Environmental Leadership Program

Chris Dunbar is a coastal marine scientist, hydrographer and captain. The focus of his technical work has been the integration of hydro-acoustic underwater remote sensing technologies to solve problems relating to hazardous material remediation and marine resource management.  Most recently Chris has been working to understand the social linkages between ecological services and functions, the communities who rely on them for livelihoods and local governing agencies in tsunami affected areas along the Andaman Sea coast. Chris has spent 7 years living in Thailand, first as a Peace Corps volunteer in the mid 1990s, then again following the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami recovery effort initiating Community-Based Disaster Management, Sustainable Livelihoods development and Participatory Resource Co-Management.  Chris also served as Programme Technical Advisor for the Strengthening Andaman Marine Protected Areas Network (SAMPAN) Programme, and cooperative program between the Thai Department of National Parks and the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).  Chris is currently a master’s degree candidate in the Geo-Information Science program Salem State College and is focusing on the integration of social, environmental and economic geospatial information to inform decision makers on policy, development and disaster mitigation issues.    Chris is also an accomplished amateur musician and photographer.