Martha Shaw
Steering Committee Ambassador
Martha Shaw is a coastal geologist whose research includes seafloor mapping, coastal protection, lagoon, coral and kelp restoration, water quality, harbour dredging, moorings, beach erosion, sand nourishment, island resilience, and sea-level rise.
To better protect our planet from human impact, she also founded Earth Advertising and has won many accolades for her creative campaigns promoting environmental consciousness in terms of consumption and corporate responsibility. In this capacity her production team has launched products and joined projects that have included Zipcar, Sun & Earth detergent, Domini Scorecard Index, New Leaf Paper, Stonyfield Farm Organic, FTL Solar, Green Apple Cleaners, New England Aquarium, Boston Museum of Science, San Diego County Water Authority, Social Venture Network, ESRI, Blue Ocean Film Festival, New York Solar Energy Society, Indigenous Design, Plastic-free Rio+20, COP 16, 17, 18, 21, Consumer Power, Water 2.0, Oceans 13, Temple of Understanding, Vineyard Unplugged, Conscious Consumers in a Nutshell, AREDAY, UNFCC, Media that Matters: A Gathering at Sundance, Selling Without Selling Out series for eco-preneurs, Mission Blue, Indigenous Designs You Are What You Wear, Sea Levels Exhibit, Capture the Trash game, Hook, Line and Sinker – a novel, Aspen Institute, Organic Valley, New York Green Business Council, NYU CleanTech Executive Program, CLEAN Climate Literacy Network, and other projects to turn the tide of ocean decline. These campaigns, known for whimsy and entertainment value, have won her Adweek Creative Allstar, Best of Broadcast New England, LA Belding Awards, New York One Show Gold Pencils, Best of Show San Diego, the Radio Mercury Award and others.
She is communications director for Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) to empower island nations toward a sustainable and resilient future in the face of accelerated climate change. She is a Fellow of the Explorers Club where she has served on World Oceans Week, UN World Oceans Day, Women of the Explorers Club, Women of the Deep, and as associate editor of The Explorers Club Log. She serves on the Board of Directors for Scripps Institution of Oceanography EWSA.
Martha is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire in Earth Science and Oceanography where she became a research diver with the Jackson Marine Lab diving off the New England coast, and ice diving in the lakes. She was hired as a diver by the California State Fish and Game Department to study kelp beds and marine terraces in Southern California and received further training by Navy Seals on Catalina Island. She went on to become a Staff Research Associate 5 for the Shore Processes and Hydraulics Lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD installing wave and current meters, and conducting beach profiles to study how nearshore processes set sediment in motion and has published papers on this topic, earning a graduate degree in Geology from San Diego State University. She serves in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary in San Diego Harbour.
She enjoys promoting the work of others and collaborating on new and engaging ways to increase the public’s understanding of the wonders and fragility of our planet in entertaining media formats.