Steve Kline Begins New Era for Eastern Shore Land Conservancy

“These shoes will be hard to fill” is one of those proverbial sayings from dozens of Mid-Shore volunteers who serve on search committees when tasked with finding the replacement of a founding executive director.

Finding leaders in today’s competitive market for confident, mission-driven executives is hard enough. And it’s hard to think of an organization that had higher stakes in finding the right person than the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In their case, the shoes that needed to be filled were those of Rob Etgen.

Rob Etgen should, and will, go down as one of the region’s most impactful conservationists. As the founding executive director of ESLC, Rob was a primary driver in that organization’s three decades of land and water projects, revitalizing our small towns and cities, and respected advocate in Annapolis for common-sense environmental protection for the Eastern Shore. It’s a hard act to follow, as they say in Hollywood.

But the board members of ESLC came up with a novel and timely next act to stay with the metaphor. A few months ago, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy announced that Steve Kline would be the organization’s second executive director.

The son of a Baltimore steelworker, the product of Maryland public schools and universities, and a former Capitol Hill lobbyist with decades of experience in land protection legislation, Steve not only made it a point to live on the Eastern Shore when he and his wife decided to start a family, but he also became active in the life of Centreville, where he remains the president of the Centreville town Council.

The Spy sat down with Steve for a long-form interview about his background, the mission of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and what his priorities will be over the next five years.

This video is approximately 12 minutes in length. For more information about the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy please go here.