Shari Sant Plummer
Environmental philanthropist and ocean activist Shari Sant Plummer is President and co-founder of Code Blue Charitable Foundation, Secretary/Trustee of the Summit Charitable Foundation, founding board member of the Sylvia Earle Alliance, board member of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and former Vice President of Seacology. Shari is also a member of the Ocean Unite Advisory Board, WWF National Council, and Nature’s Best Photography Advisory Council. A proponent of impact photography and filmmaking, she served as board chair of the International League of Conservation Photographers for five years and is currently an affiliate.
In addition to her philanthropic work, Shari also produces documentary films including the Emmy award-winning Netflix documentaries “Mission Blue” (Executive Producer), and “Chasing Coral” (Associate Producer). She is also Executive Producer on the award-winning films “Anote’s Ark,” “Sharkwater Extinction,” and “Ghost Fleet.”
A graduate of NYU, Shari worked as Senior Stylist and Design Director for Ralph Lauren in New York for nine years, then as Visual Director at Esprit. She later founded the environmental lifestyle store, Worldware, in San Francisco in 1994. She sold the business in 2001 and now devotes herself full-time to conservation work, with a focus on producing impact media to inspire change.
An avid diver, photographer and ocean activist, Shari travels extensively throughout the world promoting ocean conservation and environmental awareness and lives in New York and California with her husband Dan and their dog Brody.
3 words to describe Nature?
Miraculous. Humbling. Fragile
3 things Nature taught you?
Respect
Love
Resilience
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Cocos Island, Costa Rica
Millennium Atoll, Kiribati
Our farm in the Catskill Mountains, New York
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Curious, energized, alive!
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Comforted it’s still there!
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Afraid and exhilarated
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Reverent awe
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Apprehensive.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
..like diving under the covers!
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Definitely ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
Is this a trick question? More than 10!
Share with us a childhood nature memory.
Body surfing is a tradition in my family, so at an early age, I regularly braved the icy waves in Santa Cruz, where we had a beach house.
I would run intrepidly into the frigid sea, dodging the crushing turbulence of the waves by diving deep beneath them. I loved the feeling of the oceans power passing over me, almost as much as the thrill of catching a ride!
One day after diving through several waves, I surfaced to realize there were no more waves coming. I had inadvertently moved into deep ocean and was now caught in a riptide which was rapidly pulling me out to sea! I was alternating treading water and trying to swim back to shore when a vigilant stranger noticed and swam out to rescue me.
Though It was a frightening experience, it didn’t deter me from continuing to spend long summer days salty and sunburned in the waves, nor did it diminish my love for all thing’s ocean. But, it was a valuable lesson in humility, and in respect for the ultimate power of nature.
Ross Beaty
ROSS BEATY is a geologist and entrepreneur in the international minerals and renewable energy industries. He currently Chairs Pan American Silver Corp. and Equinox Gold Corp. and has founded and divested many other resource companies. He is also an environmental philanthropist, primarily through The Sitka Foundation. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Nature Trust of BC, is a Director of The Pacific Salmon Foundation and Panthera, and is patron of the Beaty Biodiversity Center at the University of BC. Mr. Beaty was appointed to The Order of Canada in 2017 and the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2018.
3 words to describe Nature?
Spiritual. Wondrous. Sustainable
3 things Nature taught you?
What beauty really is.
What sustainable systems look like.
The ability to enjoy simple things without all the junk in urban systems.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Patagonia
BC coast
Galapagos
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Small
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Fulfilled
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
If it’s an active volcano it’s always awesome. If it’s an extinct volcano I always think of the power of plate tectonics.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Beauty
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Appreciative of the power of nature
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Ditto
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountain
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Hiking and camping with my family.