Robert Bazell. During his career with NBC News, Chief Health and Science Correspondent Robert Bazell has reported on a wide range of subjects in the areas of science, technology and medicine, from throughout the United States and around the world. His reports appear on NBC Nightly News, Today, and Dateline NBC, and viewers have long known that when there is a major breakthrough in science or medicine, Bazell will be there to explain it in a lively and understandable way. He has won numerous awards for his reports, which number over 2,000 to date. In addition to the coveted Peabody Award, Bazell has been widely honored for his reporting. His extensive tracking of the AIDS epidemic, which began in 1982 when there were only a handful of cases, has included reports from all parts of the United States, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and South America, and earned the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award and the Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation. Recently, Bazell won an Emmy in the Outstanding Informational or Cultural Programming category for his in-depth report on experimental brain surgery, featured on the newsmagazine "Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric." He won another Emmy for a three-part series on the brain, featured on NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.

Robert Costanza is the Gordon and Lulie Gund Professor of Ecological Economics and director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. The Gund Institute is a transdisciplinary research and teaching institute that integrates natural and social science tools to address environmental research, policy and management issues at multiple scales, from small watersheds to global systems. The Institute was established to fill the growing need to integrate the study and management of "nature's household" (ecology) and "humankind's household" (economics). Dr. Costanza is co-founder and past-president of the International Society for Ecological Economics, and was chief editor of the society's journal, Ecological Economics from its inception in 1989 until 2002. He currently serves on the editorial board of eight other international academic journals. His awards include a Kellogg National Fellowship, the Society for Conservation Biology Distinguished Achievement Award, a Pew Scholarship in Conservation and the Environment, the Kenneth Boulding Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions in Ecological Economics, and an honorary doctorate in natural sciences from Stockholm University. He is the author or co-author of over 350 scientific papers and 20 books. His work has been cited in more than 3500 scientific articles and he has been named as one of ISI's Highly Cited Researchers. More than 140 interviews and reports on his work have appeared in various popular media. His article on "The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital", published in Nature 387:253-260 (1997) is the second most highly cited article in ecology/environment in the last decade.

Daniel Grossman has been a print journalist and radio and web producer for 20 years. He holds a Ph.D. in political science and a B.S. in physics, both from MIT. He is a 2008 Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow. He was awarded a Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he studied climate science. He has reported from all seven continents including from within 800 miles of both the south and north poles. He has produced radio stories and documentaries on science and the environment for National Public Radio’s show Weekend Edition; Public Radio International’s show on the environment Living on Earth and news magazine, The World; the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Germany’s Deutsche Welle radio; the BBC; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; the documentary show Soundprint; and Radio Netherlands, among other broadcast outlets. He has written for the New York Times, The Boston Globe, Discover, Audubon and Scientific American, among other national publications. He has been interviewed on environmental topics more than a dozen times on national radio programs including The World, Here and Now and Living on Earth. He has produced three extensive micro-websites on environmental topics. His awards include a 2002 George Foster Peabody Award (for the DNA Files public radio documentary series, of which he produced one hour-long show), the highest honor in broadcast; the 2003 and 2005 Science Journalism award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the leading science journalism award; the 2004 and 2006 Media Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences; two first and one third prize in the Society of Environmental Journalist’s Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment competition; and a first prize and an honorable mention in the National Science Writers Association Science-in-Society Awards competition. He is coauthor of A Scientist’s Guide to Talking with the Media: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists (Rutgers University Press: 2006).

Albert C. Hine is Associate Dean of Research and a professor of geological oceanography at University of South Florida's College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg, Florida. His research interests range from geological development of marsh coastlines to drilling within continental margins. He has worked as a co-chief scientists on numerous cruises and deep sea submersibles, including Alvin. He has published more than 125 scientific papers. He received his Ph.D. in Geology, in 1975, from the University of South Carolina; an M.S. in Geology from the University of Massachusetts; and his B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Gary Lytton has served as Director of the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Naples, Florida since 1990. He is responsible for administration and supervision of the 110,000-acre Reserve, working with over thirty on-site employees involved in research, education, and coastal stewardship. Current priority efforts at the Reserve include watershed restoration, technical training for local officials and research and monitoring. The Reserve's new Environmental Learning Center promotes public awareness and involvement in coastal stewardship. He also serves as the state's Regional Administrator for Aquatic Preserves in Southwest Florida, supervising field offices and staff in Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Estero Bay and Biscayne Bay. Lytton received his academic training in Biology and Marine Science at Virginia Polytechnic and State University, and at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he was involved in field and laboratory studies investigating the effects of thermal effluents on fish populations in Tampa Bay.

Rob Lorei is a co-founder of WMNF Radio and the Managing Editor of Florida This Week on WEDU-TV (PBS). He attended Antioch College where he received a BA in Journalism in 1977. Since moving to Florida in 1978 he's hosted a popular talk show and has been a panelist on political talk shows on WTOG-TV and WEDU. He's covered local politics for more than 20 years and moderated numerous televised political debates including the 2002 Attorney General's race, the 2003 Tampa Mayoral race, the 2004 U.S. Senate primaries, and the 2006 Gubernatorial Primaries. He's interviewed hundreds of authors, academics, politicians, musicians, artists and entertainers for his radio and television programs. among his guests: former President Jimmy Carter, Bill Moyers, Ralph Nader, Ferdie Pacheco, Sen. Mel Martinez, Janet Reno, Daryl Jones, Al Franken, E.J. Dionne, John Dean, Tampa Mayors Dick Greco and Pam Iorio, Al Franken and many others. Lorei has received awards for reporting from the Florida ACLU, the Sierra Club, Amnesty International and the Florida Consumer Action Network.

Craig Pittman is a staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times, where he has written extensively about wetlands, global climate change and environment. Pittman won the Waldo Proffitt Award in Environmental Journalism from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors in 2004. The award is presented each year to recognize distinguished examples of reporting and commentary about environmental issues in the state.

Heidi Recksiek has a background in public policy, coastal management, and social science. She has worked with NOAA's Coastal Services Center since 2001 as a member of the Human Dimensions Program, which fosters recognition, understanding, and sensitivity to the social, cultural, and economic aspects of managing coastal resources. She recently joined the new Gulf Coast Services Center and now works across the five Gulf states. Before joining NOAA, she worked for the Florida Coastal Management Program in Tallahassee.

Andrew Reich has been the Program Coordinator for the Aquatics Toxin Program within the Division of Environmental Health at the Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee since 2004. His duties include the coordination of epidemiologic and research activities of the Aquatic Toxins Program. Mr. Reich has a Master's of Science degree in Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham as well as a Master's in Medical Science from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to leading the Aquatic Toxins Program, he served as the Environmental Manager for Drinking Water Toxics where he coordinated statewide ground water sampling programs related to chemical contamination of private drinking water supplies. Mr. Reich will be discussing community responses to Red Tide and the new Department of Health strategies assisting local governments.

Tabitha Stadler is currently the Coastal Training Coordinator at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Naples, Florida. Her undergraduate degree in Marine Science began at the University of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas where she focused on underwater coral reef research. Needing to transfer after Hurricane Hugo devastated the island, Tabitha graduated from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg in 1993 where she majored in Maritime Studies. She designed this degree based on the inter-disciplinary programs offered at several British Polytechnics and it provides an equal focus on marine science and liberal arts. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree she worked at several outdoor education programs throughout Florida. In 2001, she pursued her Master's degree in Science Journalism from the University of South Florida where she was awarded a fellowship with the Science Journalism Center. She coordinated the Tampa Bay Manatee Watch program working closely with Tampa BayWatch and the Tampa Bay National Estuary Program.

Dr. Kim Taylor is the Program Officer in the USGS California Water Science Center where she works to facilitate connections between large-scale resource management programs and Center scientists. She has worked in positions where she has been responsible for bridging California water research and management communities for the past twenty years, including serving as the Deputy Director for Science of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. Her research background is in the field of knowledge utilization and more specifically in the use of science in natural resource management.

Mark Jerome Walters is trained in veterinary medicine and journalism. He writes frequently about the connections among ecology and health. His most recent book, "Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them," (Shearwater Books/Island Press), describes the human role in causing Mad Cow disease, Lyme disease, HIV/AIDS and other ecodemics. A visiting lecturer at Harvard Medical School from 2001-2003, he is now a Professor of Journalism at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. His worked has appeared in Audubon, Reader's Digest and other publications. A contributing editor of Orion magazine, Walters is also the author of the acclaimed book "A Shadow and a Song," the natural, political and social history of the 1987 extinction of the dusky seaside sparrow. Walters has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and his Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University School of Journalism. He graduated magna cum laude from McGill University where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.

Brent Yarnal is a Professor of Geography and Director of the Center for Integrated Regional Assessment (CIRA) at The Pennsylvania State University. His work addresses global environmental change in local places--that is, how people and the places in which they live contribute to global environmental change and how global environmental change affects people and places. His current research focuses on identifying local vulnerabilities and on helping local governments, institutions, and communities develop plans for mitigating and adapting to climate change.  In Southwest Florida, that research involves assessing how sea level rise is enhancing vulnerabilities to hurricane storm surge and working with local stakeholders to develop ways to reduce those vulnerabilities.