2025 Water Leaders Cohort Examines Ways to Modernize Water Rights for 21st Century Challenges
Rising stars in the water world chosen for highly competitive leadership program
Twenty-one promising water
professionals from across California have been chosen for the
2025 cohort of the William R. Gianelli Water Leaders, a
highly competitive and respected leadership program.
The cohort includes engineers, lawyers, resource specialists, scientists and others from various public and private entities and non-governmental organizations. The 2025 class roster can be found here.
The Water Leaders program, led by Foundation Executive Director Jenn Bowles, deepens knowledge of water, enhances individual leadership skills and prepares participants to take an active, cooperative approach to decision-making about water resource issues. Leading experts and top policymakers serve as mentors to class members.
Established in 1997, the William R. Gianelli Water Leaders program is a yearlong program that selects up-and-coming leaders from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds.
The 2025 cohort members
will explore ways to modernize California water rights to
address the effects of prolonged drought, climate change and
other modern-day challenges. At the end of the year, they will
outline their policy recommendations in a report and present them
to the Foundation’s Board
of Directors.
Three cohort members garnered scholarship funding to cover the program’s tuition:
- The Urban Water Institute’s Wayne Clarke Young Professionals Water Education Scholarship, created in honor of its late founder, Wayne Clarke, was awarded to Sonya Milonova, senior program manager at the California Water Data Consortium.
- The John P. Fraser Water Leaders Fellowship, awarded by the Association of California Water Agencies in honor of its former long-time executive director, John P. Fraser, went to Pacal Cornejo-Reynoso, senior policy and governmental affairs manager at Eastern Municipal Water District.
- The Water Education Foundation awarded a William B. Gianelli scholarship to Camila Bautista, Salton Sea & desert program manager at Audubon California.
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