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Please welcome Jolene Gittens as the new editor of Sound Waves. Jolene is an information specialist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) in Florida who served many years as the newsletter’s web-layout editor. Assisting Jolene is current Sound Waves web-layout editor Betsy Boynton, a multimedia specialist in the St. Pete center who is now also doing the newsletter’s print layout. Laura Torresan, the web designer at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC), will continue to be web-review editor. An important behind-the-scenes role is center reviewer, a senior scientist who reviews each article on behalf of the science center hosting the production of Sound Waves. SPCMSC Science Advisory team members Lisa Robbins, Hilary Stockdon, Jennifer Miselis, and Ilsa Kuffner each will take on that role as a rotating assignment.

Jolene, Betsy, Laura, and the Science Advisory team members are taking over from the production team based at the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC) in Santa Cruz, California: Helen Gibbons, who served as Sound Waves editor from 2002 to 2015; Alan Allwardt, assistant editor; Susan Mayfield and Sara Boore, who shared print-layout duties; and Eric Geist, PCMSC reviewer.

“Sound Waves is a vital communication vehicle for USGS researchers who work in ocean and coastal environments. The Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center has done a phenomenal job leading the production of the newsletter for nearly 14 years, growing it into a publication that represents the scope and breadth of USGS research conducted by many science centers,” said Susan Russell-Robinson, Acting Program Coordinator of the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program, which funds production of the newsletter. “I am excited to see the transition of production leadership to the staff of the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, because it represents an excellent example of succession planning to sustain Sound Waves. This change offers opportunities for trying new ideas for producing an electronic publication and for engaging even more widely across USGS and it partners. Thanks to Helen and her team! And best wishes to Jolene and her team!”

Sound Waves has been published online since 1999 by the Coastal and Marine Geology Program. It highlights USGS-wide research and related activities in the nation’s oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. Contributions from USGS employees in all centers are invited. The current contributing editors are Dennis Krohn (SPCMSC), Helen Gibbons (PCMSC), Susan Verner (Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center), Sandra Morrison (Midwest Region), Josh Miller (Great Lakes Science Center), Gabrielle Boudreaux Bodin (National Wetlands Research Center), and Xochitl Rojas-Rocha (Western Ecological Research Center). Please contact us if your center does not have a contributing editor and you are interested in serving in that role, which entails collecting and forwarding articles from center employees.