Celebrating 20 Years of Passion and Dedication: A BayLines Original Article
- Dec 5, 2016
- 1 min read
As of 2016, our wonderful executive director, Marilou Seiff, has been with MSI for 20 years! In October, our staff and board members hosted a great party to celebrate Marilou, and to thank her for 20 years of service to marine science education and to the youth of the Bay Area.
Marilou began working at MSI in November 1996. She advanced from Science Instructor to increasing levels of responsibility before being named Executive Director in 2003. Prior ro MSI, Marilou worked as an aquatic biologist at the Pacific Environmental Laboratory, a diver at the Marineland of the Pacific, and a biologist at the California Department of Fish & Game. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University, and a M.S. in Biology from the University of the Pacific. In 2006, Marilou completed the Leaders Institute through the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits (CEN), and continues to be active with CEN’s Executive Director Roundtable. By nomination of the Packard Foundation, Marilou attended the Executive Training Program of the Communications Leadership Institute, and completed Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management in 2007 at Harvard Business School.
MSI has become the most popular and successful environmental science education organization in the Bay Area because of Marilou’s leadership. We love you, Marilou!
The part about sticking with the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits roundtable jumped out at me — that kind of peer network seems like the unglamorous thing that keeps leaders from burning out. Also, random but true: when my weeks get chaotic, I end up overthinking basics like what colors even look good on me; I went down a rabbit hole on StyleLookLab for that. Anyway, it’s nice seeing a community org publicly recognize the long-haul work that usually stays invisible.
I like that this focuses on concrete milestones (roles, training, prior field work) instead of just a generic tribute — it paints a fuller picture of why the org grew. On a lighter note, all the ocean/education imagery had me daydreaming about art projects with kids; I’ve seen people do cute posters with simple ghibli ai transforms and it actually gets them excited to make stuff. Celebrations like this feel earned when you can point to a real arc of impact.
What stood out to me is how her progression was internal — instructor to ED — which is hard to pull off unless an org actually invests in people. It also makes me curious how MSI tells that story to donors and partners; I’ve seen directories like https://hrefgo.com do a decent job packaging “what a thing is” for outsiders, and nonprofits have a similar challenge. Either way, this kind of long-term leadership feels stabilizing for programs serving kids.
The Stanford/Harvard + on-the-ground marine work combo is interesting — it explains how someone can bridge education, ops, and fundraising without losing the mission. Randomly, it also put me in mind of learning “classic” skills in other fields; I was messing around with a Vigenere cipher tool recently and it had the same vibe of fundamentals still mattering. In any case, 20 years of continuity is a big deal for youth programs.
It’s kind of rare to see a staff celebration write-up that actually lays out the career path and training like this — it makes the impact feel more concrete than just praise. Reading it made me think about how people recharge outside work too; I’ve definitely decompressed after long weeks with little puzzle games like BlockBlast. Anyway, the Bay Area is lucky to have someone stick around and build something for that long.