Operational Management Committee
The OMC is responsible for setting and aligning work priorities across national teams to ensure effective and coordinated delivery of CIOOS operations.
OMC Overview
The CIOOS Operational Management Committee (OMC) is responsible for setting and aligning work priorities across national teams to ensure the effective and coordinated delivery of CIOOS operations. Positioned as a vital link between strategic governance and project implementation, the OMC streamlines national activities and ensures organizational coherence.
The OMC’s role includes:
- Coordinating national work planning in alignment with strategic direction and evolving needs.
- Providing timely, pragmatic feedback and guidance to CIOOS committees and task teams.
- Facilitating two-way communication between high-level leadership and technical teams, ensuring decisions are well-informed and responsive.
- Preventing decision paralysis by promoting decisive and timely decision-making.
- Improving internal communication across the CIOOS system, reducing silos and enhancing transparency.
- Serving as a practical space for integrating strategic and operational considerations.
- Ensuring ad hoc teams remain purposeful—sunset, restart, or reshape as needed.
- Acting as a point of integration across regions to avoid duplication and ensure national consistency.
Through these functions, the OMC plays a central role in enabling CIOOS to operate as a coherent, adaptive, and action-oriented national system.
Committee Chair: Anne-Sophie Ste-Marie, CIOOS Coordination Office, anne-sophie.ste-marie@cioos.ca
After eight years at the St. Lawrence Global Observatory (SLGO), Anne-Sophie joins the MEOPAR team as the new Director of the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System (CIOOS). Anne-Sophie has played a vital role in setting up CIOOS since its origin in 2018 and has been responsible for multiple national roles such as chair of the Communication Committee and member of the Executive Committee of CIOOS. Previous director of partnerships at SLGO, she’s looking forward to drive strategic partnerships and funding initiatives to support CIOOS’s long-term sustainability.
Jessy Barrette is the DevOps Specialist at the CIOOS Coordinating Office. With over a decade of experience in oceanographic instrumentation and data management, he has worked with organizations including ASL Environmental Sciences, the Hakai Institute, and the St. Lawrence Global Observatory (SLGO). Jessy has developed and maintained automated data processing systems, ocean observing platforms, and open data tools to support Canadian marine science. At CIOOS, he focuses on building and maintaining robust, scalable, and reliable infrastructure to ensure long-term accessibility of Canada’s ocean data.
Jordan Watson comes to CIOOS Pacific after decades of ocean science research and leadership roles. He was formerly the Deputy Director for the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System, Acting Deputy Director for the NOAA Center for Artificial Intelligence, and a fisheries ecosystem modeler for the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center. He has a PhD (University of Alaska Fairbanks) and Masters (University of Washington) in Fisheries, and a BS in Chemistry (University of California Santa Barbara). His role as the CIOOS Pacific Director focuses on leading regional data efforts and integrating those efforts with the CIOOS Coordinating Office and the other Regional Associations. When not thinking about ocean data, Jordan enjoys long-distance trail running, backcountry skiing, and any ocean activities.
Vishal is a Computer Engineer who has experience with Aviation, Grid, E-commerce, and all aspects of software development. After starting with CIOOS Pacific as a Data Management Specialist, he moved into the Technical lead role in 2025. He is particularly interested in automating observability of system processes and data pipelines to ensure more reliable operations for CIOOS data harvesting. He spends as much of his time as possible in Ontario’s outdoors.
