Darren T. Lerner, PhD, served as the Associate Director for the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program (Hawaiʻi Sea Grant) for seven years and was hired as director in 2014.

As director, Dr. Lerner oversees all aspects of the program including developing goals, objectives, and policies for the program; hiring and managing faculty and staff; overseeing fundraising and budgets; writing proposals and serving as principal investigator; awarding grants and scholarships; speaking publicly; arranging donor development; coordinating legislative/congressional interactions; and leading/serving on state, regional, and national boards, task forces, committees, and other groups.

Dr. Lerner also serves as the Consortium Director for the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center and affiliate research faculty at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, where he conducts a research program focused on environmental physiology of fishes. Lerner also serves as graduate faculty in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

Lerner earned his bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in psychology from the University of Missouri, Columbia, a master’s degree in zoology from Oregon State University, and a PhD in organismic and evolutionary biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He moved to Hawaiʻi in 2006 and was hired by Hawaiʻi Sea Grant in 2007.