Sanctuary Advisory Council membership

Non-government members

Voting

• Research
• Education
• Fishing (2 Seats)
• Ocean recreation
• Tourism
• Business/industry
• Diving
• Community-at-large representatives (five seats)
  • East side of Tutuila
  • West side of Tutuila
  • Manu`a islands
  • Swains Island
  • Aunu`u Island

Non-voting

• Student member (age 14-25)
• American Samoa Government

Government members

Voting

• American Samoa Government Department of Commerce
  • Resource division
• American Samoa Department of Marine & Wildlife Resources
• American Samoa Community College / Sea Grant
• American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency

Non-voting

• NOAA Office of Law Enforcement (OLE)
• NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office
• National Park Service of American Samoa
• Sanctuary superintendent
• ONMS Pacific regional director
• U.S. Coast Guard

Member: Genevieve Gregg - Chair

Seat: Tourism

Council member since 2016

Genevieve Gregg currently serves as the chair of the Sanctuary Advisory Council. In 2018, Gregg was selected as the sanctuary’s Volunteer of the Year. As the owner of Pago Pago Tradewinds Tours and president of the Visit American Samoa Association, Gregg brings to the council a breadth of expertise in tourism. She sees the council as an opportunity to build new projects and workshops to promote responsible ocean recreation and resource protection. Gregg promotes sailing among the youth of American Samoa through her volunteer work as a sailing coach.

Member: Fa`amao Asalele, Jr. - Vice Chair

Seat: American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency

Council member since 2018

Fa`amao O’Brien Asalele Jr. is the director of the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency. He has worked in the agency for over 20 years in various executive and technical roles. A native of the villages of Fagatogo and Leone, Fa`amao is passionate about environmental management and public service in the territory. He recently retired from the U.S. Army Reserve with two deployments to Iraq with the C. Co. 100 BN 442 INF. When he is not working, Fa`amao enjoys spending time with his family and village community.

Member: Fatima Sauafea-Leau - Secretary

Seat: NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office

Council member since 2011

Fatima Sauafea-Le`au is a fishery biologist for NOAA’s Pacific Islands Regional Office and also acts as the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program Fisheries Liaison for American Samoa. Sauafea-Le`au started her career in the marine and fisheries field as a fisheries technician at the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources.. There, she stepped up to a fisheries biologist position and began the Community-based Fisheries Management Program (CFMP). She began working in coordinating trainings and consultations with the Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Regional Programme and the Fisheries Office in Samoa to assist with the implementation of the CFMP in American Samoa. In addition, Sauafea-Le`au assisted the Secretariat of the Pacific Community Community Fisheries program to initiate community-based fisheries programs at pacific islands such as Fiji and the Marshall Islands.

Member: High Chief Togiola Tulafono

Seat: Community-at-large: East side of Tutuila

Council member since 2014

High Chief Togiola Tulafono is the former governor of American Samoa. He has held several leadership roles in the American Samoa government including district court judge and senator. He is also the former vice-chair of the Sanctuary Advisory Council. Currently, Togiola is an attorney and managing director of the South Pacific Law Center. Togiola believes that marine resources are not infinite resources unless there is a serious effort to manage their use.

Member: Peter Crispin

Seat: Diving

Council member since 2014

Peter Crispin has been self-employed since 1978, when he started a business with a partner selling tools from the back of a truck. Now, he owns three companies with a staff of approximately seventy employees: Toolshop Inc., Industrial Gases, and Pago Pago Marine Charters. Crispin has been a member of the Rotary Club since 1978 and served two times as president. He is an active member of the Pago Pago Game Fishing Association and past president. He is a chairman of the annual I`a Lapo`a International Game Fishing Tournament and has also been an American Samoa Power Authority board member since 2012.

Member: Erika Radewagen

Seat: Research

Council member since 2019

Erika Radewagen is the president of the American Samoa Swimming Association. Radewagen has been involved in cultural resource management and research projects in American Samoa since 1998, ranging from mapping the coastal defense systems of WWII to her current project as a curator of the Jean P. Haydon Museum of American Samoa. Radewagen is also involved in many locally-available watersports, namely outrigger and sailing. She is an archaeologist by trade and credentials who formerly worked for the AS Historic Preservation Office as a field consultant.

Member: Valory Gregg

Seat: Community-at-large: West side of Tutuila

Council member since 2016

Valory Gregg is the president and owner of Pacific Maritime Surveys, Inc. She is passionate about promoting career in the marine industries to the youth of American Samoa and has coordinated a field trip for students to tour a cable-laying ship and its ROV. As a commercial diver, she performs marine surveys onboard foreign inspected vessels, and has seen marine life thrive in harsh conditions and the destructive impacts of marine debris on marine life. Consequently, Gregg has made it a personal objective to ensure that the industrial side of the marine field is aware of preventative measures to safeguard marine resources from any further damage.

Member: The Honorable Representative Su`a Alexander Jennings

Seat: Swains Island

Council member since 2013

Su`a Alexander Eli Jennings has served as the Swains Island Delegate in the American Samoa House of Representatives (Fono) since 2005. Outside the Fono, Su`a organizes and directs the Swains Tokelau Community to participate in various traditional events on the island (e.g., funerals, weddings, and celebrations). He also successfully piloted the production of flour from breadfruit in the territory through his invention of a retrofitted freight container dehydrator for breadfruit drying. He leads efforts to promote flour production as a means to diversify American Samoa’s economy. In 2009, Su`a attended the sanctuary's first public scoping meetings and submitted a request to include Swains Island in the proposed expansion of National Marine Sanctuary in American Samoa. Su`a is also a pilot, airline safety auditor, and FAA licensed Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Mechanic.

Member: Va`amua Henry Sesepasara

Seat: American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources

Council member since 2013

Va`amua Henry Sesepasara currently serves as the director of the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) and has served in this role for more than sixteen years. His leadership of DMWR included the transition governments of the appointed Governor Frank Barnett (1972-1976) and Governor Rex Lee (1976-1977), the first elected Governor Uifa`atali Peter Coleman (1977-1985 & 1988-1992), and the current Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga (2012 - 2020).

Member: Scott Burch

Seat: National Park of American Samoa

Council member since 2015

Scott Burch is the superintendent of National Park of American Samoa. Previously, Burch served as the management assistant at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and as the concessions management specialist at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Burch earned the Mayor of Honolulu Special Recognition Award and a nomination for the Hawai‘i Living Reef Award as a result of his efforts to conduct natural resource monitoring, advance sustainable low impact eco-tourism, and to implement education programs in fragile island ecosystems through a non-profit organization that he founded.

Member: George Tyron Young

Seat: Youth

Council member since 2016

George Tyron is passionate about ocean preservation, and he believes that as a council member he can make a bigger impact on ocean preservation rather than as an individual. Tyron majored in political science at the American Samoa Community College. He is a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary and shared boating safety information to participants at the Fisheries Day hosted by the Western Pacific Fisheries Council. Tyron participated in the Pacific Australia Cultural Exchange Program, where he showcased Samoan culture at various Rotary Clubs in Australia.

Member: Kelley Anderson Tagarino

Seat: American Samoa Community College / Sea Grant

Council member since 2013

Kelley Anderson Tagarino is an extension agent for the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program (Hawai'i Sea Grant) and is based at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC). As the only Sea Grant Extension Agent in AS, Tagarino provides support for the marine science program at ASCC and the ASCC Land Grant Aquaculture program. Prior to taking on the Sea Grant position, Tagarino was the coordinator for ASCC’s marine science program and marine option program. Tagarino also taught courses at ASCC including introduction to oceanography and the associated lab, introduction to marine biology and the associated lab, and natural marine resources. Currently Tagarino teaches Introduction to Fisheries Management, Introduction to Aquaculture, and co-teaches the field techniques program called QUEST. Tagarino has served as the president of SAC from 2016 to 2019.

Member: Atuatasi Lelei Peau

Seat: Sanctuary superintendent

Council member since 2016

Atuatasi Lelei Peau is the acting superintendent of National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. Atuatasi is the high talking chief from his village. He served as acting director and then deputy director of the American Samoa Department of Commerce with 30 years of civil service employment before he retired from the AS Government. He holds a degree in political science from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Master’s Degree in Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Hawai‘i (Manoa).