About The Reef Discovery Center

Florida’s coral reefs have sustained extensive damage due to disease, pollution, ocean warming, and other environmental stressors. Numerous local and national organizations are working to address these problems and to restore our reefs to their former healthy state. It takes collaboration between dedicated scientists, environmentalists, government agencies, and the general public to mitigate these threats. The Reef Discovery Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has joined the effort.

The Reef Discovery Center will educate the public about Florida’s reefs using cutting-edge projection technology featuring interactive floor and wall displays. Through our coral nursery, we will also provide space to expand reef restoration efforts. Finally, we will host research focused on coral health and the survivorship of coral outplants. The Reef Discovery Center will be the only organization in Broward County with three core ambitions: public education, reef restoration, and marine research.

We aim to amaze visitors with immersive educational experiences that inspire passion to help our coral reefs recover. We believe that traditional approaches used in exhibit spaces to motivate visitors have become dated, and that a facility that truly aspires to educate and inform the public should leverage innovative technologies that have recently emerged.

In addition, we believe that public engagement should happen not just through exciting exhibits, but also through hands-on activities that contribute to the restoration of our reefs. Reef Discovery Center volunteers will have the opportunity to care for corals in our state-of-the-art facility and to participate in marine research that advances reef restoration practices.

Fun Fact:

That’s a parrotfish ready to take a bite of algae growing on dead coral. Parrotfish teeth are incredibly strong. The dead coral that this “excavator” bites off with the algae gets ground up by a second set of teeth in the fish’s throat and is pooped out as sand!

Parrotfish are great at keeping the ocean floor clean of algae, so that corals can grow. However, it has recently been discovered that they can be a problem when scientists attempt to restore reefs by releasing laboratory-raised corals into the ocean.

Our Mission

The primary mission of the Reef Discovery Center is to inspire the public to get involved, become ocean stewards, and instill pride in the natural wonder that is Florida’s coral reef tract. Through our onshore and offshore coral nurseries, our mission is also to expand the regional capacity for coral husbandry and reef restoration.

RDC Facility

The RDC facility is divided into a dedicated, public-friendly educational area that features state-of-the-art electronic interactive displays, combined with traditional living reef exhibits. On the opposite side of the building, a limited-access area is reserved for professionals using university-level equipment to maintain threatened corals, potentially salvaged from regional reef and port projects. This exclusive space will facilitate critical coral research and coral propagation to complement and enhance state-wide reef restoration efforts.

The Reef Discovery Center is situated near an ocean access park. Through snorkel and diving tours offered by our education partners, visitors will have the opportunity to explore the nearby reefs up close and personal. Visitors can thus amplify and enrich their Reef Discovery Center experience without leaving the neighborhood. See renderings and more details on our Project page.

Photo credit to Nova Southeastern University

Our Team

Kirk M. Dotson

President and Founder

Kirk M. DotsonPresident and Founder

Kirk Dotson is a retired aerospace engineer. He worked for 27 years at The Aerospace Corporation, a federally-funded research and development center that supports national security space programs. His area of specialization was fluid-structure interaction and limit cycle oscillation induced by aerodynamic and propulsion excitation. He is the author of 41 peer-reviewed publications for journals, conferences, and symposia on these and other subjects related to structural dynamics.

Since retirement, Kirk has been passionate about restoration of Florida’s coral reefs, especially with regard to predation of corals transplanted from laboratories to the ocean in efforts to increase the coral population. Kirk is the inventor of a patent-pending biodegradable device that addresses this critical corallivory problem.

Finally, Kirk is the CFO of Reef Fortify Inc., a new company dedicated to the invention of biodegradable devices to facilitate coral reef restoration. In association with this effort, Kirk has been modeling the changes in geometry of three-dimensional objects as they shrink, and ultimately disintegrate, in the marine environment.

Kirk has served as a board director for Friends of Our Florida Reefs (FOFR) and the South Florida Association of Environmental Professionals (SFAEP). He has also served as a member of the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative (SEFCRI). Kirk is currently a member of the multiagency Restoration Team and its Predation and Outplanting Group.

Kirk has founded eponymous graduate student research fellowships in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at Rice University and in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences at Nova Southeastern University.

Stacy Brown

Vice President & Treasurer

Stacy BrownVice President & Treasurer

Stacy Brown is a community connector, ocean advocate, and environmental educator committed to advancing resilience across Florida’s ecosystems. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology and a Master of Science in Biology with a concentration in Research Methods from Nova Southeastern University.
Since 2015, Stacy has served as Operations and Development Director for the Urban Farming Institute (UFI), and in 2023 stepped into the role of Co-Executive Director and Board Vice President. Under her guidance, Oakland Park’s Community Garden has grown to include 75 raised beds and 75 hydroponic towers, and she has spearheaded the development of more than seven school- and community-based garden systems. Her partnerships with local nonprofits have led to the creation of an air, land and sea program and marine science lab at UFI, strengthening STEM pathways and youth engagement culminating in the creation of the hands-on youth focused program, Coral Rangers at UFI in 2019.
Regarding reef research and restoration efforts, Stacy helps steward Reef Discovery Center’s AAUS Diving Program and has improved design, contributed to research, and deployed over 70 artificial reef modules while educating thousands on coral health and marine conservation. Her advocacy has been spotlighted at key events including the Florida Artificial Reef Summit, Global Coral Reef Week, SDG 14: Planting Seeds Panel, the Marine Hub of South Florida Panel, and the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals Conference.
She currently serves as Vice President and Treasurer of the Reef Discovery Center; President of the South Florida Association of Environmental Professionals; a Board Member for the Dania Beach Marine Advisory Board; Treasurer of the Florida Food Policy Council; and Advisor to Residents for Resilience.
Through hands-on projects—from building gardens and coral nurseries to leading oyster restoration—Stacy continues to cultivate sustainable practices and educate residents on protecting local ecosystems. Her passion lies in empowering communities to grow their own food, strengthen marine habitats, and enhance water quality across Florida.

Professor Jose (Joe) Lopez

Chief Scientific Officer

Professor Jose (Joe) LopezChief Scientific Officer

Professor Jose (Joe) Lopez’s research at Nova Southeastern University’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences (NSU HCAS) pivots on the action of genes/genomes, microbes and evolution. For nearly 25 years, his lab has applied genomics tools to address various specific questions in marine invertebrate-microbial symbiosis, microbial ecology, forensics, metagenomics, gene expression of oil-exposed organisms, and systematics/phylogenetics. Lopez runs the Molecular Microbiology and Genomics (MMG) Lab, which has focused on applying genomics tools to better understanding microbial impacts on water quality. This includes surveying and characterizing microbial communities with deep genomic sequencing in Broward canals, Port Everglades Inlet, reef sponge residents, agricultural areas, pristine wetlands, and offshore reef waters. Professor Lopez was one of the founding members for the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance or GIGA (http://GIGA-cos.org), which he continues to help coordinate and that applies genome sequencing and bioinformatics training to diverse non-model invertebrate species. Professor Lopez and GIGA is also part of the wider Earth BioGenome Project (https://www.earthbiogenome.org/). A current project focuses on the studying the harmful blue green algae communities in the local Lake Okeechobee watershed with modern genomics.

Kyle Pisano

Secretary

Kyle PisanoSecretary

Kyle Pisano was born in western Massachusetts and has had a life long passion for the ocean and the environment. Kyle consistently pushed for excellence in academics and practical hands on skills in his early life, and earned a Bachelor of Science in marine biology with minors in ecology and statistical analysis from Unity College (now called “Unity Environmental University”) in 2017 where he had the chance to plan, develop, and lead the college’s first wet-lab. From there, Kyle went on to manage a production system for North America’s largest recirculating fish farm before returning to school in 2018 and earning a Master of Science in marine science with focuses in marine biology and costal policy & law from NOVA Southeastern University in 2023. Kyle began working for NOVA as the Onshore Coral Nursery manager at the beginning of the 2019 “Coral Rescue Project.” During his studies, Kyle focused on coral aquaculture in ex situ systems and produced a thesis regarding the development of a marine biodegradable predator exclusion device, now called the Coral Fort ™.
Kyle now serves as a board member and secretary for the Reef Discovery Center. He also continues to manage the Onshore Coral Nursery for NOVA Southeastern University’s Oceanographic campus while working towards his PhD and is the CEO of Reef Fortify, a startup company which specializes in the development of aquatic restoration technologies.