Garry Brown
Founder & President
garry@coastkeeper.org
Garry established Coastkeeper in 1999 and serves as the organization’s Founder and President. Under Garry’s leadership, Coastkeeper has become a powerful voice for water quality, marine habitats, and water supply issues in the region and throughout California. Coastkeeper has achieved numerous milestone successes through collaboration with stakeholders and scientific and legal research as a basis for advocacy.
Garry comes from a long background of building public-private partnerships. He served for five years as an assistant city manager for the City of Redlands, ten years as an advocate and executive director for trade associations in the real estate and building industries, and served two terms as president of a chamber of commerce.
Coastkeeper has built relationships and partnerships with major corporations and public agencies such as Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, The Irvine Company, Walmart, and The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for the purpose of demonstrating on the ground projects that enhance water quality and reduce urban runoff.
A native of Orange County, Garry is committed to expanding Coastkeeper’s presence as a proactive, results-oriented organization that uses coalition building and partnerships to find effective solutions to the environmental problems that impact our communities and watersheds.
Garry holds positions of leadership on numerous Boards of Directors and governmental advisory committees, including the California Coastkeeper Alliance, the Nature Reserve of Orange County, OCTA’s Environmental Cleanup Allocation Committee, the Community Engagement Panel for the Decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station, the Harbor Safety and Oil Spill Response Committee for the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach, American Green Power, the California Artificial Reef Enhancement Foundation, and Ocean Defenders Alliance. Garry holds a B.A. in Government from the University of Redlands.