Mary J. Donohue, PhD, serves as a Program Development and National Partnership Specialist faculty member at the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program (Hawai’i Sea Grant). In this role she performs senior level extension activities and serves as a liaison and coordinator for activities among Hawai’i Sea Grant, the Sea Grant Network, the National Sea Grant Office, and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) leadership. She also assists in the execution of the program’s research portfolio, provides support to the Hawai’i Sea Grant Communications Unit to optimize performance, and contributes to key programmatic products, such as the Hawai’i Sea Grant Strategic Plan.

Donohue is trained as a marine mammal physiological ecologist. She is a nationally recognized expert in the problem of marine debris. More recently she has focused on contributing to activities toward achieving sustainable communities both within and outside of Hawai‘i.

Donohue earned a bachelor’s degree in aquatic biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1989 and a master’s and PhD in organismal and population biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1997 and 1998, respectively. She was hired by Hawaiʻi Sea Grant in 2002 as the program’s Associate Director and served in this capacity until 2007 when she began her service as a Program Specialist.