Emily Guidry Schatzel

Emily Guidry Schatzel is the Vice President of Communications for the U.S. Nature Initiative, where she leads state-to-national strategic communications for large, multi-partner conservation campaigns. For the last two decades, she has directed communications for complex regional programs and national coalitions across corporate, legal, and public policy arenas, with a particular focus on large-scale habitat restoration and conservation. Most recently, she led a high-impact strategic communications effort for the National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf program and the Restore the Mississippi River Delta coalition. Her work in that role included leading both rapid response and driving long-term narrative framing around the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, as well as the subsequent RESTORE Act, ongoing Louisiana Coastal Master Plan implementation, and shaping long-term communications around recovery and restoration efforts in the other Gulf states.

Prior to that, Emily was the first Media Director for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression, and a Communications Consultant for large institutional clients with the mutual fund giant, Vanguard.

Emily’s work centers on building smart, data-informed campaigns — shaping message architecture, aligning trusted messengers, and translating research and policy into narratives that move audiences and decision-makers. Her approach ranges from on-the-ground media tours in working landscapes and coastal marshes to high-stakes federal policy and legislative efforts, and everything in between.

A native of sportsman’s paradise in Houma, Louisiana, Emily holds a J.D. and a Master’s degree in communications from Loyola University New Orleans, and dual bachelor’s degrees in Mass Communication and English from Nicholls State University. Outside of work, she can most often be found enjoying time outdoors with her husband, four children, and two German Shorthaired Pointers (who think they are lapdogs) in Chester County, Pennsylvania where they now reside. Despite setting down roots in the northeast, she still marks her calendar by the most important seasons for Louisianians: gumbo, king cake, and crawfish.