Tick-tock! Monday Dec. 7 at 5 p.m. is the deadline to apply for the 2016 William R. Gianelli Water Leaders Class, a one-year program that fosters a deeper knowledge of water issues and enhances leadership skills.

Criteria for acceptance include a commitment to understanding water issues and an interest in seeking leadership roles on public boards and commissions, or key staff positions.

Click here for more information and to download an application.

Class members are required to attend a January orientation at the Foundation’s Sacramento office, the Bay-Delta Tour in June, along with one other water tour of their choice, as well as the Executive Briefing, the Foundation’s flagship annual conference.

In addition, the class is assigned a research topic for the year and members hold work-group sessions to develop a report and presentation to the Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Individual class members are also assigned a top level policy-maker as a mentor, with whom they spend one day “shadowing” and later conduct a one-on-one interview on the research topic.

Tuition is $3,900. Some scholarship funding is available from the William R. “Bill” Gianelli and Anne Schneider scholarship funds.

Since the program began in 1997, about 20 people have been selected each year to participate in the program named for William “Bill” Gianelli, a past president of the Foundation’s board of directors. There are now more than 300 Water Leader alums.

Contact Lisa Tran with any questions.