CCPN is well respected throughout the state as strategic thinkers and effective advocates. CCPN is adept at high-level strategic advocacy, and has spent close to three decades successfully defeating projects at the Coastal Commission that were inconsistent with the Coastal Act while advancing positive coastal policy initiatives in the Legislature.

Susan Jordan, Founder & Executive Director

Susan Jordan is the Founder and Executive Director of the California Coastal Protection Network (CCPN), a U.S.-based statewide non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that the protective legal requirements of the California Coastal Act – considered to be the strongest global coastal protection law in force today - are upheld in policy areas as diverse as seawater desalination, liquefied natural gas, offshore energy development, underwater acoustics and large scale land-based coastal development.

Jordan credits her prior 14-year career in corporate research and strategy development with the national political and commercial consulting firm of Dresner-Sykes, Jordan and Townsend for honing the skills that have informed her environmental advocacy over the last three decades. Known for her ability to work closely with focused teams of environmental organizations, attorneys and scientific experts, Jordan has successfully advocated against large-scale precedent setting projects that were inconsistent with the Coastal Act including the Hearst Ranch Corporation’s development proposal, the offshore BHP Billiton Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal, the San Onofre Toll Road, the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC), U.S. Navy Low Frequency Active Sonar, and the Plains Exploration and Production (PXP) oil drilling proposal that would have allowed the first new oil lease in California State Waters in over 40 years. 

In May, 2022, after twelve years of in-depth research and strategic advocacy, Jordan defeated the proposed 50-MGD Brookfield-Poseidon Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination Project in a unanimous (11-0) denial at the California Coastal Commission. 

Jordan holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Buffalo.