Heal the Bay has named Dr. Shelley Luce as its new president and CEO.

Luce joins the Santa Monica-based nonprofit from the Environment Now Foundation, where she served as executive director and helped fund innovative clean-water and forest protection programs throughout California. During her tenure, Luce was considered an expert on how nonprofits must reshape themselves to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century.

An extensive nationwide search culminated in the hiring of Luce, who has been tasked with re-envisioning the scope of Heal the Bay’s advocacy and education programs. While focused on the organization’s core mission of clean water and healthy watersheds, she will implement strategies to better engage Southern California on battling the broader, intertwined environmental risks facing the region.

Formed three decades ago as a grassroots all-volunteer organization, Heal the Bay successfully led the fight to keep Hyperion from dumping sewage into Santa Monica Bay. But the region now faces much bigger threats, from global warming to an uncertain water supply, according to the organization’s board.

“The environmental landscape in greater L.A. is changing dramatically, and so Heal the Bay must transform,” said Craig Perkins, chairman of the organization’s board of directors. “As a trusted partner in the community, people are counting on us to provide leadership locally to help solve problems that are increasingly national and global in scope.”

Luce began her advocacy career at Heal the Bay, serving as a staff scientist from 2001-2005 and spearheading the successful effort to implement the state’s first zero-trash policy in the Los Angeles River.

“Heal the Bay is at the heart of clean-water advocacy in Southern California. I’m so proud of its legacy of science-based activism and I am honored to lead Heal the Bay in its next phase of growth,” Luce said. “Protecting our water and our larger environment is more important – and challenging – than ever. And I’m confident we’ll find innovative ways to get the job done, bringing in new practices and new partners.”

For information, visit healthebay.org.