Our Board of Directors comprises a passionate and supportive group of professionals from many sectors. Each member plays an integral role in supporting our mission to save coral reefs and expanding our work in years to come.
Board of Directors
Kirby Ryan
Chair
Kirby Ryan joined CORAL’s board in 2018 after volunteering in several efforts with CORAL’s program and strategy teams. A passionate diver and lover of all water activities, Kirby is focused on optimizing CORAL’s operations and helping the organization scale the size and pace of its impact. Kirby is currently a Director of Strategy at Salesforce. Previously, he was the Chief Operating Officer of SWS Venture Capital and a member of Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations practice, helping organizations develop long-term customer and operating strategies, improve efficiencies and performance, and launch new businesses.
In addition to CORAL, Kirby also serves as Vice Chair of the US Paragliding and Hangliding Association. Kirby holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, as well as a Master’s Degree in International Business from the University of Florida.
Judy McNary
Vice Chair
Judy was elected to CORAL’s board in 2023 after several years’ involvement as a volunteer and as a member of the CORAL Council.
Judy has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, launching companies in the software and financial services industries. She has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and has contributed to the WSJ, Kiplinger’s, and U.S. News & World Report. For many years Judy taught in the Finance Department at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business and continues to mentor students there. She is on the Advisory Board of Vert Asset Management and the ESG Council for Avantis Investments. Judy received MBA and BA degrees in Economics and Geography from the University of Colorado/Boulder and an MS in Personal Financial Planning from the College of Financial Planning.
An avid scuba diver and PADI instructor, she jumps at any opportunity to be underwater, including over 15 years as a member of the dive team at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver. When not diving, Judy can be found skiing, traveling, or competing in triathlons. She is an IRONMAN AG World Champion.
Rob Watt
Treasurer
Rob was elected to the Coral Reef Alliance Board of Directors in 2019 and currently serves as Treasurer. For more than 20 years, he has worked as a technology leader across both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Most recently, he served at Hudson River Trading in New York City, where he helped grow the firm from a single employee into a global company trading in markets around the world.
Rob’s connection to coral reefs began in 1998 when he completed his checkout dives in Bonaire while attending a conservation-focused dive conference. There he met CORAL’s then–Executive Director Brian Huse and participated in reef cleanups, fish counts, and coral mapping—an experience that sparked a lifelong commitment to reef conservation. A passionate diver and underwater photographer, Rob brings thoughtful financial stewardship, strategic insight, and deep personal dedication to protecting coral reefs.
Outside of his professional and conservation interests, Rob enjoys cooking, playing guitar and synthesizers, and spending time with his family.
María José González
Secretary
María José González is a biologist from the Del Valle University of Guatemala with a Master’s degree in Wildlife Management. She served as an advisor to the National Council for Protected Areas (CONAP) where she worked on several wildlife regulations, including the first Red Lists for vertebrates in Guatemala. After CONAP, she worked as Executive Director of the Fundación Interamericana de Investigación Tropical (FIIT), while also serving as a research fellow for the Wildlife Conservation Society Vertebrate Ecology Project in Tikal National Park, Guatemala. María José served as Executive Director of the Fundación para la Conservación de los Recursos Naturales y Ambiente en Guatemala (FCG) from 1996-2004. She participated in the design and establishment of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Environmental Funds (RedLAC), and served on the RedLAC Executive Committee twice.
Since 2005, María José has been the Executive Director of the Mesoamerican Reef Fund (MAR Fund). MAR Fund is a regional environmental fund established to support conservation, restoration and sustainable use of resources in the Mesoamerican Reef ecoregion, shared by Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. She has contributed to the capitalization of its $30.5M endowment fund and to mobilizing over $28M for projects in the region. María José joined CORAL’s Board of Directors in 2021.
Lauretta Burke
Lauretta is a geographer who spent 24 years at the World Resources Institute (WRI) before retiring in 2022. During her tenure, she led WRI’s work on coral reefs, developing spatial analyses to assess local and global threats, advancing economic valuations to highlight the benefits reefs provide to people, and improving access to data that informs coral reef management and decision-making.
Lauretta led the influential Reefs at Risk project series, a global collaboration that models both local and climate-related threats to the world’s coral reefs. She also contributed to climate resilience efforts, helping coastal communities prepare for future climate impacts. Her work on economic valuation includes national and regional analyses of the tourism, fisheries, and shoreline protection services provided by coral reefs and mangroves throughout the Caribbean.
Lauretta grew up in Brooklyn, New York, a coastal city that first sparked her lifelong connection to the ocean. She holds an M.A. in Geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and currently lives in Washington, DC, where she is an avid outdoor recreator and potter. Lauretta began diving in 1998, completing her checkout dives on the Great Barrier Reef. She joined the Coral Reef Alliance Board of Directors in 2021.
Jeff Chanin
Jeff retired as a trial lawyer at Keker, Van Nest & Peters but continues to take on environmental cases pro bono. He has been diving for over 50 years, since age 10. He helped certify over 200 of his classmates at Brown University (before the advent of pressure gauges and inflatable BCDs), then turned his attention to dive travel and underwater photography on reefs throughout the Caribbean and Coral Triangle. Jeff enjoys spending his leisure time with the amazing inhabitants of these far-flung places, both above and below the surface. Two decades past, Jeff started to notice that many of the coral reefs he had previously visited were beginning to decline. In contrast, he witnessed the continued vitality and diversity of the corals and marine life within two areas managed by CORAL and its partners—the Namena Marine Reserve in Fiji, and the Roatan Marine Park in Honduras. So in 2012, Jeff sought out CORAL to offer his support. During 2013-14, Jeff served on CORAL’s International Council, where he helped launch the CORAL Conservation Prize. He joined the Board in 2015, chairing the Development Committee and serving on the Marketing and Program Committees. Jeff hopes to help CORAL champion the cause of its most deserving clients—the world’s coral reefs.
James E. Minarik
Jim joined Coral’s Board in July of 2022 after being involved on CORAL’s Council for about a year. He is an Investor, Active Board Member and CEO Coach, with a passion for people and business. He currently serves on a half dozen corporate boards, as well as several not for profits. More at J.E.Minark, LLC.
Prior to his current role, Jim built an exceptional 25-year career as a CEO leading and scaling U.S. and international consumer technology companies across public, private, and private equity ownership. Among his many accomplishments, he and the leadership team he assembled transformed Directed Electronics from a modest automotive aftermarket business into Sound United—now one of the world’s leading consumer audio companies, generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Committed to “paying it forward,” Jim is the Founder and Chairman of the Forte for Children Charitable Foundation. He also serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Boys & Girls Club of Vista, California Foundation.
An avid scuba diver, Jim has a deep passion for ocean conservation. He supports the work of the Coral Reef Alliance and is also involved with the Wyland Foundation and the MAR Alliance. Having visited nearly 90 countries, Jim and his wife Megan enjoy exploring the world and its oceans aboard The World, where they maintain a residence.
Lorraine Sciarra
Lorraine is a dedicated not-for-profit lawyer with over 30 years of experience advising public charities and private foundations, including serving as General Counsel at the National Audubon Society and Senior Counsel at Princeton University. She has also served on, chaired, and advised numerous boards, including the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Watershed Institute. Earlier in her career, she worked as a tax lawyer at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, following clerkships with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
At Princeton, Lorraine handled a wide range of nonprofit matters, including development, and represented the Princeton University Art Museum in negotiations with the Italian government over alleged looted antiquities. At Audubon, her passion for conservation drove her to revive the environmental litigation program, collaborating with other organizations to stop clear-cutting in the Tongass National Forest and prevent Shell Oil from drilling in the Arctic. Although not a litigator, her governance expertise and deep commitment to the environment guided her efforts. Lorraine’s love for nature was nurtured by summers spent on Peconic Bay, Long Island, which inspired her lifelong mission to protect the sea and wildlife. Fun fact: she once applied for a job because it required “a sense of humor.”
Shannon Williams
Shannon joined the CORAL Board in 2023, after serving as a member of the Coral Advisory Council. He developed a deep fascination with coral ecosystems during his first snorkeling experience on his honeymoon in Hawaii. As a father of three, he is passionately dedicated to preserving and restoring healthy ecosystems for future generations. Shannon has spent the past two decades building technology companies with a focus on enhancing and simplifying access to computing. He is the co-founder and President of Acorn Labs, a cloud computing company that offers free development sandboxes to anyone exploring cloud computing. Prior to founding Acorn, Shannon co-founded Rancher Labs, a software company that provides a free and open-source computing platform used by numerous institutions, non-profits and organizations to develop and run applications. He also served as a board member of the non-profit Cloud Native Computing Foundation for four years.
Chris Winterhalter
Chris Winterhalter is the CEO and Co-Founder of Hotel Rehabs, LLC, a nationally recognized full-service hotel renovation contractor with locations in Chicago, Cincinnati, Phoenix, and Mexico City. Under his leadership, Hotel Rehabs has completed over 100 hotel renovation projects, encompassing more than 13,000 guest rooms. The company specializes in mid-scale to upper upscale properties for industry-leading brands like Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Hyatt.
Leveraging his experience as an investor in distressed housing, Chris co-founded Sustainable Ventures, LLC in 2009. The company now owns 120 apartment units and has completed numerous residential property transactions. Chris’s dual perspective as an owner and investor allows him to understand his hotel clients’ needs deeply, making strategic decisions that positively impact their bottom lines.
A graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Operations Management, Chris concentrated on Entrepreneurship and Spanish. Conversationally fluent in Spanish and an avid traveler and scuba diver, Chris is passionate about exploring new places across Latin America, the Caribbean, and beyond. He resides in Chicago’s vibrant Wicker Park neighborhood with his amazing wife, Brooke, and their curious and adventurous daughter, Saige.
EMERITUS Board MEMBERS
Honoring our Emeritus Board Members—visionary leaders whose legacy of service continues to inspire and guide our mission, even beyond their active tenure on our board.
C. Elizabeth Wagner, Esq
Elizabeth was elected to CORAL’s board in 2007. She is the Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Large Business and International Business Division in Washington D.C. Before joining the IRS, Elizabeth served as director of governmental affairs for the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL), where she managed the interaction of NABL with the federal government. Elizabeth has also worked in the national tax offices of KPMG, LLP, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, LLP, and for the Department of the Treasury and law firm Latham & Watkins. She earned a bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas, a master’s degree in accountancy/taxation from the University of Houston, and a law degree from The University of Texas. A certified scuba diver for almost two decades, Elizabeth volunteers as a diver and underwater presenter at the National Aquarium (NA), has participated in NA fish exploration and collection trips and has conducted REEF field surveys. She serves on the Board of Directors of the NA. She currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Mike Bennett
Throughout a career in software development, Mike felt a calling to focus his efforts on the environment. After spending a year in Australia doubling the entries in his 15-year-old scuba dive log, he came to believe that coral reefs, in particular, need critical conservation attention. Since discovering CORAL in 2007, Mike has volunteered database and other technical expertise to the organization. Joining the board in 2013, where he serves on the Audit and Executive Committees, has reinvigorated Mike’s commitment to winning the struggle to preserve the world’s reefs. Mike holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley.
James R. Tolonen
Jim was elected to CORAL’s Board in 2009. Since 1972, he has been involved in the Silicon Valley high-tech industry and has held CFO, COO, president and other executive and board of directors positions in both public and private companies. His accomplishments include taking two companies from start-up through becoming public and growing two other global public companies from several hundred million dollars to several billion dollars in revenue. Jim retired in 2008 but is currently the Board Treasurer of the Santa Cruz Fly Fishermen, a board member for BlackSky, and a volunteer with the Coastal Watershed Council. He previously served as a board member for Blue Coat Systems, Inc., Imperva, and MobileIron and NewRelic. He’s also. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling with his wife Ginger, scuba diving, motorcycling, and fishing. Jim has been an avid scuba and skin diver since 1962, and was NITROX certified; he is also an amateur photographer, both above and underwater. He is passionate about habitat preservation in general, and the marine environment and sustainable practices in particular. Jim received both BSME and MBA degrees from the University of Michigan and then earned his CPA in 1974.