Executive Leadership Group Members
Sam Schuchat
Executive Officer, California Coastal Conservancy
Samuel P. Schuchat became Executive Officer of the Coastal Conservancy in July 2001. He was previously the Executive Director of the Federation of State Conservation Voter Leagues, the trade association of 26 environmental Political Action Committees (PAC) in as many states. For six years he also served as the Executive Director of the California League of Conservation Voters, the nation's largest and oldest state environmental PAC with 25,000 members.
Mr. Schuchat is vice-president of the California Fish and Game Commission, on which he has served since 1999. He has an extensive background in fund-raising and management of not-for-profit organizations. He has worked as a community and union organizer, has raised money for community art projects, and was the deputy director of Sacramento AIDS foundation in the late 1980s.
He received his BA in Political Science at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1983, and his MA in Public Administration at San Francisco State University in 1989. He is an avid birdwatcher and has backpacked all over the Eastern and Western United States. He resides in Oakland with his wife and daughter.
Steve P. Thompson
Manager of California-Nevada Operations, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Steve P. Thompson, a 25-year career veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is Manager of the Service’s California-Nevada Operations (CNO) Office. In his post, Thompson oversees Service programs in California and Nevada that employ approximately 784 Federal employees who administer the Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act, manage 46 national wildlife refuges and three national fish hatcheries.
Prior to coming to Sacramento in June, Thompson was based in Atlanta as the Regional Chief for the National Wildlife Refuge System in the Service’s Southeast Region, and the Geographic Assistant Regional Director for the Lower Mississippi River Valley, where he administered programs covering the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. He also served for three years as the Branch Chief for Resource Management for the National Wildlife Refuge System Headquarters in Washington, D.C
Thompson began his career with the Service as a wildlife biologist at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon, and filled progressively responsible biologist posts at Puget Sound National Wildlife Refuge in Olympia, Washington, and Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge, Fallon, Nevada, before becoming refuge manager at Laguna Atacosa National Wildlife Refuge in Rio Hondo, Texas. In 1994 he was chosen as first "Refuge Manager of the Year" by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Refuge Association.
Loris "Ryan" Broddrick
Director, California Department of Fish and Game
Loris "Ryan" Broddrick was appointed as Director of the Department of Fish and Game by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Broddrick has worked in the Department of Fish and Game for over 20 years, beginning in 1981 as a game warden and holding a variety of positions before being appointed Chief Deputy Director in 1997. He left the department in 2001 to join the Western Regional Office of Ducks Unlimited as the director of conservation policy. At Ducks Unlimited, Broddrick has been an advocate for wetlands and waterfowl, forging wildlife habitat partnerships between landowners, agriculture, and conservation groups.
During his tenure at the Department of Fish and Game, Broddrick also held the positions of deputy director, regional manager of the Sacramento Valley-Central Sierra Region, and regional patrol chief in the Office of Spill Prevention and Response after serving in a number of law enforcement positions within the department. Prior to joining the department, Broddrick was an environmental scientist with Raymond Vail Associates from 1979 to 1980, and worked for the California Solid Waste Management Board from 1974 to 1979. He also served as a member of the Bay Delta Advisory Committee where he chaired subcommittees on ecosystem restoration and working landscapes.