NOAA’s Southeast and Caribbean Regional Collaboration Team
About the Team
The NOAA Southeast and Caribbean Regional Team (SECART) is one of eight regional teams. The 20-member team includes a Team Lead and a full-time Regional Coordinator. Team members reflect the diversity of NOAA within the Southeast and U.S. Caribbean, and are comprised of NOAA employees and NOAA partners. SECART also utilizes a workgroup (sub-team) structure to focus its activities and reach beyond team members to bring in additional expertise for specific activities. To learn more about the NOAA offices and labs represented by team members, visit the links associated with their home offices provided below.
NOAA Regional Team Members:
- Richard Bandy, Meteorologist-in-Charge, Newport/Morehead City, NC Weather Forecast Office
- David Brown, Regional Climate Services Director, Southern Region, National Climatic Data Center
- Billy Causey, Regional Director, Southeast Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Region - Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
- Scott Cross, East Coast Liaison, National Coastal Data Development Center
- Sarah Fangman, Associate Science Coordinator, Southeast Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Region - Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
- Virginia Fay, Senior Policy Analyst, NOAA Fisheries Service Southeast Regional Office
- Darin Figursky, Meteorologist-in-Charge, Raleigh, NC Weather Forecast Office
- Annie Hillary, International Affairs Specialist, National Ocean Service International Program Office
- Aleta Hohn, Director, Southeast Fisheries Science Center - Beaufort Laboratory
- Chuck Hopkinson, Director, Georgia Sea Grant
- Ed Kearns, Remote Sensing Applications Division Chief, National Climate Data Center
- Alan Leonardi, Deputy Director, Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory
- Ellen Mecray, Regional Climate Services Director, Eastern Region, National Climatic Data Center
- David Newcomer, FL-State Geodetic Advisor, National Geodetic Survey Advisor Program
- Peter Ortner, Director, Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies at University of Miami
- Bethney Ward, Coastal Geospatial Services Project Lead, NOAA Coastal Services Center
- Pace Wilber, Atlantic Branch Chief, Habitat Conservation Division - NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office
- Dana Wusinich-Mendez, Atlantic-Caribbean Region Management Liaison, Coral Reef Conservation Program
What We Do
NOAA established the Regional Collaboration effort to support integrated, regionally-tailored implementation of NOAA-wide programmatic priorities and provide a more systematic approach to both internal and external communications. NOAA has a responsibility to produce relevant, reliable and timely scientific information to support decision-makers and fulfill its stewardship mandates. Regional Collaboration enables NOAA to achieve this by identifying and applying NOAA’s full range of capabilities, within and across regions to improve our productivity and value to stakeholders.
Regional Teams add value to NOAA’s mission by:
- Understanding stakeholder needs,
- Understanding NOAA’s capabilities in the region,
- Being aware of the activities and capabilities of NOAA’s current and prospective partners,
- Synthesizing regional needs and capabilities into a list of achievable and nationally significant priorities, and
- Building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders and partners.
Regional Collaboration expands upon existing regional coordination and communication efforts with a shift towards Regional Collaboration, which adds the component of integrating program activities to address NOAA’s priorities at both the national and regional scale. The purpose of regional collaboration is to improve NOAA’s productivity and value to customers, using existing authority and accountability structures.
For more background information on NOAA Alaska Region Collaboration Team (ARCTic), or to find out more about our planned activities, please see our annual operating plan:
SECART FY2011 Integrated Operating Plan