Tim Ragen earned a Ph.D. in oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego in 1990. His dissertation focused on the life history and demography of northern fur seals. He then completed a National Research Council Associateship at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory and, in 1991, joined the Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Program at the Honolulu Laboratory, NOAA Fisheries.
From 1998 to 2000 he was the Steller Sea Lion Recovery Coordinator for the Alaska Region, NOAA Fisheries, where he focused on indirect interactions between endangered Steller sea lions and Alaska’s groundfish fisheries. From 2000 to 2006 he was the Marine Mammal Commission’s Scientific Program Director and from 2006 to 2013 its Executive Director.
Tim retired in June 2013 but has continued his conservation work on a variety of species including the Florida manatee, Mexico’s vaquita, Pacific walrus, Sakhalin Island’s beluga whale, Hawaiian monk seal, southern resident killer whale, and New Zealand’s Māui dolphin.
He taught environmental risk assessment classes at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. He also has served on committees or task forces focused on risk assessment by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and management of pinniped-salmon interactions in the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. From January 2022 to January 2025 he served as a member of the Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission.
Tim was born and grew up in rural Montana, where he spent much of his free time along the streams or in the woods of his valley.
