A common decorating theme for beach houses and shore hotels, sea stars, sand dollars and sea urchins signify summer vacation.
Collectively, these animals are called echinoderms – part of a phylum that contains more than 7,000 living species.
As chief executive officer, John Racanelli leads a team of 600 full and part-time employees and 1,000 volunteers in pursuing the National Aquarium’s mission to inspire conservation of the world’s aquatic treasures. More than 1.5 million people annually visit the Aquarium’s venue in Baltimore, Maryland, while millions more are touched by the Aquarium’s education programs, outreach activities, social media campaigns and conservation initiatives.