Our one-year Water Leaders program gets you out of the office and into the field whether it’s on one of our water tours to the Bay-Delta or meeting with your assigned mentor.

Mentors play an important role in the program as they conduct a shadow day with class members and help to shape ideas for the class project on a key water topic. The project is turned into a report with policy recommendations that is presented to the Water Education Foundation’s Board of Directors toward the end of the year.

Mentors are tops in their field whether they are water managers, farmers, scientists, lawyers, environmentalists or policymakers.

Mentors in the 2016 class have included two former California natural resources secretaries, Lester Snow and Mike Chrisman. Other mentors included Fran Spivy-Weber, vice chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, and two members of the California Water Commission, Joe Del Bosque and Dave Orth. 

Others included Paula Kehoe, director of water resources for San Francisco Public Utilities Commission; Celeste Cantu, general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority; Mike Markus, general manger of Orange County Water District, and Kathy Tiegs, president of the Association of California Water Agencies.

Click on our main Water Leaders web page, where you can download a brochure for more information and an application form. Send any question about the class to Lisa Tran.