Chad Nelsen is the Environmental Director at the Surfrider Foundation where he has worked since 1998. At Surfrider, Chad is responsible for strategic guidance regarding environmental campaigns at the local through national level, and he oversees a number of environmental programs that include volunteer water quality monitoring, beach mapping and education and outreach programs.

Prior to joining Surfrider, Chad was a NOAA Coastal Zone Management Fellow working with Oregon's state coastal zone management program. He is an alumni of Brown University and Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and is currently pursuing is Doctorate at UCLA in the Environmental Science and Engineering program on the economics of surfing, focusing his doctoral thesis on a comprehensive study of Trestles in Southern California. Through his work on coral reef conservation in Puerto Rico, he earned recognition from the US Coral Reef Task Force.

Chad is also currently a board member for The Coastal Society. He's an avid surfer, swimmer, and beach enthusiast who lives in Laguna Beach with his family.