Founder & Executive Director

Todd Miller is the founder and executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, a nonprofit with over 16,000 supporters working for a healthier North Carolina coast.

A coastal North Carolina native from the community of Ocean in Carteret County, it was here in 1982 that Miller found his passion—working to keep the coast a great place to live, work and play. Forming partnerships and rallying volunteers, Miller grew the organization from a one-man (and a dog) venture in a back room of his house to three offices covering the North Carolina coast. With 30+ staffers and a multi-million-dollar budget targeted for educating the public, advocating for a clean coast and restoring water quality and shorelines, the Federation takes on projects, and partners with others in hundreds of endeavors that influence these priorities.

A graduate of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he holds undergraduate and master’s degrees, Miller was selected as a distinguished alumnus by the university in 2013 and honored with a 2015 “Hero of the Seas” award by the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards. Along with numerous other awards and recognitions, Miller is a founding board member and still serves on the board of Restore America’s Estuaries and currently serves on the Board of Visitors for the UNC Institute for the Environment and as a board member on the Leadership Committee for the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership.

Since the launch of the Federation, Miller has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the threats to the coast and advocate for access to clean coastal waters. In bringing together like-minded folks from all walks of life, from fishers to paddlers to boaters and beachcombers, the Federation under Miller’s leadership has succeeded in protecting and restoring tens of thousands of acres of North Carolina coast.