In Memoriam: Valerie Chase

Dr. Valerie Chase at the 2014 NMEA Conference in Annapolis, Maryland. Image credit: Craig Strang

NMEA mourns the loss of Dr. Valerie Chase, Past President and longtime pillar of our community, who passed away on April 27, 2026. Valerie’s contributions to marine education and to NMEA spanned decades and left an enduring mark on educators, students, and ocean advocates across the country.

A Life in Marine Education

Valerie Chase built her career at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, where she developed the groundbreaking “Living in Water” curriculum in the 1980s. Designed for middle school students and grounded in rigorous science, the curriculum integrated physical, biological, and earth sciences to guide learners through aquatic environments ranging from freshwater habitats to coral reefs. The program was adopted far beyond the Aquarium’s walls, finding a home in classrooms and educator resource libraries wherever there was water. NMEA colleagues kept copies in the Project OCEAN and MARE libraries and shared them at summer institutes and workshops for years. Valerie later conducted follow-up research to assess the curriculum’s long-term impact, one of the first marine educators to do so at that scale.

Valerie with one of her beloved Berners, “Lightnin’”

Beyond her professional life, Valerie was known among friends and colleagues for her devotion to her Bernese Mountain Dogs, which she raised and showed with the same care and dedication she brought to everything else.

NMEA extends its deepest condolences to Valerie’s family, friends, and all who had the privilege of knowing her. She was a steady force for the ocean she loved and for the organizations she served. That she mentored colleagues who went on to lead NMEA themselves is perhaps the clearest measure of her lasting influence.

Valerie’s family invites donations to NMEA in her memory. Visit the NMEA donation page and enter “In Memory of Valerie Chase” in the Recognition field.

NMEA is coming together to honor the memory of Dr. Valerie Chase. We invite you to share your favorite stories, reflections, or kind words, which we will compile and present to her family. Please contribute whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

Service to NMEA

Valerie during her term as president in 1990 at the NMEA conference on the Big Island of HI

Valerie’s service to NMEA was long, loyal, and consequential:

  • Director, 1987-1988

  • Presidents Chain (President-Elect, President, Past President), 1988-1991

  • President, 1989-1990

  • Treasurer, 1991-1994

  • Conference Co-Coordinator, 1994 Annual Conference (“Science and Public Policy,” Knoxville, TN)

  • James Centorino Award recipient, 2003

Her tenure as Treasurer may have been her most lasting institutional contribution. She took on the role during a period of financial instability and brought discipline and rigor that laid the foundation for the solid financial footing NMEA enjoys today.

Remembering Valerie

Colleagues across generations describe Valerie in remarkably consistent terms: serious, focused, and effective, with a dry wit that caught you off guard. She was demanding of herself and of the people around her, and those who worked for her credit that standard for making them better. She was also, by many accounts, an invaluable source of counsel and conversation at NMEA conferences over the years, the kind of colleague whose advice you sought out and remembered.

She was a tough and firm treasurer who laid the foundation for the solid financial base we have today.

“She was a tough and firm treasurer who laid the foundation for the solid financial base we have today. She had a dry humor and was also an outspoken advocate for the oceans.”
~Mike Spranger

“Her tenure as treasurer truly set the path forward financially for NMEA. She was a wonderful marine educator with strong leadership skills and an entertaining but dry wit.”
~Rick Tinnin

“Her work and accomplishments at the Aquarium in Baltimore in the 1980s had a major impact on ocean education. Valerie and her staff provided life-changing experiences for teachers and students from urban Richmond, many of whom had no experience at all with the ocean or Bay. And as others have mentioned, Valerie’s no-nonsense leadership helped steer NMEA through some stormy waters. She was one of a kind and I am honored to have been her colleague.”
~Vicki Clark

She was one of a kind and I am honored to have been her colleague.

“I met Valerie at my very first NMEA conference in 1999. I attended her Living in Water Workshop, went up to talk with her afterward, and about a year later she hired me as an Educator at the National Aquarium. She could be demanding, but that made all of her staff better. At the 2014 NMEA conference in Annapolis, she gave me a National Aquarium keychain she'd been given the day the Aquarium opened in 1981. That keychain means a lot.”
~David Christopher

“I first met Valerie when she came as a presenter at a summer teacher professional development institute. Her presence was a gift. In the following years she was a wonderful part of attending the annual conferences. Valerie’s dedication was inspirational and her NMEA leadership part of the association's foundation.”
~Jean May Brett

Her presence was a gift.

“I remember the first time I met her in 1995 upon taking the job at Sea Grant and she said, ‘Oh, Maryland Sea Grant is finally going to get serious about science education.’ It's amazing how she touched people in so many different ways through her wisdom and work.”
~Adam Frederick

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