The rock against the storm

Shannon Bobertz helping guide one of America’s most complex conservation agencies

By Thomas S. Mullikin

Every agency needs a rock who is not always the loudest voice in the room or the person chasing the spotlight or searching for the next headline. It needs someone who remains standing when the winds begin to howl. Every storm tests that rock.

In government storms come in many forms. Hurricanes make landfall, floodwaters rise and wildfires burn. Laws change and budgets tighten while public opinion shifts like the tide. Crises arrive without invitation demanding immediate answers while offering no easy solutions. The public usually sees the person standing at the podium. As director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), I have been called to the podium but never without the steady as a rock and brilliant guidance from our SCDNR Chief of Staff.

The public rarely sees the person standing behind the podium. Yet history teaches us that behind every successful institution is someone whose greatest strength is not ambition but steadiness. For SCDNR, that person is Chief of Staff Shannon Bobertz.

The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once observed that “the creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” Conservation has always depended upon people who understand that truth and that what endures is rarely built overnight. It is cultivated through patience, discipline, and quiet acts of stewardship repeated day after day.

Rachel Carson awakened America to the fragile balance of nature. Marjory Stoneman Douglas refused to let the Everglades disappear beneath concrete and indifference. Jane Goodall showed us that understanding begins not with domination, but with observation, humility, and respect. These women became icons because they understood something deeper than science. They understood responsibility.

South Carolina has been blessed with many conservation leaders over its history but Shannon Bobertz represents a different kind of naturalist. She is a modern steward whose laboratory is not only the forest and marsh but also the courtroom, the boardroom, and the halls of government. She understands that preserving wildlife sometimes requires legal precision as much as biological expertise.

She knows that protecting a river may begin with a statute and saving habitat may require navigating budgets. Ultimately defending public trust often starts with listening before speaking. Her path reflects both excellence and purpose. A graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, cum laude, she served on the South Carolina Law Review before clerking for Justice Costa Pleicones on the S.C. Supreme Court. She became a respected trial attorney, educator, municipal judge, and eventually found her life’s calling at SCDNR, where she has served as Assistant Chief Counsel, General Counsel, and now Chief of Staff.

Today, she helps guide one of America’s most complex conservation agencies where unprecedented growth has complicated wildlife management, marine resources and freshwater fisheries. She helps oversee experienced law enforcement, education and critical land conservation. She works carefully with SCDNR divisions to prepare budget and public outreach. The list is long but what unites them all is trust. Trust that decisions will be thoughtful and based upon true best science. She builds trust that tomorrow’s South Carolina will remain worthy of those who inherit it.

If you know Shannon personally you quickly realize her love for conservation did not begin with a title. It began outdoors on quiet trails where pine needles soften each footstep. In flooded timber waiting for ducks at first light and along rivers where patience matters more than speed.

She has waited patiently in deer stands before sunrise and on waters where every cast carries hope. She is an experienced hunter and angler. She has hiked across our beautiful Palmetto State and experienced firsthand the landscapes she is entrusted to protect.

These passions matter as too often we ask people to manage places they rarely visit. Shannon Bobertz understands South Carolina because she has lived it from blackwater rivers to mountain forests, from tidal marshes to pine uplands. Her decisions are informed not only by legal training but by genuine affection for the landscapes and traditions that define our state.

Perhaps that explains why colleagues speak less about her résumé than about her character. We speak of composure and integrity. She always arrives with total preparation and humility. She has an uncommon ability to bring together biologists, game wardens, attorneys, legislators, educators, and citizens around shared solutions. Those qualities cannot be listed on a résumé. They can only be lived and Shannon has lived them well.

Bobertz has received numerous honors throughout her career in recognition for leadership in law, conservation leadership, teaching, public service, and professional excellence. She has trained future attorneys, served as a deputy law enforcement officer, written and lectured on conservation law, and continues to serve her community both on and off the bench. Yet I suspect none of those accomplishments are what motivate her. Some people pursue careers while other pursue callings. There is a big difference. A career asks, “How far can I go?” but a calling asks, “How much good can I do?” The finest public servants rarely become household names. They simply make our lives better. She has made my life immeasurably better. Through her efforts we launch our boats onto cleaner waters. We watch eagles soaring over protected habitat. We hear children laughing in parks. We hunt healthy forests. We fish thriving lakes and we inherit a South Carolina that still feels wonderfully and unmistakably wild.

Most citizens will never know who quietly helped make those experiences possible. That is the paradox of public service. When done well, its greatest achievements often bear someone else’s name. Perhaps that is why I keep returning to that simple image that every agency needs a rock not because rocks are glamorous but because they do not move when the storm comes.

Storms always come. Leadership is revealed in whether someone stands firm when they do. For more than a decade, Shannon Bobertz has stood firm for South Carolina’s wildlife, waters, forests, and people. She has become the steady foundation upon which one of our state’s most important institutions continues to build. Rachel Carson once reminded us that, “In nature nothing exists alone” and neither does leadership. It flourishes because someone is willing to carry burdens others never see. South Carolina is fortunate that one of those people is Shannon Bobertz.

Long after today’s headlines are forgotten, the forests will still whisper. The rivers will still flow and the marshes will still breathe with the tides. And if future generations inherit those gifts intact, it will be because leaders like Shannon Bobertz chose, every single day, to stand like the rock against the storm.

– Dr. Tom Mullikin is the director of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. An acclaimed global expedition leader, attorney, documentary film producer, former U.S. Army officer and retired commanding general of the S.C. State Guard, Mullikin served as the founding chair of the gubernatorially established S.C. Floodwater Commission. He has led the 1,100-plus employee SCDNR since early 2025.