Amy Castner: Director of Board Relations, President's Office

Tel: (202) 787-1613
Email: acastner@oceanleadership.org

Amy became the Director of Board Relations with the merger of JOI and CORE into the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. In this role, Amy supports the overall success of the organization by facilitating the important work of the Board of Trustees and the various Board and Members Committees.

In addition to her work with the Board and Membership, Amy recently completed the Certificate in Leadership Coaching Program at Georgetown University. Through this intensive, six-month program, she learned the art and craft of leadership coaching and utilizes the skill informally as the organization transitions under new executive leadership.

Amy joined JOI in 2002 as the Assistant to the President and during her time in that role, she supported the executive offices, built and managed JOI Diversity, JOI’s partnerships to enhance diversity and broaden participation in the Earth system sciences.

Originally from a small fishing town on the coast of Maine, Amy has a BA in public relations and an MA in English from Simmons College, a small women's college in the big, bad town of Boston. During her undergraduate years at Simmons, she was a member of a cult, otherwise known as the Simmons Crew Team, and is still somewhat amazed to admit that she loved it then, even though it meant being at the boathouse at 5:15 every morning, and truly misses today. Her Masters thesis at Simmons focused on an existential reading of vampire literature. Amy also has an MA in higher education administration from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!).

When not devoting herself to the success of Ocean Leadership or her own professional development, Amy likes to go for long bike treks and practice yoga. She also dallies in fiction writing, enjoys an eclectic range of reading and music, and continues to build what is becoming a mountainous collection of Cal Ripken, Jr. and Baltimore Orioles baseball cards. Her favorite thing is to lounge around with a good book, good coffee, her husband Christopher, and her longtime companion cat, Lestat.