Robert Vandermark, Executive Director

Network Executive Director Robert Vandermark has more than three decades of experience in public policy, communications, public interest education and advocacy at the federal and state levels.

Prior to joining the Network in 2014, Vandermark served as the Deputy Associate Director for Land & Water Ecosystems at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Previously, Rob worked for the Pew Charitable Trust as manager of the Heritage Forests Campaign and the Public Lands program, overseeing the organization’s goals of protecting wild and undeveloped areas within the national forest system. This position followed his work at National Environmental Trust (NET), where he served as the legislative director and established and directed the organization’s public lands program, with the goals to improve the management and conservation of national forests, fish and wildlife habitat and other public lands. Earlier in his career, Rob served in the Clinton White House, worked on political campaigns and served as a staff member in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Rob holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and natural resource management from Syracuse University and masters’ degrees in public policy (MPP) and business administration (MBA) from Georgetown University.

Tom Sadler, Deputy Director

Tom Sadler is the Network’s Deputy Director. He has an extensive history of promoting fisheries conservation through advocacy and communication. He works with stakeholders across the waterfront to promote sustaining fish populations, healthy marine ecosystems, and fishing communities.

Tom most recently led the Outdoor Writers Association of America, the oldest and largest association of professional outdoor communicators in the United States. Sadler has been involved in coalition building and grass roots organizing for much of his professional career, including senior positions with the Trust for Public Land, the Izaak Walton League, the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation, Waste Management, Comsat, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. Sadler started his career in Washington, DC, in 1980, when he joined the office of Senator Warren B. Rudman for a position focused on small business policy development.

Sadler also spent 14 years as a public affairs officer in the United States Navy Reserve. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Hampshire. A lifelong fly fisherman, guide and instructor, he guides and teaches for Mossy Creek Fly Fishing in Harrisonburg, Virginia, specializing in the tenkara style of fly-fishing. He lives with his family in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Matt Mullin, Government Relations

Over the past 25 years, Matt Mullin has developed an expertise in the nexus of policy, politics and communications. Advocating for a wide range of issues at the state and federal levels throughout his career, Matt has developed strong and trusting relationships with some of the leading state and federal elected officials, agency leaders, and a wide variety of key stakeholders and decision-makers in Washington, DC and beyond.

Matt holds a M.S. in Environmental Sciences & Policy from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; a graduate-level Executive Certificate from Georgetown University; and a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a Minor in Biology from Washington College in Chestertown, MD on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He holds numerous professional memberships and appointments.

Communications Director and Video Producer

Jo Knight has nearly three decades of communication and multimedia experience working for nonprofits and broadcast media and has been working with the Network since 2015. As a communications consultant and video producer, Jo delivers high-quality visual stories, communication counsel and support, strategic planning, and targeted outreach tools and multimedia products for her clients. Jo started her career in television news with a local station in Raleigh, NC and CNN in Atlanta. She then continued to promote compelling stories, significant news events, and communications strategies for nonprofits, including The Nature Conservancy, Marine Fish Conservation Network and The Pew Charitable Trusts, focusing on environmental conservation, ocean science, and fisheries management. Today she helps her clients achieve positive change in issues ranging from fisheries conservation to foster care advocacy to social justice. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Duke University.

Charles Witek, Writer and Issue Expert

Charles Witek is an attorney, award-winning writer, marine conservation advocate and lifelong recreational fisherman. He has fished on every coast of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, as well as in the Bahamas and various Caribbean nations. He writes regularly for the Network’s blog, On The Waterfront.

Charles is active in the fisheries management process. He currently sits on New York’s Marine Resources Advisory Council, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Advisory Panel, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Coastal Sharks and Winter Flounder advisory panels. From 2002-2005, he also held an at-large seat on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, representing the State of New York.

As a writer, his articles on saltwater fishing and marine fish conservation have appeared in a number of national and regional publications, including Salt Water Sportsman, On the Water magazine, The Drake, American Angler, and New York Outdoor News. He is a member, and past president, of the New York State Outdoor Writers Association, and has won multiple Excellence in Craft awards for articles addressing various marine conservation issues. He also maintains a personal blog, One Angler’s Voyage, which discusses topics related to saltwater angling and conservation issues.

Colin Delany, Digital Strategy and Digital Project Management

Colin Delany is a veteran of almost three decades in the world of internet politics and advocacy and has worked with the Marine Fish Conservation Network since 2015. A digital strategist, the founder/editor of Epolitics.com and its associated e-newsletter and a columnist for Campaigns & Elections, Delany works as a consultant to help nonprofits, advocacy groups and electoral campaigns use digital tools to achieve their communications, policy and political goals. Delany is also a sought-after speaker and trainer on topics related to online advocacy, digital advertising, AI in politics, digital marketing, social media, digital fundraising and online organizing.

The author of the ebook “How to Use the Internet to Change the World – and Win Elections”, Delany previously worked in the Texas Legislature, participated in the dot-com boom and served as online communications director at both the National Environmental Trust and the National Women’s Law Center. He plays bass in a rock & roll band.