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 Delta or the lower Colorado River, 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.

In the last few years, mentors have included two former California natural resources secretaries, Lester Snow and Mike Chrisman. Other mentors included Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, Cannon Michael, president of Bowles Farming, Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of Metropolitan Water District, and members of the California Water Commission, including Joe Del Bosque, Dave Orth, Joe Byrne and Armando Quintero.

Others mentors for the 2017 class included current Natural Resources Secretary John Laird; Jason Phillips, general manager of the Friant Water Authority, Chris Scheuring, managing counsel for the California Farm Bureau Foundation; David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Association; Stefanie Morris, general counsel at the State Water Contractors; Maurice Hall, associate vice president, ecosystems – water at Environmental Defense Fund; and Jaci Gould. deputy regional director at the Bureau of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Region.

Click on our main Water Leaders web page, where you can get more information and download an application that you can fill out on your computer or print out.

The program, which brings together stakeholders from every corner of the water world, recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the program with a reunion of all classes dating back to 1997. Click here to see photos on our Facebook page.

Send any questions about the class or applications to Kasey Chong, the Foundation’s executive assistant.