Dr. John Devens has been the Executive Director of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council since 1997.  Prior to joining the council, Dr. Devens was Clinical Consultant for Cross Country Healthcare in Florida, President of both Sterling College in Vermont, and the Prince William Sound Community College in Alaska.  He was Mayor of the City of Valdez from 1984-1989 and was there during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.  He also had numerous other positions related to university development and special education, mainly speech and hearing.  Dr. Devens originated the first hearing aid clinics in the State of Alaska.

Dr. Devens received his Ph.D. in Communication Science from Wichita State University, and a M.Ed. in Audiology and Speech Pathology from Emory University.  He has published numerous articles, papers and editorials, and has given speeches at many conferences throughout the world.  During 1990 and 1992 he was a candidate for the U.S. Congress.

He currently lives in Valdez where he also runs a Bed and Breakfast, is a founding Board member of the Oiled Regions of Alaska Foundation, a Board member of the Valdez Convention and Visitors Association, past Chair and current member of the Prince William Sound Community College Council and is a member of the Valdez Economic Development Association.

Greg Jones is the Senior Vice President of Valdez Operations and HSEQ with oversight of all operations and maintenance for the Valdez Marine Terminal, SERVS, and the company's Health, Safety, Environment, and Quality team. Originally from Aiken, South Carolina, Greg holds a Bachelor's Degree in Physical Sciences from the Coast Guard Academy and a Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He completed a 20-year career with the U.S. Coast Guard, where he held a variety of positions in the operations, marine safety and environmental protection programs.

Greg gained extensive knowledge of Prince William Sound operations and issues, and worked with various stakeholders as a former Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office in Valdez. After retiring at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC, Greg returned to Alaska in 1997 and joined Alyeska's Ship Escort Response Vessel System (SERVS) team. As the SERVS Asset Manager, he presided over implementation of a new vessel fleet strategy which involved transition to the Sentinel Escort System and the incorporation of newly built state-of-the-art tugs into the SERVS fleet. Greg has since served as Valdez Marine Terminal Director, Valdez Business Unit Executive, and Senior Vice President of Operations in Fairbanks. 

Greg and his wife Anne have a son (Ryan) and two daughters (Kellie and Jenna).

Walter B. Parker has been involved in planning in Alaska and the Arctic since 1946, after service in the U.S. Navy during World  War II.  He was born in Spokane, Washington on August 11, 1926, married Patricia Ertman in 1946 and enjoyed 55 years of  marriage to her before her death in 2001.  He has a B.A. in history and in anthropology from the University of  Alaska and an Honorary Doctorate in Science from that institution.  He also has a Certificate in Administrative Management from Syracuse University’s  Maxwell School and has taken graduate courses at the Sino-Soviet Institute at George Washington University.  He has worked intensively on all the major federal legislation involving Alaska since statehood; namely, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, the Trans Alaska Pipeline Act of 1973, the National Fisheries Act of 1976 (Magnusson Act), the Alaska National Interest Lands and Conservation Act of 1980, and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

Mr. Parker is primarily known for his background in transportation, fisheries, telecommunications, land use planning and oil spill response.  He served in the Civil Aeronautics Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration (1946-70), his principal positions being Evaluation Officer for the Alaska Region (1964-66),  Planning Officer Alaska Region (1968-70) and Systems Requirements Officer  in Washington FAA Headquarters (1967-68).  His major jobs were working on polar and North Pacific air routes, air support to Prudhoe Bay during the first years of oil development and working on the National  Air System.  He was Transportation Planning Officer and Environmental Coordinator for the Federal Field Committee for Development Planning in Alaska (1970-71), where his principal tasks were working on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, aviation systems in Alaska,  pipelines, marine ecosystems and the sale of the Alaska Communications System to RCA.

He retired from the federal government in 1971 and joined  the University of Alaska as a  Research Associate and  Adjunct Professor working on Law of the Sea, international fisheries and transportation.  He taught courses in political science, urban planning and regional planning until 1980.  During this period he served on the Alaska Board of Fish and Game (1971-74).  Mr. Parker and his wife also founded Parker Associates, Inc. in 1971, working on transportation and telecommunications issues primarily.  The corporation served as consultant to NASA on the Applied Technology Satellite projects in Alaska, the South Pacific and India, plus many projects in aviation.  He was also elected to the Greater Anchorage Borough Assembly (1971-74), where his principal emphasis was on parks acquisition, transportation and areawide sewers.  During this period he actively worked on recommendations on federal conservation units to the Secretary of the Interior.

In 1974, he was asked to join the Alaska State Pipeline Office as Environmental Consultant to the Governor, William Egan, and Director of the Technical Staff.  He oversaw construction of the Dalton Highway, which was the haul road for the pipeline and the final stages of technical review on stipulations for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.  At this time he was also a delegate to the Third Law of the Sea Conference, a position which lasted until 1980.   In December 1974, the new Governor, Jay Hammond, asked him to become Highway Commissioner for Alaska to form a state Department of Transportation.  He retained some duties on the pipeline, primarily on regulation of oil tankers,  serving as Chairman of the Alaska Oil Tanker Task Force and delegate from Alaska to the Pacific Oil and Ports Group.  He also chaired the Alaska Telecommunications Task Force which oversaw the transition from micro-wave to satellite for the bulk of Alaska’s communications system.

In March 1976, Mr. Parker was asked to serve as State Chairman of  the Joint  Federal/State Land Use Planning Commission for Alaska, an organization created to carry out the creation of federal conservation areas as ordered by the Congress in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and also to provide oversight of the implementation of that Act.  The Alaska National Interest Lands and Conservation Act was passed by Congress in 1980 and signed by President Carter in December 1980.

In 1980, Mr. Parker resumed a principal role in Parker Associates, Inc., which had been operated by Mrs. Parker while he was in government.  He, also, became the Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the University of Alaska, Anchorage.  The corporation performed major projects on rural aviation in Alaska and elsewhere, designed the Learn/Alaska system for the University of Alaska and the Alaska Department of Education, bringing distant education courses throughout the state at every grade level; and planned some 1600 miles of railroad and 900 miles of road for mining interests in western Alaska. 

In 1989, Governor Cowper appointed Mr. Parker as Chairman of the Alaska Oil Spill Commission (1989-90) charged with examining the causes of the wreck of the Exxon Valdez and the failure of the spill response system.  The Commission’s work was a primary input to the Congress as it wrote the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and to the Alaska and other state legislatures in writing state acts dealing with oil spills.  Subsequently, he became Chair of the Alaska Hazardous Substance Spill Technology Review Council (1990-95) which examined oil spills and other hazardous substance problems in Alaska.

During this period he also served on the National Research Council’s Marine Board Committee on Pilotage and Navigation. 

In 1995, he was appointed by President Clinton as a Commissioner of the Arctic Research Commission (1995-2001).  This led to appointment to the U.S. delegation to the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy Working Group on Emergency Preparation, Prevention and Response in 1995, where he still serves.  Later when the Arctic Council was formed in 1996, he became a delegate to the Senior Arctic Officials and the Sustainable Development Working Group, where he still serves.  He has chaired the Circumpolar Infrastructure Task Force for the Council and the Northern Forum since 2000.  He is presently active working with the Shipping Safety Partnership investigating the wreck of the Selendang Ayu.  He has been a Senior Fellow at the Institute of the North since 2000.  He was on the Board of the Prince William Sound Science Center from 1996 until 2005 and on the Oil Spill Recovery Institute Board  for the same period. He has served on the Prince William Sound Regional Citizen’s Advisory Council since 2004.  He has served as U.S. Chair of the Bering Sea Forum since its formation in 2003 and on the board of  Pacific Environment since 2005.  He is on the Advisory Committee for Oceana and also the Advisory Committee for the Oceans Foundation.

He is also active in urban planning again in Anchorage through the Anchorage Citizen’s Coalition and the Anchorage Trails and Greenways Coalition.

Captain Tim Plummer is President of Tesoro Maritime Company in San Antonio, Texas.  He joined Tesoro in 1998 and is involved in all downstream marine operations associated with refineries in Alaska, Hawaii, Los Angeles, San Francisco Los Angeles and Washington.  Primary areas of overall responsibility are tanker and barge operations, vetting, the Hawaii SPM operations and maintenance and providing marine technical support throughout the Corporation.Captain Plummer has more than 35 years of management experience in marine and terminal operations.  Prior to joining Tesoro he was employed by British Petroleum and was assigned to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company in 1989 where he was responsible for all oil spill prevention and response operations and for marine operations at the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline Terminal in Valdez, Alaska.  Prior to his assignment in Alaska, Captain Plummer was a Marine Superintendent with BP in Cleveland, Ohio. His experience sailing on tankers was with Getty Oil Company in the capacity of Third Mate through Master.He holds an Unlimited Master’s license from the United States Coast Guard and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Marine Science from Maine Maritime Academy.  Captain Plummer is the Chairman of the Board for the Marine Preservation Association which provides all funding the Marine Spill Response Corporation and is a member of the Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers.   He resides in San Antonio with his wife Faye and has two sons and a granddaughter.

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