Nancy Steele

Dr. Nancy L.C. Steele focuses her work on the protection and conservation of land and water, striving always to have a direct positive impact on nature and humanity. She is a professional executive manager who has founded and led nonprofit organizations.

She is currently the President of Northern Arizona Audubon Society, Treasurer of the Arizona Council of Audubon Chapters, and a director of Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy (AFC). She and her husband are rebuilding their 45-year-old beekeeping business and their Altadena home, which were destroyed in the 2025 Eaton Fire.

Nancy has been the Executive Director of Friends of the Verde River, Arizona, from 2018 – 2024 and Council for Watershed Health, Los Angeles, from 2005 – 2015, along with serving in interim executive director positions from 2016 – 2017. She founded the AFC in 2000 and served as its President/CEO from 2000 – 2011, and as its Director of Conservation in 2017. 

Additional boards on which she has served include Infrastructure Funding Alliance, Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church of Pasadena, Marine Conservation Research Institute, and Southern California Cooperative Warehouse.

Prior to her work in the nonprofit sector, Nancy worked for the State of California. She crafted rules to reduce the environmental and health impacts of pollution, including writing the first-in-the-nation rules to reduce diesel emissions from in-use heavy-duty trucks and buses, and reduce environmental lead poisoning from various sources. She served as the Air Resources Board Deputy Ombudsman from 1997-1999. 

Nancy is a Flinn-Brown fellow of the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership; a Stanton Fellow of the Durfee Foundation; and a Switzer Fellow of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. In 2025 she received the Oak Leaf Award, recognizing her lifetime dedication to conservation, from the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy. In 2010 she was awarded the "Women in Business" honor from the 21st Senate and 44th Assembly Districts. Nancy earned her doctorate in environmental science and engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles; her M.S. from Arizona State University; and her A.B. from Occidental College.