Meet OVLC’s New Executive Director, Dan Pingaro

Dear Community,

I’m delighted to introduce OVLC’s next Executive Director, Dan Pingaro, who will officially join the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy on September 15.

Over the past several months, the OVLC Board has been thoughtful about finding the right person to lead the organization into its next chapter. We were looking for someone with deep conservation experience, strong nonprofit leadership, and, just as importantly, someone who understands that the work of protecting land is ultimately about people and relationships.

Dan brings more than 25 years of experience in conservation, environmental policy, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and community partnership. Born and raised in Southern California, his career began in natural resource management and environmental planning with the Hoopa Valley Tribal Government before he spent a decade with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency working across Tribal, water, and ocean programs.

He later went on to lead several conservation and community-focused nonprofits, including Sailors for the Sea, the Laguna Beach Community Foundation, and the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. But what stood out to us throughout the search was not simply the breadth of Dan’s experience. It was how he leads.

Dan is a listener and a relationship builder. He believes in strong teams, shared leadership, and creating the conditions for people to do their best work. Those qualities feel especially important as OVLC grows and takes on new opportunities and responsibilities—from caring for the preserves and trails so many of us know and love to expanding our conservation work at Rancho Cañada Larga and deepening partnerships throughout our community.

Although Dan is new to OVLC, he is not new to Ojai. Having visited the valley many times over the years, he already knows something of the special relationship this community has with the surrounding landscape. That connection was one of the things that made the opportunity to join OVLC especially meaningful to him.

“Every time I have come to Ojai, I have felt the connection people here have to this place and to one another,” Dan shared with us. “OVLC has an extraordinary history of people coming together around the land, and I am honored and genuinely excited to join such a talented staff and Board of Directors. I look forward to leading, listening, and learning alongside OVLC’s staff, volunteers, donors, partners, and the broader community who have made that history possible.”

That history belongs to all of you.

For more than three decades, OVLC’s work has been possible because people throughout this community have chosen to invest their time, energy, resources, and trust in protecting the lands of the Ojai Valley. As Dan steps into this role, he will be building on an extraordinary foundation created by generations of supporters, volunteers, partners, Board members, and staff.

We are incredibly excited for you to get to know him.

And you won’t have to wait long! Dan will be joining us at Under the Open Sky & Mountainfilm on Tour next week on September 18–19, and we hope many of you will have the opportunity to welcome him to the OVLC community in person.

There is so much ahead for OVLC, and we are grateful to have all of you alongside us for this next chapter.

Warmly,
Stefanie Coeler
President, Board of Directors
Ojai Valley Land Conservancy