Each year, the Urban Coast Institute hosts a Future of the Ocean Symposium and Champion of the Ocean Awards reception at Monmouth University. The Champion of the Ocean Award was established in 2005 to honor individuals who have undertaken actions and demonstrated sustained leadership that ensures coasts and oceans are clean, safe, sustainably managed, and preserved for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.
Previous Champion of the Ocean honorees include ocean explorer Robert Ballard, marine biologist and explorer Sylvia Earle, ocean scientist and advocate Jean-Michael Cousteau, and former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. See below for full list of honorees.
Past Event Pages
All-Time Honorees
National Champions of the Ocean
2025: Larry Mayer, Ph.D., director of the University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and chair of U.S. Arctic Research Commission; Congressman Frank Pallone; Victor Vescovo, CDR, USN (Ret.), ocean explorer and CEO of Caladan Oceanic
2023: Margaret Leinen, Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography director; Richard Spinrad, Ph.D., National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) administrator
2019: Rear Admiral Timothy Gallaudet, NOAA deputy administrator
2018: Marcia McNutt, Ph.D., National Academy of Sciences president; former New Jersey Governors Thomas Kean and James Florio, honorary co-chairs of the New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance
2017: Barry Gold, Walton Family Foundation environmental program director; Biliana Cicin-Sain, Ph.D., director, Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy at the University of Delaware
2016: Robert Ballard, Ph.D., Ocean Exploration Trust president; Christine Todd Whitman, former New Jersey governor and EPA administrator
2015: Sylvia Earle, Ph.D., National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence; Terry Garcia, National Geographic Society chief science and exploration officer
2014: Kathryn Sullivan, Ph.D., NOAA administrator; Wendy Schmidt, Schmidt Family Foundation president and co-founder of Schmidt Ocean Institute
2013: Admiral Thad Allen, USCG (ret.), Booz Allen Hamilton executive vice president
2012: Jesse H. Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at the Rockefeller University and vice president for programs of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
2011: Jean-Michel Cousteau, Ocean Futures Society president
2010: Carl Safina, Ph.D., Blue Ocean Institute president and co-founder
2009: Lillian C. Borrone, member of U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and Joint Ocean Commission Initiative and former port director, Port Authority of NY/NJ
2008: Congressman James Saxton (New Jersey D-3); Shirley A. Pomponi, Ph.D., executive director, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University
2007: Jerry Schubel, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific; Ted Ames, director of the Lobster Hatchery in Stonington, Maine
2006: Robert Gagosian, Ph.D., past president and director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
2005: Leon Panetta, Pew Ocean Commission chair; Admiral James Watkins, U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy chair
Regional Champions of the Ocean
2019: Bradley Campbell, Conservation Law Foundation president
2016: Donald Boesch, Ph.D., University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science president
2015: Richard B. Robins, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council chair; Ernie Panacek, Garden State Seafood Association president; Jay Odell, Mid-Atlantic marine program director, The Nature Conservancy
State, Coastal and Ocean Leadership
2024: Genevieve Clifton, New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) Office of Maritime Resources manager; Scott Douglas, NJDOT dredging program manager; Dave Golden, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) assistant commissioner; Virginia Rettig, Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge manager
2023: Tim Dillingham, American Littoral Society executive director; New Jersey State Sen. Bob Smith (D-17)
2019: Scott Glenn, Ph.D., Rutgers University Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences distinguished professor
2018: David Kinsey, Mark Mauriello, Norbert Psuty, and John Weingart, for their contributions to the creation and success of New Jersey’s Coastal Management Program
2016: David Rosenblatt, NJDEP assistant commissioner of engineering and construction; Elizabeth Semple, NJDEP Office of Coastal and Land Use Planning assistant director
2012: Lawrence R. Dickerson, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc., president and CEO; Cristopher Koch, World Shipping Council president and CEO; Rear Admiral Richard M. Larrabee, USCG (ret.), Port Authority of NY/NJ port commerce director
2011: Kenneth E. Pringle, Esq., founding member Pringle Quinn Anzano, and former mayor of Belmar
2010: New Jersey State Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos, Jr. (D-13); John Wnek, Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science vice principal; Steve Zeck, volunteer for Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, Rutgers Marine Field Station
2009: Claire Antonucci, New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium/New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium vice president for education and acting president; Barbara Boyd, Marine Academy of Science and Technology teacher of oceanography; Rosemary Brewer, volunteer committed to enhancing life in coastal communities
2008: J. Fred Grassle, Ph.D., founding director, Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences; Margo Pellegrino, citizen ocean activist
2007: Robert B. Abel, Ph.D., former director of the National Sea Grant, president of the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium and senior scientist at the Stevens Institute of Technology (posthumously); Thomas Gagliano, Jersey Shore Partnership chairman
2006: William Rosenblatt, Ed.D., former mayor of Loch Arbor and Surfrider Foundation Chair; Tom Fote, Jersey Coast Anglers Association chairman