NOAA - Ecosystem Goal Team - To protect, restore and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through an ecosystem approach to management

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Our EGT Staff

Gillian B. Lichota

Program Analyst

Gillian Lichota is a biogeochemical oceanographer, serving NOAA's Ecosystem Goal Team (EGT) as a Management Analyst and Program Liaison, supporting strategic planning of NOAA's Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System (PPBES) processes, and promoting Ecosystem Approaches to Management (EAM) of the Oceans and Coasts across NOAA. As Program Liaison to the National Aquaculture, Protected Species, Coral Reef Conservation, and Habitat Programs, Gillian assists Programs in the development of annual PPBES products such their Program Operating Plans. She ensures Program representation in the EGT Strategic Portfolio, as well as in the EGT Program Plan. Gillian is the EGT Communication lead, helping to facilitate communication among Programs and with NOAA leadership. She manages EGT website content, development, and maintenance, as well as assists in the development of the Ecosystems Quarterly newsletter. Gillian represents the Ecosystem Goal in other NOAA efforts such as Renewable Energy and Arctic endeavors.

Beginning in January 2010, Gillian will begin a developmental detail in the Climate Observations Division of the Climate Program Office participating in the development of an Arctic Observing Network. The emphasis will be on assisting the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme (CBMP) with the implementation plan of an Arctic Marine Biodiversity Monitoring program. She will be working with the U.S. team to fully integrate Arctic Council monitoring activities from across the NOAA, academic and inter-agency spectra. Gillian will collaborate with the CBMP secretariat's office in Whitehorse, Canada.

Gillian completed field studies at the Bamfield Marine Station and received her degrees in Marine Biology and Physical Anthropology from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada in 2000. She ventured along the path toward biogeochemical oceanographic studies at the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia. There she studied the sources, movement, and fate of persistent environmental contaminants in marine food webs along the Pacific Northwest of British Columbia, Canada, as well as in the Western Arctic regions of Canada and Eastern Russia. In 2002, Gillian participated in the Joint Western Arctic Climate Study, a concerted multidisciplinary research initiative ( Canada, Japan, and the U.S. ) in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean, in order to improve understanding of the character and causes of climate variability and change in the Canada Basin. National Geographic was on assignment for this endeavor. In 2004, Gillian was the first female scientist, and member of the U.S. science party, to participate on the first ever Russian-American Long-Term Census of the Arctic, a collaborative journey of exploration and climate research in the Bering and Chukchi Seas of the Arctic Ocean. In 2004 Gillian earned herself a position with the Smithsonian Institution and served as the Researcher for the new Sant Ocean Hall. Her experience working with academic institutions, governmental and non-governmental agencies both nationally and internationally has been an asset to the EGT.

Ecosystem Programs