On Friday, January 23, IOOS wished “fair winds and following seas” to two members of our team, Dave Easter and Jeffrey Payne, as they retire from federal service.

Dave Easter has been with IOOS since 2010, and been Chief of the Regions, Budget, and Policy Division since 2017. A longstanding member of the IOOS family, Dave has been instrumental in strategizing and guiding constant growth in his division since taking the helm. Regions, Budget, and Policy are at the very heart of what we do in the U.S. IOOS Office, building and growing our relationships with the IOOS Regional Associations, and ensuring that system funding is allocated, disbursed, and accounted for in ways that foster and bolster the IOOS mission. Beyond his professional contributions to IOOS, though, Dave is known to all of us, and many of you reading this as a colleague, a mentor, a champion, and a friend. 

Jeffrey Payne is one of the newest members of the IOOS Office, having stepped in as acting Director in May 2025. Although only formally a part of the IOOS Office for a short time, he has been a friend and a partner to IOOS for decades, most recently in his regular role as Director of NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management. Jeffrey stepped up to IOOS leadership in a time of great change and transition both in IOOS and at NOAA, and guided our team with the same keen instincts and confident leadership that brought him so much success at OCM. It takes a great deal of drive and vision to lead two offices at the same time, and we are fortunate to have benefited from Jeffrey’s expertise during this time of transition for the IOOS Office.

We send Dave and Jeffrey onto their next chapters with our gratitude for bringing their years of experience to work for NOAA and IOOS, and wish them only the best in their future endeavors. 

At the same time, we are so happy to announce that IOOS Deputy Director Krisa Arzayus will be stepping into the acting director role. Krisa has been the IOOS deputy since 2018, and we are very much looking forward to continuing to advance the IOOS mission under her leadership. Over the coming year, we will continue to use EOTO to communicate our updates and plans and to celebrate our shared accomplishments as we continue to evolve, grow, and serve the nation with critical ocean data and information services.