Amy Lee Honored as DEMA’s 2019 Wave Makers Award Recipient

** Announcement Made at the 2019 DEMA Awards Party **

The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association is pleased to announce that Amy Lee is the 2019 recipient of DEMA’s Wave Makers Award. The announcement was made at the DEMA Award’s Party on November 15, 2019. The celebration was held to honor the 2019 Wave Makers Award finalists and 2019 recipient, as well as to celebrate the careers of the 2019 Reaching Out Award Recipients.

The Wave Makers Award was first introduced in 2017 and aims to recognize professionals who have been working in the industry for five years or less and have made a significant contribution to the industry during that time. The Wave Makers Award encourages the Industry to support a culture that fosters innovative thinking and encourages engagement with the association and industry by new professionals.

The finalists for the 2019 Wave Makers Award included:

• Rosemary Ciotti, Adaptive Diving Association
• Mike Johnson, Solstice Productions
• Amy Lee, Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
• Nicole Zelek, Superdive Scuba

2019 DEMA Members selected Amy Lee as the 2019 Award recipient by viewing and voting for the finalist of their choice, based on the biographies and short videos that the finalists submitted. 

AMY LEE is REEF’s Trips Program and Communications Manager. Through all aspects of her work, Amy strives to merge her passions for diving, communication, science, and travel. Amy is always looking for ways to inspire new divers and young people interested in the oceans, and she strives to make ocean science accessible and fun.

In her role at REEF, she organizes, plans, and promotes trips to dive destinations world-wide through REEF’s citizen science Volunteer Fish Survey Program. In addition to managing this eco-diving travel program, she is a REEF Trip Leader, where she enthusiastically shares her passion for marine life and encourages participants to become engaged in ways that will make their diving truly count. She serves as one of REEF’s primary mentors to young professionals participating in the Marine Conservation Internship program. In her spare time, Amy has served as a contributing writer for several publications including: Alert Diver Magazine, Scuba Diving, Earth is Blue, and the 2nd edition of the popular Lionfish Cookbook.

Amy views diving as more than just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle—and she strongly believes that as an individual, you make a difference for our oceans.

DEMA congratulates Amy Lee for her hard work and passionate service to our Industry and looks forward to seeing the contributions she will continue to make throughout her career.