Bullard Named Northeast Regional Administrator

July 2, 2012

Statement from Sam Rauch, Acting Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries

Today, I am pleased to announce that John K. Bullard, immediate past president of Sea Education Association, former mayor of New Bedford, Mass., and former director of NOAA’s Office of Sustainable Development, has been named the Northeast Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. He will assume his new duties on August 6.

Mr. Bullard will head the agency’s regional office in Gloucester, Mass., which works with coastal states from North Carolina to Maine, two fishery management councils, the fishing industry and other stakeholders to manage federal commercial and recreational fisheries, marine mammals, habitat, and much more. He will also oversee critical aspects of international fisheries conservation and management in the region.

His appointment will bring a renewed spirit and forward momentum to the Northeast Regional Office as he strives to balance NOAA’s multiple missions in a historically-significant and dynamic region. Mr. Bullard has the right leadership skills and experience for the job. His long history of bringing people with diverse perspectives together to reach common goals will serve him well in his new position. His efforts will continue to strengthen NOAA’s partnerships with fishing communities as we work together to build an economically vibrant and sustainable future.

Please join me in wishing Mr. Bullard well in his new position and in thanking Dan Morris for a job well done in his tenure as acting regional administrator since January 2012.

Samuel D. Rauch III

John K. Bullard was named the Regional Administrator for NOAA’s Northeast Regional Office on July 2, 2012. He will assume his new duties in early August. As the Administrator, Mr. Bullard is responsible for administering NOAA programs for the management of living marine resources from Canada to Cape Hatteras. 

In this capacity, Mr. Bullard directs NOAA Fisheries’ programs in support of responsible international and domestic fisheries management in the Northeast Region. He also guides multidisciplinary research programs to provide scientific and technical information necessary to manage living marine resources and to support the information requirements and decision making processes of the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils.

A native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, with a lifelong interest in the ocean, Mr. Bullard joined NOAA Fisheries following his retirement at the end of June as the President of the Massachusetts-based Sea Education Association. Also known as SEA, the non-profit education organization headquartered in Woods Hole, teaches college students and others about the science and culture of the sea through a 12-week ‘SEA Semester’ that combines on-campus studies in oceanography, nautical science, and maritime studies with sailing and research aboard one of the organization’s tall ships in the Atlantic or Pacific.

Prior to joining SEA, Mr. Bullard served on Chancellor Jean MacCormack's senior staff at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Bullard was a member of the Clinton administration in Washington, D.C., where he led NOAA’s first federal Office of Sustainable Development and Intergovernmental Affairs. There, he created programs to assist fishing families in New England, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska, and around the nation, advised communities on sustainable development, and helped set policy for aquaculture.  He also worked on the President's Council on Sustainable Development developing policies to unite the goals of economic opportunity, environmental health, and social equity.  Following federal service, Mr. Bullard completed a fellowship at Harvard's Institute of Politics.

At the state and regional level, Mr. Bullard helped create a pioneering marine spatial plan as a governor-appointed member of the Massachusetts’ Ocean Advisory Commission. As a longtime board member of the Buzzards Bay Coalition, Bullard has been a leader in bringing people together to clean up and sustain the bay’s environmental health for fishing, boating, shipping and tourism. 

From 1986 to 1992, Mr. Bullard was mayor of the City of New Bedford, Massachusetts. During his three terms he introduced community policing, recycling, AIDS prevention and other programs. He encouraged UMass Dartmouth to build the Center for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford, which is now known as SMAST.  He also brought the City into compliance with the Clean Water Act by building a modern secondary wastewater treatment plant. His decision to locate the plant in New Bedford’s south end cost him re-election to a fourth term – the political price of clean water.

Most recently, Mr. Bullard received the inaugural award named in his honor for his leadership and commitment to increasing diversity in the Woods Hole scientific community by forming the Woods Hole Diversity Initiative.

Mr. Bullard earned his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude at Harvard in 1969. He received both a Master of Architecture and a Master of City Planning from M.I.T. in 1974. He has lectured widely and received numerous awards including an Honorary Master of Public Service from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.