RALPH S. GOTO

Ralph S. Goto is the recently retired Administrator of the Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services Division, City and County of Honolulu, a position he held for 32 years (1981-2013). In this capacity, he was responsible for all aspects of Oahu’s island-wide ocean lifeguard service that employed a staff of 150 full time and 80 part time professional water safety officers, with an annual operating budget of $9 million.

 Although retired, he remains active in the field of lifesaving and ocean safety at both the local and national levels. Goto serves on the Board of Directors of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association, the non-profit support group for Hawaii’s lifeguards, and as an aquatic safety consultant to government and private sector entities. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Kama’aina Kids and the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame. Goto is a Life Member of the United States Lifesaving Association, the national organization of open water lifeguarding professionals, and currently serves on the USLA National Board of Directors as Advisor to the USLA President. Goto has authored, co-authored and been published in numerous aquatics journals and has written chapters in two aquatic safety textbooks.

PHILIP R. FOTI, M.D.

Philip R. Foti, M.D. has been practicing internal medicine and studying pulmonary disease across the state of Hawai‘i for over 50 years. With a career-long focus on pulmonology, an area of medicine that focuses on the health of the respiratory system, he was drawn to the issue of snorkel-related drowning with the hope he could determine the causes and risk factors of snorkel-related drowning and non-fatal ocean drowning to raise awareness and increase public safety.

Dr. Foti joined the Snorkel Safety Study as the principal investigator in 2017. Dr. Foti has been published in American Review Respiratory Disease, Anigiology, and ACTA Cytologica. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed his residency at Georgetown University Hospital. During his decades of practice, Dr. Foti has been the director of the HRDA Chronic Lung Disease Project, the president of the Hawaii Thoracis Society, the director of ICU-CCU, Cardiopulmonary Laboratory Services and Duplex Vascular Ultrasound Services at Castle Medical Center, the director of Pulmonary Laboratory Services at the North Hawaii Community Hospital, and the president of the International Hawaiian Canoe Association. He can be reached at pfoti@snorkelsafetystudy.com. 

CAROL WILCOX

Carol Wilcox authored The Kauai Album, The Kauai Papers, Sugar Water: Hawaii’s Plantation Ditches, and He Mele Aloha: A Hawaiian Songbook. She was the project manager for an inventory of Hawai‘i’s plantation ditches for the Division of Historic Sites, DLNR; and an inventory of Hawai‘i’s surface water for the Division of Water Resource Management, DLNR, resulting in The Hawaii Stream Assessment. As the SMA planner for the County of Kaua‘i she guided a community-based plan for commercial boating in Hanalei for the Planning Department. She co-founded the Hanalei Roads Committee, which helped preserve the Hanalei Bridge and North Shore Belt Road; Malama Maunalua, which initiated the community-based clearing of invasive alien algae from Maunalua Bay; and the Hanalei Writers Retreat, which hosts guest faculty for Hawai‘i’s environmental writers. Wilcox is a survivor of a snorkel-related drowning and her case study and medical records provide the first known example positively identifying ROPE as the cause. She can be reached at cwilcox@snorkelsafetystudy.com.