Ocean Film Festival 2010

Panel of Judges

Reed Bohne is the Regional Director of the Northeast and Great Lakes region of NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program. Prior to his current position, he was Superintendent at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary for 16 years. In 2004, Mr. Bohne and Gail Krueger of Gray's Reef launched the first Ocean Film Festival in Savannah. The film festival is now an annual event and Bohne is pleased to serve with the distinguished panel to judge ocean and coastal related films at this year's festival.

John Duren is a resident of Savannah Georgia and is involved in marine conservation, fisheries management, and new technology development and commercialization. He has degrees in chemistry and business and is a retired chemical company executive. He was appointed by Governor Perdue to represent Georgia on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission which is an inter-state regulatory body. He serves on the boards of the Skidaway Marine Science Foundation, Coastal Conservation Association of Georgia, and the Samford University Board of Overseers. He has been chairman of each of these boards. He is a member of the board of Southeast Techinventures Inc. which is a technology accelerator company.

Karen Grainey is a local environmental activist who has been a member and president of Clean Coast for many years. Clean Cost hosts monthly volunteer clean ups of Georgia beaches and barrier island. She is also active in our local Audubon and Sierra clubs. She spearheaded the charge to bring curbside recycling to the city of Savannah.

Fitz Haile has been part of the Creative Coast Initiative since 2004. In conjunction with working to actively market Savannah as The Creative Coast to creative and technical, higher wage businesses outside of the region, Fitz's main focus is to develop and manage TCCa's online presence - the organization's core communications vehicle for local constituents and external target markets that has become the one-stop-shop for new or relocated knowledge-based professionals in Savannah.
In addition, Fitz directs TCCa's signature event - The Innovation Awards, held each fall, drawing close to 500 of the "who's who" in the fields of technology, design and development, including the non-profit, education and government sectors, to honor the best and brightest innovators in and around Savannah's Creative Coast.

Stephen H. Hooten is a native of Savannah. He lives with his wife of 18 years, Erica Scales, and their two adorable daughters, Sage and Selia. He is an ocean advocate who is interested in sustainability issues. He earned an MBA with a Finance Concentration from the University of New Orleans in 1999 and works as a Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Savannah.

Mary Landers is the environment reporter for the Savannah Morning News. She's a former Peace Corps Volunteer who worked at Lake Malawi National Park in Malawi.

Michael Sullivan has been the external affairs manager at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography since June of 2005. He is responsible for communications, public relations and governmental relations. Previously, he handled public relations and media relations for Georgia Southern University. He spent most of his career as a television news director at local stations around the southeast. Most recently, he was the news director at WTOC-TV, Channel 11, in Savannah from 1992 to 2000. Sullivan is a graduate of the University of Florida. He is married, with two adult children and lives on Wilmington Island in Savannah.