Sandi Matsumoto is director of The Nature Conservancy’s California Water Program. She leads a multi-disciplinary team focused on securing a sustainable and resilient water future for California. The Water Program is working to secure the wintering grounds of the Pacific Flyway, revive healthy rivers to sustain salmon, and advance sustainable groundwater management that ensures drinking water for people and supports nature.

She joined The Nature Conservancy in 2004 and has worked at the nexus of water and agriculture across the state. Those efforts include launching BirdReturns, which pays rice farmers to create pop-up habitat for a few key weeks each year, and pursuing efforts to help implement the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.  

A Central Valley native, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School at UCLA.

In 2017, Matsumoto was appointed by Governor Brown to serve as a board member on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy.

She is a 2005 graduate of the Foundation’s Water Leaders class. She joined the Foundation board in 2022.