Get to know the Beach Chair Scientists

Ann McElhatton
Ann McElhatton has defined what it means to be a 21^st century armchair scientist. She finds creating opportunities that make marine science accessible to the general public (those without science degrees or in the science field day-to-day) to be a very rewarding experience. In fact, Ann enjoys it so much that in 2008 she founded Beach Chair Scientist!

The site has received over 310,000 visitors in less than three years. It has been featured in the NOAA’s Information Exchange for Marine Educators, linked on numerous websites and blogs (including USGS, WildCoast, and Conservation Law Foundation), and has been shared as a teaching resource on environmental educator websites from Hawaii to New Jersey.

Ann has been a field biologist and a naturalist instructing various audiences for over a decade. As a south Jersey native, she loves any teachable moment where she can demonstrate the gentle and extraordinary attributes of the Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus.

Ann has a B.S. in Marine Resources Management from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and an M.Ed. in Environmental Education from Florida Atlantic University. She is currently the Program Manager with the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program, and is a member of the North American Association of Environmental Educators, National Marine Educators Association and the Mid-Atlantic Marine Educators Association.

Lastly, Ann loves spending time with her husband, daughter, and precocious dog, Scout, at their home in northern Virginia. Her favorite piece of literature is The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson. “The day is always his who works in it with serenity and great aims.”

Find her @bcsanswers or on Facebook.

 

Other Contributors

Dr. J. G. McCully
Jim is a retired medical doctor, who wrote Beyond the Moon: A Conversational, Common Sense Guide to Understanding the Tides. See publisher’s link: http://www.worldscibooks.com/environsci/6015.

Jim Wharton
Jim’s marine biological destiny began nearly 30 years ago with the eagerly anticipated Scholastic Books delivery of Shark Lady, a biography of shark researcher Eugenie Clark. Shark Lady sent him on a convoluted path that led through the University of Michigan, a blood analysis lab, two restaurants and a saw mill, through graduate school at Oregon State University, seven years as an education specialist and supervisor at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and three more years developing education programs and exhibits at the Smithsonian Marine Station, before finally coming to rest right where he belongs at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium (not so coincidentally founded by the Shark Lady herself) where he serves as the Director of the Center for School and Public Programs. He now holds the title of Director of Education at the Seattle Aquarium. Jim is a past president of the Florida Marine Science Educators Association and sits on the Board of the National Marine Educators Association as the Florida Chapter Representative.

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