Our Team

Board of Directors

Bonnie Monteleone
Executive Director, Director of Science, Research and Academic Partnerships (Wilmington,NC)

As the Director of Science, Research and Academic Partnerships for Plastic Ocean Project, Inc. as well as the Executive Director, Bonnie Monteleone is a researcher who has collected plastic marine samples globally including four of the five main ocean gyres, the Caribbean, and has extended this work to Pyramid Lake, outside of Reno, Nevada. Monteleone completed her first field study exploration in the North Atlantic Gyre in July 2009 in collaboration with Maureen Conte, PhD. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science (BIOS). In the fall of 2009, Monteleone accompanied Algalita Marine Research Foundation’s 10-year resampling of the North Pacific Gyre, quantifying the rate of plastic marine debris growth to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, sampling a transect of 3,460 nautical miles (nm).

In 2010, she continued her North Atlantic study resampling the same region in the North Atlantic. In fall of 2010, she joined 5 Gyres Institute in a first ever South Atlantic transect sampling for pelagic marine debris traveling 4,270 nm from Brazil to South Africa. In 2012, Monteleone collected samples from the South Pacific as part of the film project, A Plastic Ocean. To date, she has five years of data sets from the North Atlantic. A total of 217 surface samples were collected from all four oceans. Monteleone collaborates with Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF), Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummings, co-founders of 5 Gyres Institute, Dr. William J. Cooper, University of California Irvine (UCI), and Dr. Maureen Conte, BIOS. In 2012, Bonnie Monteleone and Paul Lorenzo co-founded the 501c3 Plastic Ocean Project, Inc.

Monteleone also works in the Environmental Studies Department at UNC Wilmington as an Adjunct Instructor teaching a Plastic Marine Debris Field Studies course and manages a lab working with student Directed Independent Studies (DIS) research. Research projects vary from fieldwork collecting beach samples to lab analysis looking at plastic leachates, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) uptakes, and plastic ingestion by marine organisms. She collaborates with Drs. Pamela Seaton, Brooks Avery, Susanne Brander, and Alison Taylor at UNCW.

Bonnie is also an accomplished artist, turning some of the plastic she collects on her voyages into modern artistic masterpieces. This work story boards her research and has become a traveling art exhibit - What goes around comes around. She received the Conservation Communicator of the Year 2017, Governor’s Award, Cape Fear YWCA Woman of the Year - Environmental Award 2018, and nominated for the Cape Fear Woman of Achievement award 2018. She is a member of the Sierra Club Marine Team and on the NC Wildlife Federation's Board of Directors.

Lindsey McCoy
President (Wilmington, NC)

Lindsey McCoy has a master’s degree in nonprofit management and spent 10 years working on environmental education in the Bahamas, islands full of single-use plastic. She and her sister co-founded a company, Plaine Products, that offers shampoo, conditioner and body wash and lotion in aluminum bottles that can be returned, refilled and reused. She is currently on the Board of the Friends School of Wilmington and has been a crew member for eXXpedition - an all women crew non-profit that recruits women to travel the world studying microplastics around the globe.

Tricia Monteleone
Vice President, Public Relations Coordinator (Wilmington, NC)

Tricia received her Bachelor's Degree at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is a real estate agent for Intracoastal Real Estate. She has spearheaded fundraising events since Plastic Ocean Project's inception and is responsible for successfully meeting the financial demands necessary to join Algalita Marine Research Foundation sail across the North Pacific in 2009, collaborate with Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences North Atlantic cruise in 2009, sail across the South Atlantic in 2010 with 5 Gyres Institute, and annual North Atlantic cruises 700 miles off the coast of North Carolina. She lines up venues for our What Goes Around, Comes Around science through art installation that is currently on tour across the United States and organizes speaking events for POP, Inc. to people of all ages and grade levels. Tricia also helps manage our social media including Plastic Ocean Project's Facebook and Instagram.

Backpacking around the world in some of the more remote places on the planet, Monteleone photographed rivers and beaches spoiled by marine litter. Everywhere she went she was confronted by plastic pollution even in the most beautiful and underpopulated locales. Monteleone has shared detailed accounts on the problems with plastics on the terra ferma in distant regions of the world that only fuels her commitment to POP, Inc. She believes it is from the same brilliant ingenuity that created plastics that will help us come up with solutions to plastic marine pollution.

Paul Lorenzo
Treasurer (Cortland, NY)

Paul is a retired Accountant and business owner of Cortland Bookkeeping and Tax Service. He lives in Cortland, NY, the near geographical center of the state. He is the co-founder of Plastic Ocean Project, Inc, founded in 2012. Paul's contributions to Plastic Ocean Project, Inc. have been the backbone to the non-profit, providing leadership as president on and off since its inception. His commitment to community and the environment goes beyond this rapidly growing NGO. Paul is on the Board of Trustees for the Cortland YWCA, has served on the Cortland Water Board, the community Historical Society, and has volunteered decades for the United Way. Though he lives in his fair city of Cortland, landlocked from the ocean, his passion for the success of this nonprofit has no boundaries.

Jessica Stofko
Secretary (Wilmington, NC)

,Growing up on the east coast, Jessica Stofko has always held the ocean close to her heart. Throughout college she thought beach clean ups were enough to help offset the litter people left behind. Backpacking through Central America she realized the scale of the problem when she saw beaches cluttered with trash and plastics. Garbage was washing up on beach around the world killing sea life and poisoning habitats.
It became Stofko’s passion to spread awareness about the effects of pollution so that future generations can enjoy the beach life she will forever cherish. As President of Sunshine Worldwide, she donated 28 surfboards to children in Aserradores, Nicaragua. She hopes to instill a love for the ocean and motivate their community to do their part to preserve our oceans. Her commitment to helping children drives her efforts to preserve our planet. A degree in Economics & Political Science have nurtured her sense of civic responsibility and strengthened her desire to be a part of the solution.
As the NC Area Manager for an after school program she has welcomed yet another opportunity to help spread awareness to children and families that they can make a difference. She has helped families understand that pollution has had detrimental effects on our planet and our health from drinking water to sea life. She believes the issue stems from lack of knowledge about plastics and limited accessibility to sustainable alternatives. Her hope of teaming with POP is to help educate and provide those alternatives for our community and communities afar. She feels it is our duty as educated individuals to spread knowledge and solutions to save our seas and our health.

Kayla West
Lab Director (Wilmington, NC)

Kayla started showing up for cleanups shortly after the COVID Stay-at-Home orders lifted in 2020. While at a cleanup, she expressed an interest in interning with Plastic Ocean Project, Inc. Shortly after working with her, we recognized her potential as a lab assistant. Within a year she has mastered uFTIR microscopy, manicured our research data entry, fine-tuned the processing of N.C. State samples, as well as our collaboration with 15 NC River Keepers. Kayla manages two lab technicians as well as interns from local high schools and undergraduates from UNCW. Kayla received her bachelor's degree in Marine Biology and Environmental Sciences from UNCW.

Douwe van Schie
Creative and Copy (Lisbon, Portugal)

As our Graphic Designer, Douwe converts our messages into beautiful and clear visuals. He makes our communication easier to digest and more fun to read.For almost 1.5 years you could find Douwe in his campervan along the Spanish, Portuguese and Moroccan coastline. In this time he worked as a Freelance Graphic Designer for several Dutch companies, surfed a lot and explored the beautiful coastlines of these countries. This is also when he saw some of the effect of plastics on our eco-system firsthand. Now living in Lisbon, Douwe wants to use his professional skills to make the world a better place.

At the moment you can find Douwe working and surfing in Lisbon, Portugal.

Plastic Ocean Project Club Chapters

Sam Shores
President of UNCWilmington Plastic Ocean Project

Sam is an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington Honors College pursuing a Bachelor of Science in marine biology with a concentration in marine conservation. Sam is the current President and Videography Committee Leader of the UNCW Plastic Ocean Project student chapter and was previously the student organization’s Vice President and Fundraising and Marketing Committee Leader. He has conducted research analyzing microplastics in the gastrointestinal tract of Bahamian fish species from the Exuma Sound and hopes to transition into a career studying essential fish habitats. He also works as a videographer and multimedia specialist for the UNCW Honors College and Predictive UX. Sam is a part of the documentary team for “If the Ocean Could Talk” and aspires to use film to help the world break free from plastic.

Luke Anders
President of Topsail High School Plastic Ocean Project

Luke ignited the first high school chapter in 2019. He continues to work hard with his board members, fellow students, and local community members conducting cleanups, creating educational videos on how to reduce waste, and help recruit local Topsail businesses to become part of our national Ocean Friendly Establishment program. Luke is also an ocean advocate through surfing.

Board of Advisors

William (Bill) J. Cooper, PhD (Gainesville, FL.)

Bill is a Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine. in 1988 I earned a Ph. D. in Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of Miami.
I shifted to the University of California at Irvine in 2006 to serve as the Director of the Urban Water Research Center and as Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. I retain appointments in Chemical Engineering, as well as in the Department of Policy, Planning, and Design in the School of Social Ecology.
My present research interests include carbon cycles in oceanic and fresh water, the application of free radical chemistry for the treatment and environmental photochemical fate of emerging chemicals of concern and disinfection by-products, and, the application of advanced oxidation processes for the ship-board (oil tanker) control of invasive species.
I have published over 250 papers and book chapters, and edited 8 books. In November 2011 I was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Lisa Rider

Lisa is an Eastern NC native, a sailor, surfer, paddler, dive master and is steeped in the reality of the situation with plastics. She works at the Onslow County Waste Management Facility and brings the full understanding of the impacts of plastics as a waste management issue to the table. She has received her educational background from UNC School of Government Chapel Hill, North Carolina Financing Solid Waste Programs, North Carolina, UNC School of Government 2009 to 2010 · Chapel Hill, North Carolina Supervisory Management Program, Clayton College of Natural Health Class of 2007 · Naturopathy · Birmingham, Alabama, Coastal Carolina CC Class of 2003 · Associates in Arts · Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Cape Lookout Marine Science High School Class of 1997 · Morehead City, North Carolina. Her most recent work was doing global outreach as crew for eXXpedition Amazon. She received the 2014 CRA Recycler of the Year Award and has been volunteering for NCBS and Ocean Conservancy for 27 years now. "Collaboration", Lisa says, "is the key to any successful project, program, organization."

Michael Fishbach

Michael is the Executive Director of the Great Whale Conservancy and has 26 years experience studying blue and other large whales in the U.S. , Mexico, Canada and the Azores. He has advocated for their protection from ship strikes and other threats, from Sri Lanka, to Chile, the U.S. and New Zealand. Michael conducts annual field research on the blue whales in the Sea of Cortez off the coast of Baja California, where for the past 23 seasons he has tracked some of the oldest and most well known whales, among hundreds of others.

In 2011, Michael and his small crew rescued a young humpback whale from a fishing net. Their video, "Saving Valentina", has been viewed over 50 million times and Michael has appeared on the Today Show, CBS Inside Edition, 20/20 Nightline, National Geographic Travel channel, two BBC specials and Nat Geo spacial. He has lectured on the plight of blue whales in the Explorers Club, the College of the Atlantic, The Los Vegas Public Library System, among many others. He has given 2 TED X Talks, one in the U.S. and the other in the Netherlands.

Michael is currently the Executive Director of the Great Whale Conservancy whose mission is to protect the plight of the world's largest animal, the endangered blue whale, as well as the world's other great whales.

Kurt Lieber
Founder and President of Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA

Kurt's non-profit organization is based out of Huntington Beach, CA. ODA’s lofty goal is to “work for a debris free sea” and fits seamlessly with Plastic Ocean Project’s mission. Working with volunteer scuba divers, ODA has removed 33,000 pounds of abandoned fishing nets, 28,000 pounds of marine debris, 27,000 feet of trap lines and over 300 abandoned lobster traps. The vast majority of the nets, lines and debris were manufactured with some form of plastic, mostly nylon and polypropylene.

Kurt has been scuba diving all around the world since 1974 and has witnessed firsthand the drastic reduction in bio-diversity in our underwater world. At the same time he has seen our oceans treated as a universal garbage dump. As we all know, the vast majority of this marine garbage is plastic. If there is any hope of restoring our oceans to their once vibrant state, something needs to be done with this debris. This is why Kurt supports POP - a beacon of light in an otherwise bleak looking future. He shares our belief that we owe it to ourselves, future generations, AND all the wildlife that we share this planet with, to stop putting this toxic debris in the water in the first place. We can then focus our energies on removing this plastic plague. "I feel that POP is doing a great job of searching for practical solutions to these issues. I am honored to be on the advisory board, and am in awe of this dedicated group of volunteer scientists, researchers, students and caring people. Way to go, Team POP!"

Jo Ruxton
Producer, A Plastic Ocean and Co-founder Plastic Oceans

Jo's 7 years with World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) Hong Kong Jo Ruxton established their marine conservation programme that started in 1990. She left HK to work at the BBC Natural History Unit and contributed to celebrated The Blue Planet production team. Over the past 18 years she has been involved in numerous underwater filming projects around the world, from Antarctica to the pristine reefs of the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. In 2009, after leaving the BBC, she began to raise funds to make a documentary about the problems of plastic in the worlds’ oceans and co-founded the Plastic Oceans Foundation. The internationally award winning documentary feature film, A Plastic Ocean, was completed in 2016 and has been distributed globally since January 2017. Together with her colleagues, she is currently taking the message of the film forward through education and science programmes. She gives presentations around the world to students of all ages, members of the public, businesses and corporations to raise awareness of the plastics issue and to create a legacy for the film.

Plastic Ocean Project, Inc. was co-founded by Paul Lorenzo and Bonnie Monteleone

Founding Members were:

Rear Admiral Leendert "Len" Hering, Sr.
Champion at the Helm; Renewable Energy Integration (San Diego, Ca)

Diana Dehm
Sustainability Visionary (Huntington Beach, Ca)

Martha Lyons
Director of Technology and Innovation (Palo Alto, Ca)