Jovita Mask, Founder, OneDegreeChange
As a young child growing up in the small town of Connelly Springs, North Carolina, Jovita loved to go to the beach and to read about distant lands in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Both passions found a home when she learned to dive and participated in the underwater films and videos produced by Bill Lovin. Together they were fortunate to travel the world recording the wonders and challenges of our marine environments.
Following a career designing education programs for nonprofit associations and after witnessing the challenges of the oceans, Jovita created OneDegreeChange. Its purpose is to help people and organizations identify and make simple incremental changes over time to enhance their effectiveness. Rather than try to implement major changes which are often difficult and meet with resistance, “one degree” of change can have a dramatic effect. (Example: In a perfect experiment, you can raise the temperature of water one degree from 2110F to 2120F and create steam which can drive an engine).
Applying this idea to the marine environment, we encourage each person to take simple steps to help preserve our “water planet”. It can be as easy as picking up trash along waterways so it doesn’t end up in the ocean and potentially kill a creature that might mistake it for food.
Every person and organization can do something positive to ensure the future of our oceans and waterways and the creatures who inhabit them. Jovita joined in the creation of OceanArchives.com to extend the accessibility of valuable information to students and educators and instill a desire to be more active in ocean preservation.
