Nichola Clark
Nichola Clark leads Pew’s work related to the United Nations treaty on marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) as part of the Trusts’ campaign to address gaps in ocean governance through meaningful international cooperation. Working with partner organizations and coalitions, Clark serves as a strategic and technical expert on the BBNJ treaty and specializes in high seas marine protected areas and the treaty’s interaction with other management bodies. She also serves as the co-lead for the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Commission on Protected Areas High Seas Specialist Group.
Before joining Pew, Clark worked on international fisheries issues at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and on deep-sea and high-seas research at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany. She is a member of the sixth cohort of Homeward Bound, a global leadership program for women in STEMM fields.
Clark holds bachelor’s degrees in English and in environmental public policy and law, both from Trinity College, and a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wollongong’s Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, where her research focuses on area-based management tools and institutional arrangements for the BBNJ agreement. (https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/experts/nichola-clark)
Steven Bryant
Steven Bryant’s music is chiseled in its structure and intent, fusing lyricism, dissonance, silence, technology, and humor into lean, skillfully-crafted works that enthrall listeners and performers alike. His seminal work Ecstatic Waters, for wind ensemble and electronics, has become one of the most performed works of its kind in the world, receiving over 250 performances in its first five seasons. The son of a professional trumpeter and music educator, he strongly values music education, and his creative output includes a number of works for young and developing musicians.
Steven studied composition with John Corigliano at The Juilliard School, Cindy McTee at the University of North Texas, and Francis McBeth at Ouachita University, trained for one summer in the mid-1980s as a break-dancer (i.e. was forced into lessons by his mother), was the 1987 radio-controlled car racing Arkansas state champion, has a Bacon Number of 1, and has played saxophone with Branford Marsalis on Sleigh Ride.
Peter Askim
Active as a composer, conductor and collaborative connector, Peter Askim is the Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists and the conductor of the Raleigh Civic Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, as well as Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University. He was previously Music Director and Composer-in-Residence of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra. He has also been a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and served on the faculty of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where he directed the Contemporary Music Ensemble and taught theory and composition.
As a conductor, he is known for innovative programming, championing the work of living composers and his advocacy of underrepresented voices in the concert hall. With the creation of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Askim founded a festival dedicated to the next generation of performers, composers and choreographers. Founded in 2013, the Festival encourages young artists, ages 20-30, to focus on artistic development, entrepreneurial career strategies and the music of living composers. With the Raleigh Civic Orchestras, Askim has pioneered collaborative, multimedia concert events focused on social and environmental justice and has programmed a newly-commissioned world premiere on each concert for the last seven seasons. Themes have included Martin Luther King, Jr.’s North Carolina “I Have A Dream” speech and a work for Virtual Reality and orchestra highlighting the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Voting Rights Act.
Tony Huang
Dr. Yuh-Chin Tony Huang is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. He earned his MD from National Taiwan University and completed a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Duke. His clinical and research interests include environmental medicine, oxidative lung injury, COPD, and hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI and regional lung function, and you can read about his many contributions to pulmonary medicine here. Just as importantly, Tony is a long-time member of the DMO violin section.
Sara Peach
Along with being a DMO clarinetist, Sara Peach is the editor-in-chief of Yale Climate Connections. She is an environmental journalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, Environmental Health News, Grist, and Chemical & Engineering News. For her reporting on environmental issues, she has earned awards from the National Press Photographers Association, Pictures of the Year International, and the Society of Environmental Journalists. She joined the editorial team at Yale Climate Connections in 2016.
Previously, Sara taught for more than five years at the journalism school at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she led courses in environmental journalism and served as the associate director of the Reese News Lab, a media entrepreneurship program.
Sara holds a master’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, both from UNC-Chapel Hill.(https://yaleclimateconnections.org/author/speach/)