Our Team

Ocean Exchange Team

Anne Birch

Florida Oceans and Coasts Strategy Director

Anne has been involved in marine conservation work in Florida for over 30 years.

Anne has been involved in marine conservation work in Florida for over 30 years. She joined The Nature Conservancy in 2004 and as the Florida Oceans and Coasts Strategy Director she is responsible for guiding work on restoring and managing coastal systems. This includes habitat restoration, management, and policy actions, and convening diverse stakeholders to tackle issues affecting Florida’s estuarine systems. She facilitated community-based watershed planning efforts in six watersheds along Florida’s Gulf Coast that led to the creation of three new Estuary Programs. Anne has a special affinity for the charismatic oyster and manages a large-scale oyster habitat restoration project in Pensacola, Florida. She led the development of the Oyster Fisheries and Habitat Management plan for the Pensacola Bay System and continue to work with the community to implement the plan. She is currently facilitating a process to develop a statewide oyster management plan – the first in Florida. Anne holds a Master’s degree in Biology and Marine Ecology. She serves on the Boards of the Florida Oceans Alliance and Inwater Research Group and is a member of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program’s Science Technical Engineering and Modeling Advisory Committee, Northeast Florida Ecosystem Restoration Team Steering Committee, and the Florida Oyster Restoration Science Steering Committee.

Contact Us

Ocean Exchange invites you to learn more about Awards Program, our ecosystem and success of our award winners and participants. Together, we can chart a powerful course to help ensure the future of our oceans and the Blue Economy.

“Ocean Exchange has a platform to enable people with information that they need to know about the ocean and then to showcase new technologies that are on the forefront of really helping the ocean and the planet.”

“The quality of the content and the people who are involved with Ocean Exchange is all high end.”

“Besides funding, Ocean Exchange provides access to a wide area network of incredibly talented people in organizations that really do just want to help people.”

“Ocean Exchange is really about helping the little guys grow and in so doing, helping the big guys be better ocean citizens.”

“Ocean Exchange seems to be much more focused on bringing to light under-capitalized, wonderful new technology ideas. And it’s all about two-way access to this new technology and to the people who can help with the experience to grow that technology.”

“Ocean Exchange is a force multiplier to enable sustainable innovation.”

“Ocean Exchange is a global, novel innovation forum that has a greater ability to attract a broader range of impactful stakeholders than any other event that’s out there.”

“Unquestionably, one of Ocean Exchange’s primary strengths is how it brings together people from different paths. That makes its event a delegator experience as well as experience for an innovator or awards nominee.”

“Ocean Exchange is entirely different from any of the other organizations that I’m involved in. It is about sustainable innovation. I think it’s also very different in the extremely broad range of stakeholders that it involves.”

“There’s nothing better than going to an event or engaging with people so you walk away and say, ‘Wow!’”