Rochelle Nason

League Executive Director Rochelle Nason stepped down in October 2011, bringing to a close nearly 20 years of working to Keep Tahoe Blue.

"Rochelle Nason has grown the League from a tiny organization with a single full-time employee into the substantial and influential group that it is today," said Robert Damaschino, chair of the board of directors, in October 2011. "The 'Keep Tahoe Blue' movement has flourished under her leadership and with it the level of public investment and attention to the conservation of the region. The entire Lake Tahoe Basin will continue to benefit for years to come from what she has accomplished over the past two decades."

Nason joined the League as staff attorney in 1992, and became executive director in 1993. She led the League's successful efforts to:

• Establish and maintain urban boundaries for Lake Tahoe’s communities to prevent commercial, residential, and tourism uses from spreading into conservation and recreation areas.
• Initiate the drive for public funding of the Environmental Improvement Program for Lake Tahoe, which has resulted in the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in the conservation of the area in the public interest.
• Provide a voice for conservation advocates on the steering committee of the 1997 Lake Tahoe Presidential Forum and subsequent federal decision making. The forum brought national focus to the problems of Lake Tahoe, highlighted the mutual interdependence of economic and environmental health, and built public support for great public investment in conservation and restoration.
• Persuade the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to adopt a ban on two-stroke engines from Lake Tahoe. This ban received national attention and accelerated the marine engine industry's movement toward cleaner technology.
• Establish the legal principle that the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is obligated to achieve and maintain environmental standards for the Lake Tahoe Basin.
• Build widespread consciousness and support for the “Keep Tahoe Blue” campaign through an enormously successful bumper sticker dissemination program, a Facebook following of over 80,000, and a substantial increase in membership.