Dr. Jeffrey R. Boehm - Executive Director
Dr. Jeffrey R. Boehm joined The Marine Mammal Center as its Executive Director in June 2008 from the famed John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois where he was the Senior Vice President of Animal Health and Conservation Science, Louis Family Conservation chair, and joint chair for the Great Lakes Conservation Awareness initiative. Dr. Boehm oversees The Marine Mammal Center's Sausalito headquarters and its operations in Monterey Bay, San Luis Obispo, and Fort Bragg. During his 16 years at the Shedd Aquarium, Dr. Boehm helped develop and implement the aquarium's annual operating and capital budgets and provided leadership in strategic short and long range planning. Dr. Boehm led and coordinated the institution's conservation science division, including conservation partnerships, in-house programs, and educational and advocacy programs and partnerships. He was also instrumental in influencing the design of the aquarium's exhibits and holding facilities, ensuring that the safety and health of the animals were maintained.Prior to employment at the Shedd Aquarium in 1991, Dr. Boehm worked as a zoo veterinarian at the Los Angeles Zoo providing veterinary care for exotic animals. In 1990, he completed an internship in small animal medicine with the West Los Angeles Veterinary Medical Group. A Marin County native, Dr. Boehm volunteered at The Marine Mammal Center while at the College of Marin. Dr. Boehm is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, where he received his bachelor's degree, and the University of California, Davis, where he received his degree in veterinary medicine. His professional affiliations include: American Zoo and Aquarium Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine, and the Society for Marine Mammalogy.
Dr. Frances Gulland - Senior Scientist
Dr. Frances Gulland is the Senior Scientist at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California, where she has been actively involved in the veterinary care and rehabilitation of stranded marine mammals and research into marine mammal diseases since 1994. She has provided medical care for thousands of seals and sea lions, has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, and is coeditor of the CRC Handbook of Marine Mammal Medicine. She chaired the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events for six years, sits on recovery teams for the Hawaiian monk seal and southern sea otter, and is a member of the committee of scientific advisors to the Marine Mammal Commission. On November 10, 2010, President Barrack Obama nominated Dr. Gulland to serve on one of three Commissioner positions at the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. She was sworn in as commissioner on April 29, 2011. In this additional role, she will serve the federal government with a focus on the protection and conservation of marine mammals.
Dr. Bill Van Bonn - Director of Veterinary Science
In May 2009, Dr. Bill Van Bonn joined as the Staff Veterinarian at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California and in 2010 became Director of Veterinary Science. In this role, he is responsible for the treatment, care and rehabilitation of the Center's hospitalized patients. The Center treats hundreds of distressed marine mammals each year. Patients include every species of marine mammal found along California's northern coast, such as California sea lions, northern elephant seals, harbor seals, sea otters and others. Dr. Bill Van Bonn graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University in 1986, and he holds a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine degree. An alumnus of Envirovet, Dr. Bill Van Bonn originally worked in an equine referral surgical practice and later a mixed animal practice. Over time, he began to merge his career with his personal interests of spending more time on the water and with the animals that live within it. He worked with the Navy's Marine Mammal Program for 15 years, and he was also the Senior Director for Animal Care at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
