Bios of AMRF Board Members
John M. Fentis
President
John M. Fentis graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Political Science and History. He attended Whittier College, School of Law and is currently a member of both the California and District of Columbia Bars. John practiced law in the private sector for five years before joining the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office in 1981. In 1990, he established an environmental criminal prosecution unit for the office and directed its operations until 2005, when he retired. He was designated by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office as a special deputy to assist with felony prosecutions of environmental offenders. John is currently a consultant and continues to prosecute environmental cases for the City of Long Beach. He also provides professional as well as educational services to prosecutorial entities in an effort to ensure consistent enforcement and compliance with California’s environmental laws.
John was a co-founder of the Long Beach/Los Angeles County Natural Resources Trust, a unique entity that gave grants to environmental organizations to assist in wetland restoration projects as well as environmental education within the Southern California area. He was honored by the California Department of Fish and Game in 1998 in recognition of his aggressive enforcement efforts in the field of marine conservation. In 2002, the California District Attorneys Association presented John with an environmental prosecution award in recognition of his achievements of the previous twelve years.
Dr. Nikhil Davé, PhD
Vice President
Dr. Nikhil Davé is a Senior Tactical Systems Engineer for the U.S. Navy. He specializes in cost-effective, simplified systems for a host of naval missions and objectives, mostly dealing with communications and information synchronization. He holds multiple degrees from the University of California at San Diego, culminating with the PhD in Engineering Physics/Fluid Mechanics in 1985. He is published in Radio Science, Physics of Fluids, and Combustion Science and Technology, plus military journals. He has an abiding interest in the environment, motivated by his childhood observation and distaste of industrial waste and environmental abuse in the heavy-industrial cities of the eastern United States, such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Nikhil finds much of value in Native American views on the use of our environment, particularly in the belief of taking only what you need and being thankful for Nature's bounty.
William R. Francis
Secretary
William R. Francis received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas. He worked for Monsanto Specialty Chemicals, then for Nalco Company, an industrial specialty chemical company, until his recent retirement. His specialty is the use of reclaimed water for industrial applications, and on the monitoring and control of the quality of industrial water treating applications.
He has co-authored and presented two papers as part of his career with Nalco Company. The first paper documents the re-use of municipal waste water from the City of Los Angeles Hyperion Waste Treatment Plant. This publication documents the successful implementation of this recycled water to be used as cooling water make up to the petroleum refining industry in the Los Angeles Basin. Since that publication, Bill has been involved with consultation to these refineries to allow re-use of over 12 million gallons per day of waste water from the Hyperion facility. The water recycling end use has been for both cooling water and boiler water make-up to the refineries. The second paper involves the implementation of new technology to reduce the amount of extra water treating chemicals, such as industrial sodium hypochlorite (bleach) as a disinfectant going to Santa Monica Bay. Bill continues to be heavily involved with the day to day monitoring and control of the above subjects.
Gwen Lattin
Treasurer
Gwen Lattin received her BS in Marine Biology and Masters in Biology from California State University, Long Beach. She has worked in biological research over 25 years, which includes field studies and laboratory research in Marine Biology, Inland Fisheries and Environmental Fields.
Bill Macdonald
Media Director
Bill Macdonald is an environmental film producer and CEO of Bill Macdonald Productions and stock footage archive. He has a B.S. in Political Science from CSULB, and some forty years of filming experience including a six-year period as a member of the Cousteau Society’s diving and filming team. His current projects include documenting the world ocean's bio-diversitybulls-eye in western Irian Jaya (Indonesia) and promoting the utilization of cold-water technology (CWT) for air conditioning, fresh water production, and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC).
Bill Brush
Director
Long Beach resident Bill Brush has been diving for 34 years and taking photographs for 25. Growing up watching “Sea Hunt” and the “Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau”, obtaining his oceanography merit badge as a Boy Scout, learning to scuba dive, obtaining a degree in Oceanography and working at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium seem obvious pursuits in his life. He has taught Scuba diving at Golden West College. He received a B.S. in Oceanography from Humboldt State University and a M.S. in Recreation Administration from California State University, Long Beach. Bill’s images have won awards at the Beneath the Sea Show in New York, the SEA International Underwater Photographic Competition and the Los Angeles International Underwater Photo Competition. Over 30 corporations and small businesses use Bill’s photographs to provide a special work environment within their reception or office areas. He currently serves as the Development Director of the Long Beach Area Council Boy Scouts of America.
Susan Ritman Macdonald
Director
Susan Macdonald received her BS in Microbiology from Ohio State University. She is a wildlife photographer, and co-producer for Bill Macdonald Productions. She is an avid diver.
David C. Meyer
Director
David Meyer has spent his career as a science teacher and lecturer at various Cal State campuses but has also found time to pursue his keen interest in the environment. He has enjoyed a teaching career at Bell Junior High School in Garden Grove, CA since 1968, and has been the Science Department Chairperson at the school since 1982. He is also a SCUBA instructor with a keen interest in underwater photography. He has volunteered his time and energy to Earthwatch in the Canary Islands, the Channel Island National Park Kelp Monitoring Project and compiling species lists of shallow water reef organisms on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. He has also been closely affiliated with the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History and numerous programs designed to teach children about the wonders of the ocean and the importance of its preservation. Since 1996, Mr. Meyer has been actively working to restore California Giant Kelp beds in portions of the Orange County coastline. He also continues to serve as Scoutmaster for Troop 1232 in Fullerton, CA, a volunteer position he has enjoyed since 1998.
Duane Laursen
Director
Duane Laursen has been a lifelong learner, attending various universities including California State University, Long Beach for a B.A. in Biology; University of California, Irvine for an M.A. in teaching Biology; and California State University, Fullerton at the Modern Physics Institute. He volunteered with the Peace Corps teaching 7th and 8th grade students Science, Math and English for 2 years. He came back to Long Beach and began teaching at La Puente High School in Biology, Physics, Oceanography, Physical Science, Satellite Technology and Image Processing for the next 35 years. He is a Science Academy Fellow with the California State Department of Education giving many presentations in California. Duane founded the Satellite Educators Association in 1988 and has been the Treasurer from 2004-2007. His interests and pursuits include trick roping, photography, videography, GIS, hiking, water sports, and ham radio (KC6NAV).