Serge Dedina, Ph.D, Executive Director WILDCOAST, will outline the proposed solutions to reduce the sewage, toxic waste, and trash that are fouling the beaches of south San Diego County and northern Baja California. From proposals for water re-use to simple infrastructure fixes, Dedina will provide a roadmap for a blue future along our border beaches. 

The co-founder and Executive Director of WILDCOAST, Serge received the Surf Industry's Environmental Award, San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal as well as the California Coastal Commission’s “Coastal Hero” Award in recognition of his conservation achievements. He was named a UCSD John Muir Fellow in 2013 and was honored as a 2016 Peter Benchley “Hero of the Sea.” Before co-founding WILDCOAST back in 2000, Serge was the founding Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Baja California - Sea of Cortez Program where he helped to initiate successful efforts to protect Loreto Bay National Park, Espiritu Santo Island Reserve and Cabo Pulmo National Park. He grew up in Imperial Beach, California, and spent his childhood helping to preserve the Tijuana Estuary as a National Wildlife Refuge and has worked on water quality issues in the San Diego - Tijuana region since 1980. While a graduate student, Serge discovered plans by the Mitsubishi Corporation to build a 500,000-acre industrial salt facility on the shore of San Ignacio Lagoon and helped to defeat the project. Serge is an avid surfer, swimmer and former State of California Ocean Lifeguard. He is the author of Saving the Gray Whale, a book based on the three years he lived in the gray whale lagoons of Baja California; Wild Sea: Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias; and, Surfing the Border. B.A. Political Science, University of California, San Diego; M.S. Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ph.D. Geography, University of Texas at Austin. Serge was elected Mayor of Imperial Beach in 2014 and was re-elected to his second term in 2018.