Margaret Caldwell

I attribute my success to consistently treating others with respect and approaching every role with collaboration, integrity, and a commitment to shared purpose. Throughout my career, I have found that meaningful progress in ocean conservation, environmental policy, and institutional leadership is only possible through strong relationships built on trust, active listening, and mutual respect. Whether working across government, academia, philanthropy, or the nonprofit sector, I have focused on fostering inclusive dialogue and valuing diverse perspectives, which has allowed me to help translate complex science and policy into effective, collaborative action for ocean and climate protection.

The best career advice I've received, and that I also give, is to seek out mentors wherever you are and however senior you are in your career. I seek mentors out all the time and invite advice and reactions to things I'm thinking about or wanting to do. It's about being really intentional about growing as an individual and as a professional. One of my longtime mentors is Jane Lubchenko, an incredible marine scientist who headed up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency under the Obama administration. She's been a really important person in my life personally and professionally for the last 30 years.

I encourage women to seek out board positions all the time because a lot of women don't know how to get connected to serve on a board and learn what that's like, and it ends up being really valuable in many careers to have done that. I also try to pay forward support with other women in the field around salary inequity. Women don't talk enough about this, but it's really something that each of us can do something about. You need the vocabulary and the support from at least one other person to say, no, you absolutely deserve to ask these questions and ensure that you're compensated properly. I make sure women are thinking about that and taking care of themselves in that way. And yes, take advantage of opportunities that come in front of you, but be kind to yourself. Don't try to overwork and pay attention to your health.

One of the biggest challenges in my field right now is salary inequity, particularly within environmental and nonprofit sectors where mission-driven work is often not matched with compensation that reflects the level of expertise, responsibility, and impact required. This disparity can make it harder to retain experienced professionals and can limit long-term diversity and sustainability within the field. At the same time, there are significant opportunities, especially in the ability to grow and expand professional networks across disciplines and sectors. The increasing interconnectedness of science, policy, philanthropy, and community-based work creates meaningful pathways for collaboration, innovation, and collective impact, allowing the field to become more inclusive, strategic, and effective in addressing urgent ocean and climate challenges.

A couple of values that are most important to me are integrity and having a really strong moral compass. Another one is thinking big and not being afraid to think completely outside the box. When dealing with a particular question, challenge, or conundrum, I ask how we could enlarge our approach to take a more systems or comprehensive approach than just tackling one small piece of it. I encourage myself and the people around me to think big. The other value is treating people with respect, no matter what their position and no matter where they are in their career. I really give each individual respect. For example, I recently participated in a field trip for a Stanford class I used to teach, and one of the students was asking pretty basic questions that some might say were naive. But there was something to those questions that I could latch onto and convert to something really powerful, helping that student understand that what she was asking was important. That's an example of giving respect in small ways, elevating people who are just trying to understand the world. It's so important to be curious and to lower the barrier for engagement and asking questions.