Shellye Arnold

President & CEO, Coastal Preservation and Restoration

Shellye Arnold is President & CEO of Coastal Preservation and Restoration (CPR). She worked closely with CPR’s founder and board chair to launch the organization in 2025 and joined as its first employee in January 2026. Her focus is elevating the Texas coastal bays and estuaries to their highest natural function and splendor — for Texans and visitors today, and for generations to come. From 2013 to 2024, Shellye served as President & CEO of Memorial Park Conservancy, where she led the transformation of Houston’s largest urban park. She raised $150 million in private capital and $100 million in public funding to deliver the Memorial Park Ten-Year Plan, including the 100-acre Clay Family Eastern Glades, the 100-acre Kinder Land Bridge and Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie, the Running Complex, and an improved Seymour Lieberman Trail — work now studied and awarded for its innovations in ecological restoration, community engagement, and design. She also led conceptual design for Memorial Groves, a 100-acre project opening in 2027 to honor all who served the WWI effort at Camp Logan. She assisted community partners in the effort that led the U.S. Army to reverse the convictions of 110 soldiers of the 24th Infantry Regiment in 2023 and grant them honorable discharges. Shellye grew the Conservancy from three employees and a $300,000 budget to 70 employees and an $8 million annual budget and assumed operations and maintenance of 1,100 of the park’s 1,500 acres. A native Texan, Shellye has held leadership positions at Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq, and consulted for McKinsey & Company. She began her career in U.S.–Mexico relations for the Texas and U.S. Departments of Commerce and volunteered as a public health worker and leader in Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. She holds an MPA from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and a BA from The University of Texas at Austin. An experienced public speaker, Shellye delivers presentations and media interviews fluently in English and Spanish. Shellye received the Daughters of the American Revolution’s highest national conservation award for her work protecting our nation’s natural resources. She has been named one of Houston’s “Fifty Most Influential Women” (Houston Businesswomen’s Association), a “Woman Who Means Business” (Houston Business Journal), and one of “Houston’s most interesting people” (Houston Chronicle). Shellye is married to Tina Sabuco; together they support causes from animal and wildlife rescue to advocacy for people with differing learning abilities. They live happily — with their pups and kitties — in Houston and Galveston.