Human—Nature: Meet the Artists

Speaker

• 

  Dr. Amber Mace California Academy of Sciences Managing Director/Chief of Strategic Partnerships
  

  Dr. Amber Mace

  California Academy of Sciences Managing Director/Chief of Strategic Partnerships

  As Managing Director/Chief of Strategic Partnerships, Dr. Amber Mace is responsible for aligning the Academy’s work with its strategy as well as overseeing the Academy’s divisions dedicated to science and education. She joined the Academy in October 2023 with a focus on deepening and expanding the Academy’s regional, national, and international partnerships.

  Before joining the Academy, Mace spent 10 years at the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), where served a s CEO since 2018 and before that as Deputy Director since 2013.

  She has served as executive director of the California Ocean Science Trust and science advisor to the California Ocean Protection Council. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her as the assistant secretary for coastal matters at the California Natural Resources Agency, where she then served as executive director of the California Ocean Protection Council.

  Early in her career Mace worked in the National Marine Sanctuary Program in San Francisco, where she led the development of a visitor center on Crissy Field where Annette Goodfriend designed and built exhibits.
  In addition, Mace served nine years on the National Sea Grant Advisory Board at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is also a member of the California Sea Grant Advisory Board and the San Francisco Estuary Institute Board of Directors.

  Mace was awarded a California Sea Grant State Fellowship to the California Natural Resources Agency, and a NOAA Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship in the U.S. Senate. She was recognized as a Coastal Hero by Sunset magazine in 2011 and her California coastal research experience includes piloting a one-person submersible vessel at the Farallon Islands, as part of the National Geographic Sustainable Seas Expedition as well as searching for the oldest known shipwreck in California waters using
  SCUBA in Drakes Bay.

  Mace earned a BA in geography from the University of California, Berkeley, a PhD in ecology from the University o f California, Davis, and an MBA from the Wharton School.