Dr. Steve Halsted has been elected board chairman of Heal the Ocean, a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit organization focused on reducing ocean pollution.
Halsted is retired after 32 years as a senior scientist and manager at Hughes Aircraft Company and Santa Barbara Research Center (now Raytheon).
He also has served as an officer and board member of the Music Academy of the West, the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara and the Rincon Point Property Owners Association.
With a family home on Rincon for 54 years and a love of the ocean, his involvement with Heal the Ocean began in 1999 with the initiative to convert homes in the Rincon Point community from septic systems to sewers, a successful Heal the Ocean-led effort now under way.
The Rincon project is part of the South Coast Beach Communities Septic to Sewer Project, which will result in 150 homes from Rincon to Padaro Lane abandoning on-site septic systems.
Heal the Ocean’s other board officers are secretary Stan Harfenist and treasurer Kelly Smith.
— Hillary Hauser is executive director of Heal the Ocean.