Ms. Biliana Cicin-Sain
President, Global Ocean Forum, Professor of Marine Policy, University of Delaware
Dr. Biliana Cicin-Sain (PhD in political science, UCLA, postdoctoral training, Harvard University) is Director of the Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy and Professor of Marine Policy at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, also holding a joint appointment in the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy. She is a world leader in the field of integrated coastal and ocean governance and has forged international collaboration among all sectors of the international oceans community to advance the global oceans agenda.
Dr. Cicin-Sain is the founder and President, Global Ocean Forum, initially mobilized in 2001 to place issues related to oceans, coasts, and island states on the agenda of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and to agree on a detailed set of global ocean targets and timelines. Since 2001, the Global Ocean Forum has brought together ocean leaders from governments, nongovernmental organizations, UN agencies, the private sector, and scientific institutions from 110 countries to promote the implementation of international ocean agreements, analyze emerging policy issues, and advance international consensus on unresolved ocean issues. The GOF fosters cross-sectoral dialogue on ocean issues; is a constant advocate for oceans at the highest political levels; and emphasizes the imperative of taking an ecosystem-based integrated approach to ocean governance at national, regional, and global levels. The GOF has carried out many policy analyses, especially focusing on the extent of implementation of global commitments on oceans; organized five global ocean conferences; and carried out multistakeholder policy dialogues on current and emerging global ocean issues. A major emphasis of the GOF is on oceans and people issues, especially on the problems and challenges of developing countries and small island developing States (SIDS).
Dr. Cicin-Sain has served (or is serving as) as a policy advisor to: International organizations--UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, World Bank, UN Environment Programme, Inter-American Development Bank; national governments--Governments of Albania, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, R.O. Korea, United States, Vietnam; and U.S. coastal states and counties. Since 1991, she has frequently participated in United Nations negotiations on oceans and coasts, especially in the 1992 Earth Summit, the 2002 WSSD, the 2012 Rio+20 summit, the post 2015 development agenda, in annual UN negotiations on oceans, and in the negotiations related to marine areas beyond national jurisdiction. Since 2009, she has been playing a prominent role in bringing the oceans issues into the global climate negotiations in the context of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and into the biodiversity negotiations in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Most recently, Dr. Cicin-Sain has led the mobilization of a multi-stakeholder initiative, the Roadmap to Oceans and Climate Action (ROCA), to advance the issues related to oceans and climate within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other relevant international fora.
Among her advisory appointments, Dr. Cicin-Sain has served on various boards of the U.S. National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering), including the Marine Board and the Ocean Studies Board; on the Department of Interior’s Scientific Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf; as a senior policy advisor in the International Program Office of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); as a scientific advisor to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and to the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative; as an advisor to the Independent Oceans Commission, Portugal; as an advisor to the Ocean Policy Research Foundation in Japan; on the Academic Committee of Xiamen University in China; and as a Visiting Professor of Marine Policy at the United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Study in Tokyo.
Dr. Cicin-Sain is the author of over 100 publications in marine policy, with an emphasis on cross-cutting issues related to integrated ocean and coastal governance. Her 1998 book Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management: Concepts and Practices has been used in academic and governmental training efforts around the world. Her 2000 book, The Future of U.S. Ocean Policy: Choices for the New Century, which has been called “…the ultimate guide to the emerging debate on U.S. ocean governance,” presented a blueprint for national ocean policy reform in the United States. Her co-edited volume, The Routledge Handbook on National and Regional Ocean Policies (2015) brings together analyses of the experiences of 15 nations and 4 regions of the world which have taken concrete steps toward cross-cutting integrated oceans governance.
Dr. Cicin-Sain was named the 2010 Laureate for the Elizabeth Haub Award for Environmental Diplomacy in recognition of her “outstanding contributions to the international efforts to preserve the world’s oceans and the several international agreements relating to them.” Given annually since 1997 by the International Council of Environmental Law and Pace University School of Law, the Elizabeth Haub Award is typically awarded to key diplomatic figures that have made a significant contribution to the advancement of international law and policy.
Among her other awards, in 2010, Dr. Cicin-Sain was awarded an honorary doctorate in maritime law by the Korea Maritime University. In 2007, Dr. Cicin-Sain was awarded the Elisabeth-Mann-Borgese Meerespreis (“Prize of the Sea”) by the Ministry of Science, Economics and Transport of the Land Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. In 2007, Dr. Cicin-Sain was also awarded the Coastal Zone Foundation Award for leadership in coastal management, and in 2002, she was awarded the Ocean and Coastal Stewardship Award at the California and the World Ocean Conference together with the late Robert W. Knecht, her husband and co-author, first director of the US Coastal Zone Management Program.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Cicin-Sain served in two US federal agencies: NOAA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development; was a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB); founder and director of UCSB’s Ocean and Coastal Policy Center; and a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and at the East-West Center in Hawaii.
Of Croatian and Macedonian descent, Professor Cicin-Sain was born in Italy and spent her early years in Argentina, prior to immigrating to the U.S. She speaks English, Spanish, and French fluently, as well as some Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, and Portuguese.
Dr. Cicin-Sain is the founder and President, Global Ocean Forum, initially mobilized in 2001 to place issues related to oceans, coasts, and island states on the agenda of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and to agree on a detailed set of global ocean targets and timelines. Since 2001, the Global Ocean Forum has brought together ocean leaders from governments, nongovernmental organizations, UN agencies, the private sector, and scientific institutions from 110 countries to promote the implementation of international ocean agreements, analyze emerging policy issues, and advance international consensus on unresolved ocean issues. The GOF fosters cross-sectoral dialogue on ocean issues; is a constant advocate for oceans at the highest political levels; and emphasizes the imperative of taking an ecosystem-based integrated approach to ocean governance at national, regional, and global levels. The GOF has carried out many policy analyses, especially focusing on the extent of implementation of global commitments on oceans; organized five global ocean conferences; and carried out multistakeholder policy dialogues on current and emerging global ocean issues. A major emphasis of the GOF is on oceans and people issues, especially on the problems and challenges of developing countries and small island developing States (SIDS).
Dr. Cicin-Sain has served (or is serving as) as a policy advisor to: International organizations--UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, World Bank, UN Environment Programme, Inter-American Development Bank; national governments--Governments of Albania, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, R.O. Korea, United States, Vietnam; and U.S. coastal states and counties. Since 1991, she has frequently participated in United Nations negotiations on oceans and coasts, especially in the 1992 Earth Summit, the 2002 WSSD, the 2012 Rio+20 summit, the post 2015 development agenda, in annual UN negotiations on oceans, and in the negotiations related to marine areas beyond national jurisdiction. Since 2009, she has been playing a prominent role in bringing the oceans issues into the global climate negotiations in the context of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and into the biodiversity negotiations in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Most recently, Dr. Cicin-Sain has led the mobilization of a multi-stakeholder initiative, the Roadmap to Oceans and Climate Action (ROCA), to advance the issues related to oceans and climate within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other relevant international fora.
Among her advisory appointments, Dr. Cicin-Sain has served on various boards of the U.S. National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering), including the Marine Board and the Ocean Studies Board; on the Department of Interior’s Scientific Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf; as a senior policy advisor in the International Program Office of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); as a scientific advisor to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and to the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative; as an advisor to the Independent Oceans Commission, Portugal; as an advisor to the Ocean Policy Research Foundation in Japan; on the Academic Committee of Xiamen University in China; and as a Visiting Professor of Marine Policy at the United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Study in Tokyo.
Dr. Cicin-Sain is the author of over 100 publications in marine policy, with an emphasis on cross-cutting issues related to integrated ocean and coastal governance. Her 1998 book Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management: Concepts and Practices has been used in academic and governmental training efforts around the world. Her 2000 book, The Future of U.S. Ocean Policy: Choices for the New Century, which has been called “…the ultimate guide to the emerging debate on U.S. ocean governance,” presented a blueprint for national ocean policy reform in the United States. Her co-edited volume, The Routledge Handbook on National and Regional Ocean Policies (2015) brings together analyses of the experiences of 15 nations and 4 regions of the world which have taken concrete steps toward cross-cutting integrated oceans governance.
Dr. Cicin-Sain was named the 2010 Laureate for the Elizabeth Haub Award for Environmental Diplomacy in recognition of her “outstanding contributions to the international efforts to preserve the world’s oceans and the several international agreements relating to them.” Given annually since 1997 by the International Council of Environmental Law and Pace University School of Law, the Elizabeth Haub Award is typically awarded to key diplomatic figures that have made a significant contribution to the advancement of international law and policy.
Among her other awards, in 2010, Dr. Cicin-Sain was awarded an honorary doctorate in maritime law by the Korea Maritime University. In 2007, Dr. Cicin-Sain was awarded the Elisabeth-Mann-Borgese Meerespreis (“Prize of the Sea”) by the Ministry of Science, Economics and Transport of the Land Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. In 2007, Dr. Cicin-Sain was also awarded the Coastal Zone Foundation Award for leadership in coastal management, and in 2002, she was awarded the Ocean and Coastal Stewardship Award at the California and the World Ocean Conference together with the late Robert W. Knecht, her husband and co-author, first director of the US Coastal Zone Management Program.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Cicin-Sain served in two US federal agencies: NOAA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development; was a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB); founder and director of UCSB’s Ocean and Coastal Policy Center; and a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and at the East-West Center in Hawaii.
Of Croatian and Macedonian descent, Professor Cicin-Sain was born in Italy and spent her early years in Argentina, prior to immigrating to the U.S. She speaks English, Spanish, and French fluently, as well as some Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, and Portuguese.