Resume

William H. Nuckols III Bio

Mr. William Nuckols is an environmental policy specialist with a background in marine and environmental science, and over a decade of work on national policy and government efficiency. He is experienced building multidisciplinary teams and providing outreach to national and international media. His proven success record has allowed him to forward the interests of government by aligning multiple statutory authorities to accomplish what no one agency can achieve on their own.

A Marine Scientist turned Policy Strategist, Will’s environmental work is diverse and has ranged from helping recreate the wetlands half of an 1100 acre island on the Chesapeake Bay, to cleaning up derelict fishing gear from the Pacific Northwest and analyzing Atlantic Coast States’ plans for responding to sea level rise for EPA. From 2007-2009 Mr. Nuckols directly staffed the Deputy assistant Secretary of Commerce and NOAA Chief of Staff as their military liaison. He has worked with a number of non-profit groups, and is the Director for Policy and Environment for the Man in the Sea Memorial Monument, Executive Director for Eco-Tan, a non-profit environmental organization, and serves as the Director for Public Affairs for Team 4MIL – a component of the Wounded Warrior Project.  Since 1998 Mr. Nuckols has served as the Principal of W.H. Nuckols Consulting.

His 20+ years of work in the field of environmental science and policy is well respected, and he has received awards and letters recognizing his contributions by President Obama, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, members of Congress and members of coastal and ocean industries.

His skills in strategic communications, photography, videography and his experience as a spokesperson for federal and NGO organizations has resulted in his appearance in international, national and regional TV. Radio interviews of Mr. Nuckols have appeared several times on National Public Radio in the United States, Canadian Broadcast Company, and in Australia. Articles about Mr. Nuckols’ work on oceans have appeared in print in numerous publications in several languages.

He is an avid SCUBA Diver, lover of sea kayaking, and is an on and off-road bike racer.

Profile
A seasoned professional with extensive experience representing clients to federal agencies and Congress. Educated with a multi-disciplinary approach resulting in a career with a deep background in public policy, government relations, environmental science and climate change. Results oriented with a proven record of effective environmental stewardship and a proven track record of accomplishments.

Major Achievements

• Conceived and implemented a major federal/state/local environmental restoration project in South Florida.  (Recognized for leadership in a letter from President Obama and a Coastal America Partnership Award).
• Worked with Congress to pass legislation to preserve the health of the domestic blue crab and oyster industries. (Recognized by trade organization for commitment to their industry).
• Created the first-ever hazardous dive training program for the U.S. military to address derelict fishing gear in Puget Sound, WA. (Recognized for leadership in a letter from Congressman Rick Larsen)
• Coauthored EPA report on climate change and sea level rise adaptation strategies for the Mid-Atlantic.
• Conceived a research initiative to use Military LADAR technology to locate and remove marine debris from the Pacific Ocean.

Education, Qualifications & Training
Education:
• University of Charleston/Medical University of South Carolina joint program in Environmental Science.  Master of Science. 1998.
• University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Institute for Environmental Studies. 1994-1996.
• The College of William and Mary.  Government and Philosophy double major.  Bachelor of Arts.  1992.

Previous and ongoing experiences on a wide range of projects supporting federal and state statutory responsibilities include:

Previous and ongoing experiences on a wide range of projects include:

Manage Multidisciplinary Teams:
Integrate biological, engineering and policy expertise from multiple stakeholders and interest groups to address environmental problems. Facilitate partnerships between a multitude of federal agencies, corporations, non profits and academic institutions. Foster policy development between multi-agency groups. Organize and implement conferences, technical workshops, and national level federal functions. Conduct multi-agency Scientific and Technical Advisory (STAC) committee workshops including environmental restoration measures of success. Integrate corporate sector interests and capabilities with natural resource project needs. Lead projects to combine military salvage, civilian agency diving, liability experts and tribal natural resource representatives to address environmental cleanup needs. Provide mission scope and advise U.S. agency participation in joint U.S./Canada cleanup operations the Pacific Northwest.

Implementing Effective Project Management:
Prepare multi-agency crosscutting wetlands budget analysis for CEQ and OMB. Staff political and senior career Administration and White House leadership officials on multi-agency environmental initiatives. Coordinate regional restoration and protection planning efforts and environmental education projects. Advise the Port of Baltimore and the USACE through the Poplar Island site development process. Conduct strategic planning efforts for federal and private sector clients. Analyze program performance and provide recommendations on remedies to structural program challenges. Improve information dissemination between regional and national trade groups. Develop political and procedural steps for fisheries trade associations representation at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Develop scopes of work, budgets, manage contracts and prepare briefings for clients. Prepare Requests for Proposals and respond to grant proposals on behalf of clients. Manage employees and direct subcontractors. Serve as project manager for a host of multi agency projects across the nation addressing coastal resource restoration and projection.

Conducting U.S. Federal Agency, Congressional and Foreign Government Relations:
Serve as liaison between clients and federal, state and local agencies. Prepare interest groups’ testimony for federal agency and White House comments. Prepare written Congressional testimony, speeches, press releases, position papers, reports, and technical presentations for policy staff, scientific staff and lay audiences in support of senior policy representatives and political appointees of the Clinton and Bush Administrations, including the NOAA Administrator and NOAA Deputy Assistant Secretary. Track and match agency projects with agency Congressional authorities and expertise. Testify before governmental committees. Produce briefing materials for federal and congressional staff. Set Congressional briefing schedules. Prepare written testimony for state legislative processes. Plan and implement highly effective Congressional lobby strategies for clients (one issue was supported at an overwhelming 96-0 vote in the Senate). Lead client office visits with Congressional members, professional staff and Committee staff. Build bipartisan House and Senate coalitions. Provide oral testimony on proposed legislation at the state level. Write bill reports for the state and federal level. Organize and implement Capitol Hill events. Organize and implement Congressional involvement in project events in the field. Brief foreign governments on marine protection and restoration issues.

Combining Spatial Planning and Environmental Protection:
Provide testimony on Administration plans for developing a marine protected area system in the United States. Encourage multi-agency collaborative efforts such as the Coral Reef Task Force to examine their land-water interface focus areas and encourage Administration officials to create an Ocean and Coastal Marine Spatial Planning systems that is aligned with their group’s ecosystem protection mandates. Provide the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York District with GIS bases analysis of NOAA Fisheries trawl survey data to highlight areas of denser biological usage as a proxy for areas deserving greatest environmental projection (ESRI annual meeting proceedings 1998).  Use exclusion mapping techniques to determine where dredged material island creation should not occur in New York Harbor and the New York Bight. Map areas for use as potential shellfish and wetlands restoration in New York and New Jersey. Identify areas suitable as combined restoration and shellfish closed harvest areas, resulting in default marine protected areas. Examine role of defense training ranges as temporal sanctuary areas for marine and estuarine species. Analyze military base buffers as an opportunity for joint DoD/natural resource organization partnerships.

Harnessing Technologies to Address Environmental Issues:
Convene a multi-agency team project that seeks to align government agency expertise and operational capabilities from NOAA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Air Force, Army, Navy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US Coast Guard, Lockheed Martin and environmental NGOs such as Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, to locate, develop and deploy appropriate technologies such as laser radar (LADAR) to locate derelict fishing gear at sea.

Representing Agencies’ Policies and Positions via Strategic Communications:
Manage national, regional, local and international outreach efforts for multi-agency federal environmental projects. Manage media campaign plans. Combining the collective resources of county, state and federal public affairs teams. Serve as federal agency spokesman for print, radio and television coverage. Leverage the unique stories to add an education and outreach component to restoration project reaching millions of people with front page newspaper, national and international radio, and regional and national TV news coverage. Serve as Public Affairs Director for Team 4MIL / Wounded Warrior Project and secure national TV coverage for their cross country efforts. Document underwater and above water events for clients and for print and web-based publications. Provide photographs for newspapers and magazines, as well as publish images and video clips on the Web to further leverage the impact of captured imagery. Associate Member, Society for Environmental Journalism.

Reviewing Environmental Law:
Analyze and provide briefings on the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act, Coastal Zone Management, Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 (and its pending reauthorization), Clean Water Act, Estuaries Habitat Restoration Act of 2000, Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act and the National Defense Authorization Act. Familiar with the NEPA, OPA, ESA, CAA, SDWA, CERCLA, and Federal Power Act.

Protecting International Natural Resources:
Conceive plans to align U.S. military interests in theater awareness training with needs of natural resource managers to instigate partnerships with multiple counties in Southeast Asia, particularly the Coral Reef Triangle. Plan for the detection and removal of marine debris in open-ocean conditions to avoid international debris impacts to U.S. marine mammals and reefs. Review use of fish attraction devices by international fisheries, particularly the Pacific fleet tuna fishery, and their role in marine debris accumulation in the Hawaiian islands.  Brief Canadian government on marine debris problems in the Pacific, including preliminary theories on domestic and international sources. 

Planning for Coastal Communities Adaptation to a Changing Climate:
Conduct original research on coastal communities’ plans to adapt to rising seas. Publish results in peer reviewed scientific literature. Conduct media and congressional outreach on findings resulting in coverage in major print media.

Serving as the Military Projects Subject Matter Expert (SME) for DOC/NOAA:
Serve as the Military Projects Coordinator, under contract to NOAA, aligning DoD assets and capabilities that forward the NOAA mission. This position directly staffed the Department of Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere and the NOAA Chief of Staff.

Executing Projects in Habitat Restoration/Wetlands Ecology:
Conduct Regional Restoration Planning for NY/NJ Harbor and the NY Bight for the USACE. Plan and conduct a range of environmental restoration projects across the U.S including: Implement multi-agency derelict fishing gear removal and prevention projects in the Pacific Northwest. Provide technical advice for shellfish restoration in Lower Bay, NY and the Chesapeake Bay. Plan and implement wetland restoration for the Poplar Island Environmental Restorations Project in Maryland. Facilitate and advise on multi-agency restoration projects across the nation for the Coastal America Partnership.

Executing Marine Science Research:
For over nine years, conduct research in marine and wetland science projects ranging from radioactive tracer uptake experiments with phytoplankton to wetland peat research.

Relevant Work Experience:

Publications:
• “Maryland.” In James G. Titus and Daniel Hudgens (editors). The Likelihood of Shore Protection along the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Volume 1: Mid-Atlantic. Nuckols, W.H., P. Johnston, D. Hudgens, and J.G. Titus. 2010. Report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Washington, D.C.
• “Government’s plan for development of most land vulnerable to rising sea along U.S.
Atlantic Coast.”  J. G. Titus, D. E. Hudgens, W. H. Nuckols, M. Craghan, D. L. Trescott,
J. A. Alexander, M Cela, W Clark , C H Hershner, A Hickok, J  Kassakian, C J  Linn,
T M McCue, J Tanski, and J. Wang. Environmental Research Letters, 2009. 
• “Is the scale of your coral problem resulting in project paralysis?  Unusual partners may be the solution.” W. Nuckols. Proceedings of the 2008 International Coral Reef Symposium.
• “Conserving America’s Wetlands: Implementing the President’s Goal.” Council on Environmental Quality, Executive Office of the President, April 2008.
• “How to build project support by engaging the media. Lessons learned from the field:  You can’t do it alone.” W. Nuckols. Proceedings of Coastal Zone 07.  2007.
• “Conserving America’s Wetlands: Implementing the President’s Goal.” Council on Environmental Quality, Executive Office of the President, April 2005.
• “DOD’S Innovative Readiness Training Program: Matching Military Training with the needs of Coastal Communities.”  W. Nuckols. Proceedings of the Coastal Zone Management Conference. 2005.
• “What Can America Learn from How Maryland Is Responding to Coastal Erosion
and Rising Sea Level?”  J. Titus and W. Nuckols. Proceedings of the 13th Biennial Coastal Zone Conference Baltimore, MD. 2003.
• “Planning for Sea Level Rise Along the Maryland Shore.” W. Nuckols. Proceedings of the 12th Biennial Coastal Zone Conference, 2001
• “Success Measurers for Aquatic Habitat Restoration.” Ken Turgeon, W. Nuckols and P. Sheehy. Coastal Zone Management Conference. 2001.
• “GIS and High Precision GPS for the Collection and Documentation of Vegetation Data.” Proceedings of the 2001 ESRI Annual Users Conference.
• “Restoring Shellfish Beds with Dredged Material in NY/NJ Harbor. Beneficial Uses of Dredged Material for Habitat Creation, Enhancement and Restoration in NY/NJ Harbor.” DRAFT. February 1999.
• “Building Artificial Reefs with Dredged Material in NY/NJ Harbor and the New York Bight.  Beneficial Uses of Dredged Material for Habitat Creation, Enhancement and Restoration in NY/NJ Harbor.” DRAFT. February 1999.
• “Improving Coastal Management Decisions Using a GIS and NMFS Survey Data.”
W. Nuckols. 1998. Proceedings of the 1998 ESRI Annual Users Conference.

Papers/Reports/Professional Presentations:
—A Plan for the Recovery of the Artificial Tire Reef in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Produced for the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service SE Region and the NOAA Marine Debris Program. William Nuckols and Terry Gray. December 2006.
—How to Get the Military to Assist with Your Restoration Project: The DoD Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) Program. The 3rd National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration: Forging the National Imperative. December 2006.
—Value of Navy Lands in the in the Chesapeake Mid-Bay Region: Bloodsworth Island – a vanishing ecological and military resource. International Tidal Wetlands Conference: Beneficial Use of Dredged Materials to Restore Chesapeake Bay Wetlands. Salisbury University. June 2006.
—What Can America Learn from How Maryland Is Responding to Coastal Erosion
and Rising Sea Level?  Coastal Zone Conference.  2003.
—The 1996 Reauthorization of the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act: Issues and Implementation, March, 1997.
—Mitigation Banking: The Responsible Use of a New Management Tool. 1997.

Awards and Recognition:
•Coastal America 2008 Partnership Award, an award presented on behalf of Barack Obama, President of the United States, for leadership in the Florida Artificial Tire Reef Cleanup project.
•US Army Corps of Engineers “Gold Coin” presented by USACE Deputy Assistant Secretary Doug Lamont for services provided for the Festival Park restoration project in Manteo, NC.
•Letter of gratitude from Congressman Rick Larsen, for 2005 project that trained Navy divers to remove derelict fishing nets from Puget Sound.
•Letter recognizing outstanding commitment and dedication from the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association.

Certifications:
SSI Open Water Diver certified, DAN O2 provider

Affiliations:
• Associate Member, Society of Environmental Journalists
• Member International Society for Ecological Restoration
• Man in the Sea Memorial Project, Homeland Security Policy Institute Group
•Member of several environmental organizations including: The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Oyster Recovery Partnership, International Game Fish Association, The Nature Conservancy and
Ducks Unlimited

Interests:
SCUBA Diving, sea kayaking, on and off-road bike racing, photography, videography, retriever training.

Download a copy of William Nuckols's resume in Adobe PDF

Contact information: will@WilliamHNuckols.com 801-994-6768 ; 443-994-1493 cell
70 I Street SE, #B30
Washington, DC 20003

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