during which time has spent time in Bermuda developing marine legislation for the government. Morven has been responsible for the development and implementation of a number of inshore marine conservation and fisheries management projects in the UK. Communication has been paramount to her roles frequently requiring delicate negotiation to effectively facilitate discussions between heavily invested stakeholders often with strong and conflicting opinions.
Currently, Morven is the UK Project Officer for the marine conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation (BLUE). In her role with BLUE she works to deliver sustainable models of fishing that achieve real conservation gains and economic rewards to fishermen and local communities. Previously Morven collaborated with industry members and retailers to ensure that a credible and varied choice of sustainable seafood was available to UK consumers. Her other experience has involved development of best practice approaches to inshore fisheries management in Scotland and national level stakeholder engagement.​
Amber Cobley is a second year PhD Student with the Natural History Museum, London and the University of Southampton, supervised by Dr. Adrian Glover, Dr. Maria Baker and Dr. Jon Copley. Her current research focusses on how the new emerging industry of deep-sea mining for metals and rare earth elements could affect biodiversity, and how national and international law, as well as international collaborations, can create a more environmentally sound exploitation of the deep sea. At the moment, she is on secondment from her PhD working on a foresight report for the UK Government Office for Science called the “Future of the Sea”. Later this year, she will be working for the International Seabed Authority, the regulator of activities in waters beyond national jurisdiction, in Kingston, Jamaica helping in the development of the environmental exploitation regulations and associated environmental management plans for deep-seabed mining. Previously, Amber completed her MSci Marine Biology at the University of Southampton, where she then moved on to work with the Deep Sea Conservation and Research Unit (@DeepSeaCRU) at Plymouth University under Dr. Kerry Howell.Her research focused on predictive habitat mapping of ​deep-sea biotopes to advise marine protected area management. She is active in outreach, having given multiple presentations both publicly and academically, and is especially engaged with social media both personally (@cobbers_ocean) and for the international Deep Sea Biology Society (@DSBSoc). She is also chair of the Student Committee and works for the Events team, both at the Natural History Museum and is actively involved in the local volunteer marine group in her original hometown of Newquay, Cornwall (@NewquayMarine).
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​event co-organiser:
Gerlinde Schäffter
​

Growing up in the Philippines and Malta she developed an intense love for anything marine. While exploring all the marine field has to offer, Gerlinde's work has included researching Marine Protected Areas for the Zoological Society of London, managing whale shark data for WWF, and coordinating projects for Green Fins (a Reef World/UNEP initiative focused on creating an environmentally sustainable diving industry). She spent two years working in Washington, D.C. with Marine Conservation Institute as a Marine Protected Areas Database Coordinator where she raised awareness and a greater understanding on the importance of Marine Protected Areas through social media, direct lobbying, and written pieces. She also worked with Blue Frontier managing, identifying, and writing grants for a multitude of ocean conservation projects.
 

Gerlinde has now moved back to London where she graduated a few years ago from Imperial College with a Master’s Degree in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation. She currently works at DEFRA managing post-Brexit fisheries policy. She is a member of the IUCN WCPA Young Professionals Task force and is volunteering her time as a social media manager. Gerlinde is eager to help strengthen the local marine community, using her experiences with the tight knit marine community in Washington, D.C. as an example. She helped organise the Women4Oceans first event in London. Gerlinde can be reached at: gerlinde@schaeffter.com and you can follow her on twitter: @gerlindeScha
portrait of organiser Gerlinde
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​Email: info@women4oceans.org
Registered Charity (KvK): 67775780
​The Hague, The Netherlands
​

  • Home
  • About
    • Background
    • Volunteers
    • Founder
    • Board
    • Funding & Charitable Status
  • Directory
  • Join Us
  • NEWS & EVENTS
    • Meet the network
    • Calendar
    • News >
      • Coffee Challenge Campaign
    • Events >
      • London Event
      • Tokyo Event
  • Tools
    • Resources
    • Gender Balance Bingo
  • Shop
    • Book: The Ocean and Us