As President and Chief Executive Officer of the Texas State Aquarium, Jesse Gilbert provides strategic leadership for the Aquarium’s operations and the Aquarium’s Institute for Wildlife Conservation. Jesse led the development of the leading coastal wildlife rescue program in the United States and, working with Federal and State agencies, created the country’s first emergency operations center for wildlife disasters, the Wildlife Response Operations Center (WROC).
Jesse holds a bachelor’s degree in Marine and Field Science, a Master’s of Science in Fisheries and Mariculture, and a Master’s of Business Administration. Jesse serves on the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi College of Science Advisory Board, the Wildlife Restoration Foundation Board of Directors, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Ethics Board. In addition to his role at the Texas State Aquarium, Mr. Gilbert serves as an Adjunct Professor at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. A native of Michigan and raised in northeast Oklahoma, Jesse now resides in Corpus Christi, Texas with his wife Emma.