OSU Marine Mammal Institute, June 25

OSU release – NEWPORT, Ore. – Lisa Ballance, an ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, has been named director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University. She succeeds Bruce Mate, who is retiring after serving as the director since its inception in 2006. She will start in the new position on Oct. 14. Ballance is director of the Marine Mammal and Turtle Research Division at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. She has been affiliated with the center in a variety of capacities since 1988 when she joined as a graduate research associate. She also is an adjunct professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.