Serge Dedina, Ph.D.

Serge Dedina is the Executive Director of the ocean conservation group WILDCOAST. His 30-year career battling to protect wild coastlines led to his receiving the Peter Benchley “Hero of the Sea” Award, a California Coastal Commission “Coastal Hero” Award and the San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal. As the former Mayor of Imperial Beach, California, Serge successfully sued the United States government over border pollution resulting in a $300 million allocation for wastewater infrastructure. He was the first mayor in the world to sue the fossil fuel industry for causing sea level rise, a lawsuit that really pissed off the governor of Texas and Exxon Mobil. He is a proud graduate of UT-Austin where he received a Ph.D in Geography.