Our Team

Gautam Barua

Board Chair

Gautam’s passion for the oceans started in childhood, as he built sandcastles on the shore of the Long Island Sound, avidly read about sharks, and unfortunately saw “Jaws” on the big screen at the age of 3. Currently an executive at science-focused startup Noble.AI, Gautam previously worked for McKinsey & Company, as a cleantech and biotech investor and entrepreneur, and as California Deputy State Controller. He also served on the board of pioneering conservation group Save the Bay. Gautam holds a Harvard MBA and a BA from Yale, where he assisted a Nobel laureate with modeling impacts of climate change.

Michael Bear

Board Member

Michael Bear is an AAUS Scientific Diver and Community Science Director at Ocean Sanctuaries, whose passion is marine citizen science and shark conservation. He lives in San Diego.

Dr. Susan Soule

Bio for Dr. Soule My passions include water and sustainability, public policy, education, and getting us on a better path. I’m a parent and a political scientist, and teach classes on public policy, water and sustainability, and immigration policy at California State University Channel Islands. My expertise is in political socialization, how we acquire our values, and for the past decade I’ve been teaching and researching water and sustainability in Southern California. I work to shift our attention to our world around us, and create happier, healthier communities that give us time for friends, families and pursuing our passions. We can create a better world through maintaining ocean health through effective education, and government policy. We can build on our mutual desire to enjoy clean water, and abundant oceans. I am keenly aware of the accelerating rates of extinction, especially reef habitats. Leaving half of our Earth to nature appeals to me, and I seek policy solutions where all species and Indigenous people’s waters and land remain healthy. I swim daily, appreciate water in all its forms, and find peace hiking/being in nature in Ojai, California.

Pamela Ordoñez Comstock

Pamela received her BA in Art History from the University of California, San Diego. While in college, she worked at Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives and worked on papers such as renown Ichthyologist, Carl Hubbs, and several marine geologists. For the ocean, Pamela has worked with Ocean Voyages based in Sausalito, helping to inform people about the proliferation of ocean plastic trash, and was Project Manager of All One Ocean. Currently she provides financial and marketing advice for ocean non-profit organizations.

Jeff Morrison

Jeff has been diving with sharks across the globe since 1997. He recalls the first sight of a Caribbean Reef Shark on his first open water dive as one of the most beautiful and majestic animals on earth. “What stunned me was how peaceful and serene she was…cruising so effortlessly but with purpose, I had no fear but only admiration and respect…as I learned more about sharks through scientific research and my own experiences in the water with over a dozen different species, taking action to save them was something I had to do. Fulfilling Shark Stewards mission is a big part of my life and my identity as a human on this planet.” Jeff Morrison is a professional jazz musician and active in pitbull/bully breed canine rescue, education and advocacy throughout the United States.

Diane Walton, PhD

Diane Walton lives in San Francisco and is a teacher of various things, a non-competitive rower, a nascent swimmer, and an avid reader. She’s proud to be the immediate past President and still on the Board of San Francisco’s Dolphin Club, to serve on the Board of Stewards for Baykeeper and the Eugene Relief Nursery, and to be both a Banana Slug (BA, UC Santa Cruz) and a Duck (PhD, University of Oregon). She wants to swim under the Golden Gate, make a movie, celebrate the individual, and work in the collective. Even more than any of that, she wants our kids to care and know even more about our Bay and the world of water than we do… and that’s why she’s part of Shark Stewards.

Medea Isphording Bern

Medea Isphording Bern is a native Floridian who grew up exploring the pristine coral reefs around the Florida Keys. She’s a certified Rescue diver and has been diving in multiple tropical seas. Medea is licensed to practice law in both Florida and California and she holds a California Real Estate Broker’s license. She is also the author of two books, short stories and multiple essays. She’s been keenly interested in marine protection for decades. She was an original board member and board chair of the Coral Reef Alliance, as well as a two-term board chair of the Marine Science Institute, both based in the San Francisco Bay area. Medea is proud to be associated with Shark Stewards, and its efforts to protect for these majestic apex creatures, along with the ecosystem that is vital to their health and survival.

Karina Nikulina, PhD

Science and Education

Karina is a biologist, a mom and a science teacher. She received her PhD at St. Petersburg State University, Russia working on genetics of chlorophyll biosynthesis in green algae. She worked in several molecular biology labs in Russia, Germany and Switzerland . In 2003 she moved to California and joined UCSF to work on genetical control of virus/host interaction. Since 2018, Karina teaches science for homeschooled students in Bay Area from her home “Lab”. She enjoys working with young people and bringing hands-on learning to students who have never been exposed to practical science before. Karina’s passion for sharks started when her daughter Katya was 3 years old and was obsessed with sharks. Now Katya is 16 and volunteers for Shark Stewards as well. They both live in Concord and participate in the Aquatic Park project in Berkeley doing water testing, recording biodiversity and beach clean ups. Karina is also a girl scout troop co-leader and volunteer at BioLink Depot in Oakland, an organization dedicated to supplying materials to science teachers. Karina enjoys being near the ocean, especially kayaking. Thirty years ago, she took regular trips in the wild unpopulated Russian coast close to Polar ring spending over a month each time traveling on the baidarka and camping away from civilization. Best time! This is where you become part of nature to survive and learn to love and protect it!

Carmen Pasos Acuña, MS

Science Lead

Carmen Pasos studied biology, specializing in marine biology at the Instituto Tecnológico de Boca del Río, Veracruz (ITBOCA.) Carmen became a volunteer of Pelagios Kakunjá in 2013, participating in different research projects involving tagging and monitoring of sharks, specially in Cabo Pulmo. In 2015 she enrolled as a master’s student at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (CIBNOR) to carry out her research at Pelagios Kakunjá. She graduated in 2018 with her thesis “Effects of scuba diving on the behavior of bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas and economic value of the species in Cabo Pulmo National Park. After graduating, she worked as Staff member of Pelagios Kakunjá to help in the development of a shark education program.

Charles Wang

Dive Leader

Charles is master diver and lives in San Francisco California. He loves to travel and dive with sharks and serves as an ambassador for Shark Stewards. Read his article on shark fin and asian culture https://sharkstewards.org/celebrating-aapi-month-by-demanding-change/