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Captain Jim “Homer” Holm
Founder
capthomer@cointl.org In a 45-year career Homer has served on all manner of sail and power craft including high speed rescue craft and slow steady tugboats, grand prix sail racers and square-rigged training vessels in internationally. Captain Holm has crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans a few times, worked on white shark research for Monterey Bay Aquarium and on the water response teams for the West Coast Large Whale Disentanglement Network. Homer has TV and movie experience on the water as well. Jim was given the opportunity to create marine science education programs for O’Neill International, in 1996 and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2004, spreading awareness and appreciation of the ocean to hundreds of thousands of students and families in his home waters. In the latter program he included a plastic pollution component that changed his life. On a delivery through the Panama Canal in 2008, Homer raised his own awareness of oceanic plastic pollution and upon return home he helped found The Clean Oceans Project. TCOP morphed into Clean Oceans International (COI) in 2015, to reduce plastic pollution through Research, Innovation and Direct Action. This Journey has taken him and COI staff to study and teach about the plastic pollution problem internationally. |
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David Schwartz
Education Director
daschwar@cabrillo.edu Professor David Schwartz is Department Chair of Geology, Oceanography and Environmental Science at Cabrillo College in Aptos California. David earned a Masters in Marine Geology from San Jose State University Moss Landing Marine Labs in 1983. His 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 on the Science Panel of Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Reserve. David began teaching in 1984 at Hartnell College in Salinas and San Jose State University before he became full-time Cabrillo College faculty in 1986 winning the Floyd Younger Award for Teaching Excellence in 1998. David has worked with San Lorenzo Valley High School for over 20 years mentoring beach profiling and other advanced placement activities. Daves ongoing passion is marine debris, hosting 40 coastal cleanups over 21 years and he is a Board Member of Clean Oceans International (COI) since 2010. Professor Schwartz works with USGS, UCSC, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and The Coastal Watershed Council, leading field trips at Big Sur, North Coast, Santa Cruz Mountains and beaches, Pinnacles and Yosemite National Park leading hands on field projects including beach profiling, plankton monitoring, Aptos Creek watershed monitoring and quantitative beach debris surveys with COI. |
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Patricia Lieberg-Clark
Board Secretary
patriciac@cointl.org Patti grew up in Huntington Beach, California, where she fell in love with the ocean at an early age. She assisted with marine mammal studies through Orange Coast College before transferring to UCSC in biology. Patricia trained in shipboard marine mammal studies off of southern California, Puget Sound, and British Columbia earning a Bachelor’s at UCSC in marine mammal biology, strandings, and pollution ecology. She made ocean sailing voyages from Santa Barbara to Mexico and a west-to-east transit through the Panama Canal and the San Blas Islands and was shocked by the amount of plastic pollution in remote locations. Patricia began with COI in 2010 while working as teaching assistant for Cabrillo College Oceanography and Environmental Science in an exciting educational collaboration and internship program. She remains active with COI while working on her Masters in marine biodiversity and conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 2019-2020. She enjoys, sailing, hiking, kayaking, biology, geology, and coffee. |
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Dr Jay Pennock
Treasurer
drjayp@cointl.org Dr Jay Pennock is a Functional Medicine Physician after over 20 years in Emergency Medicine in the Monterey Bay area. His downtown Santa Cruz clinic is named Navigator Medical Consultancy because it resonates with his love of the ocean and a lifelong passion for sailing, surfing and diving. Dr. Jay has supported Homer’s vision and journey for decades before joining the COI Board of Directors. He is proud to be part of COI’s mission to remediate the global crisis of plastic pollution in our oceans. |
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Tobie Louw
Development Director
tobiel@cointl.org Tobie’s whole family is using less “single-use” plastics, performing family beach clean-ups and continuously educating our community. His respect for nature was instilled by his Father while hiking across Southern Africa since he was 5 years old. Dad always told him: “only take pictures and leave behind footprints”. Tobie promotes change in our World through good values and respect for one another and future generations by respecting nature and overcoming challenges our planet faces every day. With a Master’s in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, he earned International business and technology experience at multiple global corporations like Oracle, HP, BMC and Alibaba Cloud. Tobie joined Clean Oceans International (COI) in 2018 to make a difference in human behavior believing that plastics represent danger to our oceans and our planet. Through research innovation, and direct action we can be the imminent change our Oceans and Planet demands of us. |
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Lynnea Gibbs
Development Director
lynneag@pacbell.net 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. |
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Gregg LynnExecutive Director
greggl@cointl.org Gregg has been a volunteer for COI for about 7 years joining this crusade because our oceans need our help immediately. He works in airline operations and flight coordination for Southwest Airlines and has served as Master Counselor and Treasurer for Fidelity Chapter of the Order of DeMolay, a masonic youth organization. Gregg has been with Southwest for 24 years, performing, training, improving and supervising flight coordination and logistics at San Jose airport. He has volunteered for and been invited to join numerous customer service initiatives and community outreach activities. Through a long, rewarding career he has been recognized with numerous accolades including agent of the quarter, perfect attendance, magazine articles and recently the Southwest Airlines Presidents Award. |
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Claudia RochaInternational Relations Director
claudiar@cointl.org Claudia Rocha is a lifelong sailor from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Her international background and her position as a flight attendant with Southwest Airlines fits well with her role as COI travel and International Relations Director. Claudia has introduced the issue of plastic pollution to many of her colleagues at SWA and to family and colleagues in her hometown of Niteroi, a suburb of Rio de Janiero, conducting annual beach cleanups and fundraising efforts on behalf of COI. |
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Joey BryanWeb and IT Advisor
joey@cointl.org Joey began volunteering at Clean Oceans International during his time as a student at UCSC where he acquired a BA in Environmental Studies and took an interest into GIS and mapping the Pacific Gyre. Today, Joey does Web Design and Development in New York City. He is the COI “tech guy” and webmaster. Along with a passion for technology and the web, Joey has a passion for the oceans, mountains, and cliffs of the world. |