CIE Team

The CIE team is comprised of a Steering Committee and a Coordination Team. The former is responsible for overseeing and guiding the independent review process, and the latter handles all other aspects of the CIE and interfaces between the CIE Steering Committee and the clients of the CIE.

CIE STEERING COMMITTEE

The CIE Steering Committee consists of three members, who collectively possess extensive experience in fisheries science, especially in fisheries stock assessment and marine protected species. The role of the CIE steering committee is to advise the independent peer review process, by selecting candidates for independent reviews, assessing the effectiveness and applicability of review reports, and guiding the CIE to make informed and independent decisions in the review process. 

The current CIE Steering Committee is composed of the following members:

1. Dr. Donald Siniff, CIE Steering Committee Member

Dr. Siniff is a Professor of Biology at the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior at the University of Minnesota. His research interests focus on population dynamics, and life histories, with emphasis on large mammals, particularly Arctic and Antarctic marine mammals. Dr. Siniff's experience, spanning over 30 years, includes studies on the population dynamics of large mammals. He has considered the population characteristics of three species of Antarctic seals, concentrating on a long-term program on Weddell seals with shorter term studies on the crabeater and leopard seals of the Antarctic. He has also studied sea otters in Alaska and California since 1975. Dr. Siniff has been a CIE Steering Committee member since 2001. 

2. Dr. Patrick Sullivan, CIE Steering Committee Member

Dr. Sullivan is an Associate Professor of Population and Community Dynamics in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University in New York. His research is in population dynamics, spatial statistics, hydroacoustics, and marine and freshwater fisheries management. He received his Ph.D. in Biostatistics and Biomathematics from the University of Washington in 1988, and served 10 years as a population dynamicist with the International Pacific Halibut Commission in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Sullivan has been a CIE Steering Committee member since 2005.

3. Robert Mohn, CIE Steering Committee Member

Dr. Mohn is a Senior Scientist at the Marine Fish Division of the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His research interests are in fishery stock assessment and population dynamics. With a PhD from Dalhousie University in physiology/biophysics, he has over 30 years of experience in fishery management. Dr. Mohn has been a CIE Steering Committee member since 2007. 

CIE COORDINATION TEAM

The CIE Coordination Team consists of three members, and it serves a number of decision-making, logistical, and monitoring roles that are necessary for the completion of independent reviews. The four members are a Lead Coordinator and two Regional Coordinators. The Lead Coordinator handles all independent review requests from when they are first sent to the CIE, as well as to oversee the identification and selection of independent participants, logistical arrangements, and review reports. The CIE Lead Coordinator is also responsible for the daily of operations of the CIE and serves as the primary contact for all CIE inquiries. Based on the location of the review, one of the two Regional Coordinators assumes the responsibility to work with the Lead Coordinator in review coordinator activities. The West Coast Regional Coordinator is responsible for all reviews that concern eastern and western Pacific reviews, and the East Coast Regional Coordinator is responsible for all reviews that concern the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean reviews.

The current Coordination Team members are:

1. Mr. Manoj Shivlani, Lead Coordinator

Mr. Shivlani is the CIE Lead Coordinator and Program Manager at Northern Taiga Ventures, Inc. (NTVI). He has almost two decades of experience working on socioeconomic issues concerning coastal and fisheries management. His work on fishery management has included research on alternative management strategies, regulatory impact analysis, and research and monitoring activities on fisheries in the southeastern US and Caribbean. Mr. Shivlani has worked with the CIE since 1999. 

2. Dr. David Die, West Coast Regional Coordinator

Dr. Die is a Research Professor at the Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. He has over 20 years of experience in stock assessment and fishery management research and has been providing advice on fishery matters to governments around the world for over 15 years. Dr. Die also serves as a chair of the billfish working group on the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and the Scientific Advisory Group of the FAO Western Central Atlantic Fisheries Commission. Dr. Die has been the CIE West Coast Regional Coordinator since 1999. 

3. Dr. David Sampson, External Coordinator

Dr. Sampson is a Professor of Fisheries at the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. With over 15 years of research experience, he conducts research into the dynamics of fishery systems, particularly the response of fishermen to changing conditions within the fisheries. Also, he develops and evaluates methods for fish stock assessment. Dr. Sampson advises and assists staff of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife with stock assessments of commercially exploited marine finfish and with management of finfish, salmon, and shellfish fisheries. Finally, he has teaching responsibilities for upper division courses in population dynamics, marine fisheries, and stock assessment methods. Dr. Sampson has been the CIE East Coast Regional Coordinator since 2002.