Mayor Serge Dedina

City of Imperial Beach

Serge is the Mayor of the City of Imperial Beach. He is also 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. 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. Serge has a Ph.D. Geography, University of Texas at Austin; M.S. Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison; B.A. Political Science, University of California, San Diego.