OneReef Worldwide Stewardship is pleased to welcome Dr. Jason John as its new Director of Operations and Strategy. A conservation biologist with experience spanning scientific research, public policy, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector, Jason brings a strong commitment to community-led conservation and a desire to help connect OneReef’s people, programs, and priorities.
Throughout his career, Jason has been driven to find a way to make a meaningful impact. His path began in biological research before leading him to conservation and climate action.
As a researcher, Jason studied the ecology and physiology of marine mammals, examining how human activity and climate change affect them and how they may adapt. His work took him from Santa Cruz to Florida, where he worked with manatees, to research involving beluga whales, seals, and emperor penguins—including time in Antarctica.
These experiences gave him a rare opportunity to observe ecosystems and environmental change across very different settings. They also showed him the limits of studying one species or one part of an ecosystem in isolation.
“As scientists, you often have to really focus on one specific piece of the puzzle,” Jason says. “But no matter where we were, the impacts that we were seeing were so much larger than that one piece that we’re able to look at when we’re doing research. If we’re thinking about conservation, we’re looking at the landscape-scale impacts.”
Wherever Jason was working, two things stood out to him. One was the need for landscape- and habitat-scale approaches. Just as importantly, was the extent to which communities were too often left out of conventional approaches to conservation and academic research. In many places, local and Indigenous communities have cared for lands and waters for generations, building a wealth of knowledge through lived experience. Yet their knowledge, priorities, and leadership have not always been meaningfully included in conservation decisions.
Jason’s desire to bridge these divides drew him towards public policy and the nonprofit sector. At the California Natural Resources Agency, he helped develop California’s 30×30 initiative, which aims to conserve 30 percent of the state’s lands and coastal waters by 2030.
A central principle of that work was that conservation priorities should not simply be determined by government agencies and handed down to communities. Jason says, “one of the things that was really special about it was that we were anchoring that work around community-driven conservation.”
That same principle attracted Jason to OneReef.
“What really excites me about working with OneReef is the opportunity to support communities in the work that they’re doing, their goals,” he says. “It’s about making sure that they have the resources and the tools that they need to achieve those goals.”
In his new role, Jason will help strengthen coordination, strategic planning and operational systems across OneReef. His initial priority, however, is to listen. He is looking forward to learning from OneReef’s team and partners, particularly those who have spent years working alongside communities throughout Micronesia and the wider Pacific.
For Jason, strategy must balance ambition with a clear-eyed understanding of capacity. It should define what an organization hopes to achieve while remaining grounded in what its teams and community partners can accomplish.
“It is about understanding what those long-term goals are, across conservation, funding, capacity, and strategy, and also what are we able to do right now to start building towards those goals,” he explains.
Outside work, Jason’s life revolves around parenting his energetic two-year-old son. For his family “getting to show him more and getting him out and seeing nature is a chance to see everything through new eyes.”
Jason joins OneReef eager to contribute, but equally eager to learn. His combination of scientific knowledge, strategic experience, and commitment to community leadership will support OneReef as it strengthens its operations and expands its efforts to advance resilient communities and healthy ocean ecosystems.