Port Townsend Marine Science Center welcomes new executive director

Bee Redfield officially takes the reins on April 1

Bee Redfield, PTMSC Executive Director, effective April 1, 2022

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center is pleased to announce that Bee Redfield will join the organization on April 1 as its new executive director. Redfield replaces Janine Boire, who announced her departure last fall following an 8-year tenure.

“Last year, the board embarked on an intensive search for a new leader who would build upon and advance the extraordinary work done by Janine Boire,” said PTMSC Board of Directors President Ellen Hargis. “We identified four key areas where our next leader must excel: leading people, leading change, exercising business acumen and building coalitions.

“We are thrilled to welcome Bee Redfield. She has the nonprofit leadership experience, science expertise and commitment to conservation that meets those requirements,” Hargis said. “The Board has great confidence that Ms. Redfield will strategically guide the organization forward and develop rich and meaningful relationships with all our constituents.”

“I am so excited, grateful, and so incredibly blessed to be joining the Port Townsend community as the new executive director of the Marine Science Center,” Redfield said. “To have been chosen to help lead this organization into the future is such an honor. I will put my heart and soul into providing support and leadership towards the conservation efforts for the Salish Sea that we're working so hard to achieve.”

Redfield possesses over a decade of experience leading non-profit operations at the director-level, including at a wildlife center in Illinois. She holds a master’s degree in conservation biology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a focus on bringing conservation programming and awareness to communities. In addition, she holds a second master's degree in human resources management and is currently finishing her Ph.D. in quantitative ecology.

“For the past 10 years, I've held leadership roles with nonprofits in the areas of community engagement and organizational operations,” Redfield said. “I've been really lucky to work with some amazing conservation organizations all around the world. I've gotten to conduct research in the Hawaiian Islands and off the coast of California in the Channel Islands. I've taught undergraduate ecology and ornithology classes at Purdue University in Indiana, and I have done hands-on work with many different animal species at zoos and aquariums.”

Hargis and Boire will host an introductory session with Redfield via Zoom on Friday, March 25 at 2 p.m. The session is open to the public; a sign-up link can be found on the PTMSC website.

In addition, Redfield will meet many of the PTMSC’s ardent supporters at the organization’s annual fundraiser on April 16 at the Fort Worden Commons. “You, Me & The Salish Sea” will feature both a live and silent auction and a 40th anniversary celebration. Online registration is available at https://ptmsc.schoolauction.net/ptmscauction2022/register/ticket_sales.