Rick advises NGOs, governments, and industry as an international conservation and sustainability consultant in Anchorage, Alaska. For 15 years Rick worked as a professor and statewide conservation specialist at the University of Alaska and had primary responsibility for the university’s Environmental Conservation Extension Mission. Previously, Rick was an Associate Professor and Marine Advisory Program Agent for Prince William Sound in Cordova, Alaska. Rick fulfilled leadership roles in coordinating the response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill by helping organize and direct the emergency response on behalf of the local fishing industry; initiating the effort to settle natural resource damage claims among the State, the U.S., and Exxon resulting in landmark $1 billion settlement and environmental restoration program; co-founding the Prince William Sound Science Center in Cordova; and helping initiate the PWS Oil Spill Recovery Institute. Rick’s outspoken and effective criticism of the oil industry caused him to lose his federal grant funding at the University of Alaska, after which he joined the PEER board. Rick has brought his expertise in coordinating oil spill response efforts to the recent BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Joined the Board May 2010.