Message from the Executive Director

Despite Challenges

2020

None of us will soon forget the tumultuous year that was 2020. In the Gulf, 2020 reminded us that bad news often comes in compounded and complex packages, like five named hurricanes making landfall, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the volatility and economic uncertainty that hit the oil and gas sector especially hard.

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) ushered in 2020 excited to start the new decade with our freshly released strategic plan and re-energized, impact-driven programming around Gulf Health and Resilience, Offshore Energy, and Education and Engagement. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic had different plans for all of us and changed our lives and work in ways we never imagined.

Nevertheless, slowed but not halted, the GRP made major strides in 2020 as it began implementing its 2020-2024 Strategic Plan. The plan lays out four strategic objectives, namely to make investments in activities that (1) advance science and understanding; (2) build partnerships; (3) bridge knowledge to action; and (4) monitor for progress and change. The GRP began to operationalize this plan in 2020 in several ways:

• Creating five new program boards that allow the GRP to tap into the wisdom of respected subject-matter experts
• Launching a new series of consensus studies (offshore energy safety, environmental trends, and community health and resilience) that will run through the end of the GRP’s life cycle (2043) to produce a novel and needed record of change in the Gulf
• Initiating the Gulf Scholars Program that engages talented undergraduates in addressing the pressing issues of the region related to health and community resilience, offshore energy, and environmental change and protection
• Continuing our investments in research and scholars through grants and fellowships

April 2020 marked 10 years since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. It was an important milestone for the GRP, and not only because the spill was the impetus for the creation of the program in 2013 with our 30-year endowment. This 10-year mark allowed the GRP to celebrate advancements in offshore and environmental safety, reflect on the potential applications of Gulf research done to date, and gather together the Deepwater Horizon community to set a course of action to benefit the region in the decades to come.

To that end, the GRP commemorated the spill’s 10-year mark in April by hosting a 500-person virtual event to discuss the lessons learned from those fateful 87 days in 2010 and help forge an agenda for continued improvement in offshore energy safety. Admiral

Thad Allen, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, and National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt headlined this event, which was complemented by a companion video and the subsequent launch of a GRP webinar series on related topics. The original format for this event, the Offshore Situation Room, an innovative, serious gaming exercising involving more than 60 diverse stakeholders, was postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns.

In May 2020, the murder of George Floyd sharpened the nation’s focus on systemic racism and spurred the GRP to reaffirm its commitment to the principles of justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in our programming, staffing, appointments, fellowships and grants. Over the summer, the new Gulf Health and Resilience Board conducted more than two dozen local focus group discussions across the Gulf and a few communities in Alaska around equitable health and community resilience and ways that the GRP work can incorporate equity into our work.

The GRP family continued to grow in 2020! Even in a pandemic and through interviews entirely conducted on Zoom, the GRP is delighted to have expanded its staff with 11 new hires. These hires included management for the new program unit boards of the GRP: Dr. Don Boesch joined as the Senior Scholar in the Environmental Program Unit, USN Captain (retired) Jim Pettigrew for the Offshore Energy Safety Board, Dr. Karena Mary Mothershed for the Board on Gulf Education and Engagement, and Dr. Charlene Milliken and Mr. Dan Burger for the GRP’s Health and Resilience portfolio.

2020 showed us—once again—that the Gulf is a resilient place full of resilient people. At the GRP, the strength and dedication of our Gulf partners inspire us as we work together to enhance offshore energy safety, environmental protection, and health and community resilience in this region full of change, challenges, and hope.

Lauren Alexander Augustine
Executive Director, Gulf Research Program