Speaker Biography: Mike Hirshfield

Dr. Hirshfield is currently Vice President for Resource Protection at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where he is responsible for CBF's advocacy efforts aimed at stopping pollution, protecting and restoring habitat, and increasing fish populations.

From 1995 until mid-1996, Dr. Hirshfield was Director of the Ecosystem Protection Program at the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington, DC, where he was he was responsible for developing and overseeing CMC's efforts to ensure integrated management of marine ecosystems, including marine protected areas. From 1990-1994, he was the Senior Science Advisor at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where he provided expert scientific and policy input into the development and implementation of CBF projects.

Dr. Hirshfield has broad experience in a variety of technical and policy areas, in particular watershed and coastal management, polluted runoff and animal waste, nutrient and toxics pollution, fisheries management, air quality, energy, and estuarine ecology. Before joining CBF in 1990, he was with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for seven years, serving as Director of the Chesapeake Bay Research and Monitoring Division and Director of the Power Plant Research Program. Prior to working for the state of Maryland, he was Director of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia's Estuarine Research Laboratory in Benedict, Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Michigan in 1977.

With more than 90,000 members, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is the largest nonprofit conservation organization working solely to Save the Bay. Founded in 1967, CBF employs a staff of 200, with headquarters in Annapolis, Maryland, and state offices in Annapolis, Richmond, Virginia, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. CBF's main programs focus on resource protection and restoration, and environmental education.