The LCFC Team
Robin Vercruse, Executive Director
Robin Vercruse is Executive Director of the Low Carbon Fuels Coalition. Throughout her career, Robin has brought order to chaos and translated complexity for public consumption at startup and fast-growing entities in the U.S. and abroad, including more than 10 years focused on energy and transportation fuel policy. She is the founder and principal of RoVer Strategies. Robin specializes in gaining support across the political spectrum for policies to diversify both transportation fuels and the sources used to produce them. She honed her approach at the nonprofit Fuel Freedom Foundation, through the Obama and Trump Administrations and divided Congresses at the Federal level, and in blue, purple and red states across the country.
Robin has a Master of Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School of UC Santa Barbara, with a specialization in energy and climate change.
Anne Steckel
Anne Steckel has been advocating on behalf of renewable energy and low carbon fuels for more than 20 years. As the Principal and Founder of Ardent Strategies, LLC, she has a strong background on renewable fuels policy at both the federal and state level. She has worked on legislative, regulatory, advocacy, policy and political issues on and off Capitol Hill. She founded Ardent Strategies in 2017 in an effort to leverage her capability across a broad cross section of industry constituents: farmers, fuel producers and distributors. Anne has a consistent track record of delivering results. As Vice President of Federal Affairs for the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), Anne led a successful campaign to increase biodiesel levels in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a critical victory for the biodiesel industry. She also has a strong focus on tax policy, having ensured that industry tax credits were extended several times. Anne has held key leadership positions on and off Capitol Hill, notably as Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Mike Thompson of California and Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois. Anne also directed government relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation and at Growth Energy.
As a thought leader in the renewable energy industry, Anne has testified many times in front of Congress, at the International Trade Commission, on behalf of clients at Executive Branch agencies and at industry events. She is currently Vice President of the Board of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition.
Natalie Burdick
Natalie Burdick brings a proven executive track record of consistent growth and success from her balanced and diverse career in marketing, strategic analysis, fundraising and management. In her nonprofit positions, including roles as the Communications Director of Walk San Francisco and Marketing Director of Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay, she delivered consistent revenue growth by incorporating technologies and best-practices to optimize organizational productivity. Before her nonprofit work, Natalie was Vice President of Product Management at Simula Labs, an open source development incubator, and GoldMine Software, a small business/mid-market CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software startup, that grew to 800 employees globally, before its merger and acquisition. Most recently she was the campaign manager for an Arizona state senate race. Natalie holds a B.A. in Economics from U.C.L.A.
Don Schinske
Don Schinske, Administrative Manager, has managed and consulted with trade associations and public charities for more than 20 years. He also lobbies on behalf of several medical and engineering professional societies. A former newspaper editor and publisher, Don brings a range of communication and business skills to the Coalition. He holds a master’s in Journalism from UC Berkeley and bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Literature from Claremont Men’s (now McKenna) College.