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Evelyn Monroe Neill
Program Director
Evelyn Neill, the child of a science teacher and an engineer, found that she inherited a passion for nature, a gift of memory and a predilection to be a writer. As a teenager, she had a profound experience at a summer program at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. There, seining in the life-changing hydrogen-sulfide stench of marsh mud and trolling around the bay in a bucket of bolts shrimp trawler, she observed and inhaled the gifts of the ocean.
Later in college when she worked for Seacamp in the Florida Keys, amongst the future scientists and science educators, she ran the visitors’ day events and planned all the evening programs. In short, though impassioned by coral communities and mangrove communities and fish taxonomy, she was responsible for the “camp” part of Seacamp. She has come to accept the unique quality of her passion like the Hawaiian nene accepts that he’s a goose that can’t fly. One applies one’s gifts where one can.
Throughout life, she has described herself as a biologist groupie, an avid naturalist, or an absurdly scientific creative person. But as for a career, she fell into advertising and over the last 20 years has been first an advertising writer, a creative director and an executive creative director. She has created ads for Nike, Microsoft, Coke, Westin Hotels, United Technologies, ITT, Knight Trading, Sandler O’Neill and Ian Schrager Hotels. She oversaw ads in Pakistan, India, Asia, all of Europe, including a stint at an outpost in Amsterdam. And her last advertising job was that of President of Creative at Doremus Advertising in NY, a hundred-year-old agency that began as part of the Dow Jones.
Advertising has taught her much about the absolute staggering power of communication. And it has turned a desire to communicate about nature and conservation into calling. And that is where her partner in life, Dr. James Bruce Neill comes into the picture. Together the two of them have ambled for many years through thoughts of creating a school to teach children about the ocean. And finally, they came to the same conclusion – if this dream is to become a reality it requires full dedication and passion. Fortuitously, they realized they have both and the timing is right. The rest of the story is what they will build with, they hope, your involvement.
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Biography of J. Bruce Neill, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Bruce’s passion for the ocean and natural exploration began at an early age. Growing up in Miami, he snorkeled the seagrass beds, mangroves and coral reefs of southern Florida and the Bahamas before first attending school. His family spent countless hours fishing the Gulf Stream and exploring life in and around drifting sea weed communities. As a high school student he became fascinated with birds, which ultimately led him to obtain a degree in zoology at the University of Georgia.
After working as a technician for a blue-water oceanographer, he attended the University of Guam Marine Laboratory and received a master’s degree in the biology of coral reefs. There, he studied differences in territorial behaviors between closely related sea urchin species. He went on to obtain a Ph.D., studying genetics, evolution and conservation biology at Montana State University where he used emerging DNA techniques to evaluate the survival probabilities of small bird populations.
He held academic positions at liberal arts colleges, field schools, and community colleges. He true academic passion is teaching – and it shows in his teaching enthusiasm. Recently, he has turned his attention to a younger audience, teaching at several private elementary schools in the New York area, and in the American Museum of Natural History Science and Nature Program.
He believes that his best contribution to conservation is to expose youngsters to the joys of discovering nature. Age-appropriate knowledge and experience of the natural world is a gift we can give our children. It is Bruce’s hope that by sharing the wonders of the sea with younger kids, he will be able to provide them a lifetime of discovery, and a passion for stewardship. His most recent undertaking is to create the Sanibel Sea School, a non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting marine conservation through experiential education. Sanibel Sea School: where every day is a field trip.
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