Chuck Sams
Eastern Oregon
Chuck Sams grew up on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon, where he is enrolled as Walla Walla and Cayuse with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He currently serves on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. He most recently served under President Biden as the 19th director of the National Park Service, the first Native American to hold this office.
Chuck has over 35-years of executive leadership that includes serving on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council as a Council member, Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director for the CTUIR, in addition to Communications Director and Environmental Health & Safety Officer and Planner and Special Sciences analyst with CTUIR.
Other prior positions include Program Coordinator for the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon, House Manager/Field Supervisor for the City Volunteer Corps of New York, President/CEO of the Earth Conservation Corps, Executive Director of the Community Energy Project, Executive Director of the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, the National Director for the Tribal & Native Lands Program of the Trust for Public Land, Executive Director of the Umatilla Tribal Community Foundation, and President/Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Country Conservancy.
He received his Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, Management, Communications, and Leadership from Concordia University. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center 'A' School. Upon graduation he served as an Intelligence Specialist with Attack Squadron 155 Silver Foxes, the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
He and his wife, Lori, and daughter Ruby live in Pendleton, Oregon.
Chuck Sams grew up on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon, where he is enrolled as Walla Walla and Cayuse with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He currently serves on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. He most recently served under President Biden as the 19th director of the National Park Service, the first Native American to hold this office.
Chuck has over 35-years of executive leadership that includes serving on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council as a Council member, Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director for the CTUIR, in addition to Communications Director and Environmental Health & Safety Officer and Planner and Special Sciences analyst with CTUIR.
Other prior positions include Program Coordinator for the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon, House Manager/Field Supervisor for the City Volunteer Corps of New York, President/CEO of the Earth Conservation Corps, Executive Director of the Community Energy Project, Executive Director of the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, the National Director for the Tribal & Native Lands Program of the Trust for Public Land, Executive Director of the Umatilla Tribal Community Foundation, and President/Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Country Conservancy.
He received his Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, Management, Communications, and Leadership from Concordia University. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center 'A' School. Upon graduation he served as an Intelligence Specialist with Attack Squadron 155 Silver Foxes, the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
He and his wife, Lori, and daughter Ruby live in Pendleton, Oregon.