Captain Jim “Homer” Holm
Founder
In a 40-year career Homer has been fortunate to serve on all manner of sail and power craft in a variety of locations globally, including high speed rescue craft, tugs and barges, dredging and towing, Grand Prix sail racing on bay, coastal and ocean races, traditional and square-rigged training and deep-sea research vessels and crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans a few times. Homer worked on white shark research for Monterey Bay Aquarium and for the West Coast Large Whale disentanglement team and has worked on TV and movie sets on the water.
Captain Holmer enjoyed the opportunity to create marine science education programs for O’Neill International, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, spreading awareness and appreciation of the ocean to over a hundred thousand. The MBA component on Plastic Pollution was life changing.
On his third delivery through the Panama Canal in 2008, Homer became acutely aware of oceanic plastic pollution and helped found Clean Oceans International upon return home. Their mission to reduce plastic pollution through Education, Innovation and Direct Action has taken him and COI staff to Alaska, Brazil, Cuba, Europe, Hawaii India and others to study and discuss the plastic pollution problem.
COI is leading the global movement to shrink the size and cost of plastic to fuel conversion to unlock localized monetary motivation for effective plastic waste management before it can escape to become an environmental nightmare.
For information click on www.cleanoceansinternational.com and visit www.ponocharters.com .
Dr Jay Pennock
Treasurer
Dr Jay Pennock is currently working as a Functional Medicine physician after over 20 years as an Emergency Medicine doctor in the Monterey Bay area. He owns his own clinic in downtown Santa Cruz called Navigator Medical Consultancy. Dr Pennock chose that name because it resonated with his love of the ocean and his lifelong passion for sailing, surfing and scuba diving.
He has supported Homer’s vision and journey for decades before being asked to join the Board of Directors of Clean Oceans International. Dr Pennock is proud to be part of COI’s well-guided and intended mission to respond to and remediate the global crisis of plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans.
David Schwartz
Education Director
Professor David Schwartz is the Department Chair of Geology, Oceanography and Environmental Science at Cabrillo College in Aptos California. He obtained a B.S. degree in Geology and Mineralogy from The Ohio State University in the spring of 1979.
Afterward, David earned a M.S. in Marine Geology from San Jose State University and Moss Landing Marine Labs in 1983. His emphasis is in marine geology, estuarine evolution and coastal systems. His master’s thesis on the Geologic History of Elkhorn Slough was published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (1986) and Changes in A California Estuary (2002). He is a member of the Science Panel for the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve whose mission is to resolve erosion problems and preserve wetlands in Elkhorn Slough.
David has been teaching Earth and Marine Science in California since 1984 at Hartnell College in Salinas and San Jose State University before acquiring his position at Cabrillo College. He became full-time Cabrillo College faculty in 1986, and was the recipient of the Floyd Younger Award for Teaching Excellence in 1998. In addition, David has worked with faculty and students from San Lorenzo Valley High School (SLVHS) for over 20 years. He mentored SLVHS students in Beach Profiling research projects and many other advanced placement activities.
His current and ongoing passion is the coastal environment and public awareness of global marine debris. He has hosted over 40 coastal cleanups over 21 years, and is proud to be a Board Member of Clean Oceans International (COI), having been involved since 2010. He also works with USGS, UCSC, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and The Coastal Watershed Council. David and his students do hands on work in the lab and the field. Geology field trips explore and study at Big Sur, North Coast, Santa Cruz Mountains and local beaches, Pinnacles National Park and Yosemite National Park. Hands on field monitoring projects include beach profiling, plankton monitoring, Aptos Creek watershed monitoring and quantitative beach debris surveys with COI.
Tobie Louw
Development Director
Tobie’s whole family is onboard focusing to use less “single-use” plastics, perform family beach clean-ups and continuous education and awareness in our Community. His respect for nature was instilled in him by his Father hiking all across Southern Africa since he was 5 years old, who always told him: “you only take pictures and all you leave behind are your footprints”. He tries to promote change in our World through good values and respect for one another as well as future generations by showing respect for nature and our Planet. Learning and adapting helps people overcome the challenges our Planet face every day.
With a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, he has earned International business and technology experience at multiple global corporations like Oracle, HP, BMC and Alibaba Cloud.
He joined Clean Oceans International (COI) 2 years ago as he wants to make a difference in human behavior and truly believes in the serious threat plastics represent to the health of our Oceans and our Planet. Through innovation, education and proper application, we can be the imminent change our Oceans and Planet demands of us.
Lynnea Gibbs
Development Director
Lynnea Gibbs is a business development and sales professional with 20+ years of hands-on experience in formulating winning sales and business programs in fast-growth markets in the computer hardware and software industry. She combines insight and vision with pragmatic strategies and solutions to reach revenue and market objectives. Skilled in market channel sales development and management, including strategic planning, program management, team management, marketing program development and contract negotiations.
She has mentored clean tech and international start-up companies as well as sat on the board of Women in CleanTech.
In her spare time, you can find her doing yoga or running on the beach with her pup, Lily.
Patricia Lieberg-Clark
Secretary
She grew up in Huntington Beach, California, where she fell in love with ocean at an early age. She assisted with marine mammal studies conducted through Orange Coast College before transferring to UCSC as student of biology. During this time, she had the opportunity to participate in shipboard marine mammal studies off the coast of southern California, Puget Sound, and British Columbia. At UCSC, Patricia earned a Bachelor’s degree that was focused on marine mammal biology, strandings, and pollution ecology.
Patricia subsequently participated in two long-term sailing voyages, one from Santa Barbara to Mexico; and the other, a west-to-east transit through the Panama Canal and exploration of the San Blas Islands. She observed a great deal of plastic debris during these journeys at sea, and was shocked to note how much debris could be observed in the remote regions.
She believes that the marine plastic debris challenge may be large, but groups of people with multi-faceted experience can work together to create solutions to this environmental problem. She also believes that education and innovative ideas are the key to the solution.
Patricia became involved with COI while working as teaching assistant for Cabrillo College Oceanography and Environmental Science in 2010, when Cabrillo and COI began an exciting educational collaboration and internship program. Patricia plans to remain active with COI as she studies marine biodiversity and conservation in Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the Fall of 2019.
She enjoys, sailing, hiking, kayaking, biology, geology, and coffee.