Chapter President

Bob Silk joined the SCUBAnauts in 2006. A retired Navy Officer, Bob and his wife Midge settled in St Petersburg in 1993. An avid sportsman, Bob became a certified diver in 1975 and has made dives around the world. They have three daughters; the oldest two are actively involved with SCUBAnauts.

Chapter Vice President/Operations Officer

Dave Ciliberti, spent the past 25 years in television news. After graduating from Glassboro State in New Jersey, he started his career in Houston, Texas where he worked his way through the production end learning lighting, audio, directing and studio camera. He quickly moved into news photography and worked for the FOX station in Houston. From there, he moved to the FOX station in Washington D.C. as a news photographer. Eight months later he was asked to run the news operations for the FOX station in New York City. Two years later he jumped over to the NBC station, working out of 30 Rockefeller Center. He accepted a job at the ABC station in Clearwater and has been there for the past 10 years. He currently holds the position of Assistant News Director. His station holds many awards for news coverage including an Emmy for breaking news on the riots in St. Petersburg in 1996 to a Dupont for the Cross town building flaws. Dave’s been diving since 1986, and is a YMCA Assistant Instructor/Divemaster.

Chapter Education Officer

Selena Kupfner graduated from Coastal Carolina University, South Carolina, in 2000 with a B.S. in Biology. Prior to becoming a teacher, she worked for several years as a marine biologist studying coral reefs for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI). Her research at FWRI provided her with extensive knowledge of the Florida coral reef systems. Even though her primary area of focus has always been coral reefs, she also has a strong background in wetland studies from her short stint as an environmental biologist at a small consulting firm.

Selena was actively involved in SNI from 2001-2005, and was a founding officer of the St. Petersburg Chapter in 2010. She is currently a Marine Science and Biology teacher at Northeast High School in Pinellas County, Florida.

Acting Chapter Unit Diving Coordinator (UDC)

Dustin Johnson received his B.S. in Marine Science - Biology from Eckerd College in 2003. He has been an American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) qualified research diver since 2003 and a Professional Divers Instructions Corporation (PDIC) Assistant Instructor since 2002. He is currently working on his Scuba Divers International (TDI-SDI) scuba instructor and CPROX/CPR1st Instructor certification. As a marine biologist and a scuba diver he has logged dives around the world including Australia, Baja Mexico, Cocos Island, Costa Rica and all over the United States. He has conducted research aboard vessels ranging from a small skiff to a 135 ft brigantine schooner which he spent 6 weeks at sea (two of which no land was in sight). He is a United States Coast Guard (USCG) certified captain and he is USCG certified in celestial navigation and piloting. After college he worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as a reef ecologist on the coral reef evaluation and monitoring project (CREMP) and served on the diving control board. He currently works for Electronic Data Inc. as a software developer and senior support analyst.

Assistant Unit Diving Coordinator (AUDC)

Ben Prueitt is a SCUBAnauts International alumnus and student at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg. He has lived in Florida all his life and graduated from East Lake High School (Tarpon Springs, FL), Cum Laude. He is currently persuing an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science, and hopes to continue his education towards a graduate degree at the University of South Florida-College of Marine Science. He has been a member of SCUBAnauts International since 2004 and has dove all over the western hemisphere, including Jamaica, The Bahamas, Hawaii, The Florida Keys and Tampa Bay. He is currently a Divemaster-in-Training and hopes to work towards a higher dive certification.