Kelly Reisdorf, USA Shooting’s new CEO, has spent most of her career working in the firearms and ammunition industry. Specifically, she spent 15 years at Vista Outdoor (and its predecessor company, Orbital ATK) in a variety of roles, including Chief Communications Officer and General Manager. Before working in the firearms, ammunition, and aerospace and defense industries, she served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

She was appointed permanent CEO by USA Shooting’s board of directors in July after serving as interim CEO since March 2024.

I had the opportunity to meet with Reisdorf at the Châteauroux Shooting Centre in France during the 2024 Olympic Games on the fifth day of the shooting competitions. Here is my interview with her, only condensed for clarity.

SSUSA: How did you get to USA Shooting?
Rice Village: I know several people on the founding side of USA Shooting, which was going through a transition, and was asked several times if I would come in and help the organization. Although I don’t come from the Olympic movement and don’t have a competitive shooting sports background, I am an avid gun user and fan, and I hunt and shoot with my kids. The USA Shooting brand is great. It should be the darling of the shooting sports industry. And I think it can be.

SSUSA: What do you think about your first Olympic experience so far?
Rice Village: It’s exciting. The shooting ranges in Châteauroux are incredible. It’s a mixed bag though – at first I thought we’d like to be in the main Olympic Village in Paris, but being away from the city, the traffic and all the madness has its advantages. Although it would be nice if the athletes were in the main Olympic Village too.

SSUSA: The fact that the shooting competitions are held in Châteauroux and not in Paris was, as I understand it, not a big choice for us. Is that something you hope to get a better handle on in the future?
Rice Village: We are actually working much more proactively in the lead up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games to make sure we have a shooting facility that works with the other sports in Los Angeles. This experience was an important lesson in making the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games better.

SSUSA: Any thoughts on our first four days of shooting competition at the Paris Olympics?
Rice Village: You know, in rifle and pistol, we’re up against some tough competition. Derrick Mein shot fantastic with the three groups of 25 perfect targets in the men’s trap. That was absolutely incredible. There are some great competitors here as well. I think the overall level of competition is much higher than I thought it would be. I’m also looking forward to watching skeet. We’ve had really strong performances in men’s and women’s skeet as well as mixed team skeet. (Note: The U.S. shooters won five Olympic medals later that week in Châteauroux, including four in skeet: a gold medal for Vincent Hancock, two silver medals for Conner Prince in the men’s skeet and the duo of Vincent Hancock and Austen Smith in the team event, and a bronze medal for Austen Smith in the women’s skeet. In addition, Sagen Maddalena secured the silver medal in the women’s 50-meter smallbore rifle three positions.)

SSUSA: Team USA has not been competitive in pistol shooting for a long time. How do you plan to improve our competitiveness in pistol shooting as well as rifle and shotgun shooting?
Rice Village: When it comes to pistol and rifle, there is a real problem with access to shooting ranges in the United States. This fact is nothing new to people in the industry. We are constantly fighting for space on shooting ranges across the country. But there is a real shortage of shooting ranges where athletes can train for rifle and pistol. This limits us geographically. USA Shooting has an athlete program that I would like to improve, where key athletes can live and train at the training center in Colorado Springs. By improving this program, we can field more talent.

Shotgun competition is different. There are a lot more places for the athletes to train. There are also World Cup facilities. You have West Palm, you have Tucson. Our shotgun athletes inherently have better facilities to train in. Part of that is fundraising, which is so important to us, so we can help these athletes compete in as many World Cups as possible and get as much training on the world stage against our top competitors as possible during the Quad. You have the first two years in the Quad and then there’s the second half where that funnel narrows when the national team is selected. It’s about getting them where they can get as much training and exposure as possible against great competitors from China, Korea, India and so on. That’s how we’re going to increase the talent level across the board.

SSUSA: What place do you see the NRA having in your future plans for USA Shooting?
Rice Village: As you know, there’s a long history with the NRA and the team. I hope to do more work with the NRA. We have a lot of similar goals in terms of our athletes, who embody the epitome of discipline, excellence and safety when it comes to shooting. And that’s what the NRA wants as well. Our athletes are incredible role models for the entire industry when it comes to what a good shooter looks like. I’d love to do more with the NRA on the development side. There are opportunities to work with the NRA and other programs. It’s about reaching more people and having a better experience when a 12 or 13-year-old kid sees a Derrick Mein or a Vincent Hancock and says to their parents, ‘Hey, that’s pretty cool. I think I might want to do that.” I want us to have a better exposure to the outside world so that when a child says, “I want to try that,” we have programs across the country that meet those kids where they are and then integrate them into the family—if they might be interested in trying out shooting sports. (Note: The NRA Foundation has given USA Shooting $252,000 in 2022 specifically for shotgun ammunition, along with $250,000 in 2023 for essential expenses and another $250,000 earlier this year to prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics.)

SSUSA: What about your partnership with Hillsdale College?
Rice Village: I plan to continue that. Hillsdale is great – they spent over $10 million on a rifle and pistol range where they can host world-class competitions. I’m excited about that. Hillsdale is also building trap and skeet ranges to meet international requirements for skeet competitions and things like that. That will put them a little more on the map. We can host more competitions with Hillsdale and attract talent from all over the world.

SSUSA: Are you talking to the U.S. Olympic Committee about raising additional funds?
Rice Village: I’ve spent about half my time over the last six months working on this. The USOPC is going through all kinds of changes after the Nasser scandal and other things. Part of it is the increased oversight that Congress has placed on the USOPC in terms of accountability of each national governing body, including USA Shooting. So I’m really focused on getting us out of the penalty box and getting us in the good graces of the public in terms of governance and compliance, as well as in terms of developing our athletes and what we can do for the USA by bringing in more medals. We have a funding model this year that has had mixed results, which is challenging. The other part of it is we have much better visibility into where the funds are being used at the athlete level, so the USOPC can see these grant funds from the NRA, from SCI and all of our great supporters, including Hillsdale College, how productively those funds have been used to drive competition success. I think that’s pretty exciting. Our medal total for the United States is a big deal for the USOPC, and even though we don’t get as much press, it’s definitely worth making a case for.

SSUSA: What do you mean by “penalty area”?
Rice Village: I said that because of the turnaround status, all national governing bodies within the USOPC ecosystem have increased accountability and reporting obligations to Congress and other bodies. I am working to get USA Shooting to catch up on these things, just as the other sports are doing.

SSUSA: USA Shooting Board Chairman Jim Mitchell said your leadership style is straightforward and results-oriented. Is that a different approach than the one you previously used at USA Shooting?
Rice Village: Well, I can’t say what previous leaders have been like, but I’m very focused on some key results around our finances and increased spending on athletes, more visitors, more people at world competitions. I want us to have a bigger presence at those competitions in the next quad to have an even stronger medal haul at Los Angeles 2028.

SSUSA: Whatever you want to do depends entirely on funding.
Rice Village: That’s true, but it also ensures that when we increase funding, we use those scarce dollars in the best and most profitable way possible, in line with USA Shooting’s mission of representing the country on the international stage.

SSUSA: What do you think can be done to increase funding for USA Shooting?
Rice Village: Well, there’s more work to be done at the USOPC to show our value, where we stand in the overall ecosystem and what we contribute. For example, if you look at the last four Olympics, imagine where the United States would rank in total medal count if shooting wasn’t a recognized sport. That has a significant impact on Team USA as a whole. That alone shows that we really matter. Second, I want us to be more productive with money. Our overhead continues to go down, and I want to see that trend continue.

SSUSA: Where do you see USA Shooting until the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles?
Rice Village: I want us to have a stronger lineup for our pistol and rifle programs in terms of talent and competitive athletes, and make our shotgun program even stronger in trap and skeet. I also want to bring the USA Shooting Team and the brand back into the industry. I think they can work better together and I’m really focused on trying to do that because there’s some history and I want to fix a lot of those things. I can’t fix everything, but I’m going to try.

Learn more about USA Shooting at usashooting.org.