GMRI's Jason Stockwell graduated from the National Conservation Leadership Institute (NCLI), an intense seven-month educational experience designed to address one of the nations significant conservation challengespreparing and retaining leaders. Stockwell is one of 36 chosen for the second class that culminated in April 2008.
Over the next 10 years, nearly one-third of todays natural resource leaders will retire. According to research conducted in 2004, about 77% of state fish and wildlife agency senior leadership will retire by 2015, and more than 50% of federal conservation leaders will retire by the end of 2007.
To be chosen among a nation of conservation professionals to take part in the second class of the Institute is a great honor, says Stockwell. The National Conservation Leadership Institute is tackling a very important topic head onthe fact that many of conservations current leaders are about to retire, and the legacy they leave behind will need to continue.
The National Conservation Leadership Institute was created to better equip tomorrows conservation leaders in the latest leadership thinking and practice, and each Fellow learns from the nations most influential conservation leaders and leadership experts including Harvards Kennedy School of Leadership professor Marty Linsky, co-author of the book, Leadership on the Line. Through NCLI, 21 state fish and wildlife employees, 6 federal conservation agency employees, 1 industry employee, and 8 nongovernmental agency employees worked together over seven months to focus on priority leadership challenges and solutions.
This year, from all across the nation and from the potential hundreds of natural resource related conservation organizations, 36 Fellows were selected through a competitive process to participate in this years world class leadership experience, says Steve Williams, Chairman of the Institute board and President of the Wildlife Management Institute. Those selected represented a diverse mix of people and perspectives from across the country and across organizational boundaries. We believe that the Institute will have powerful results.
In Fall 2007, the 36 Fellows participated in the Institutes intense 10-day residency at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. In late April, the Fellows re-convened at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri to present the results of their five-month leadership challenge projects where they had individually experimented with their learning from the Fall and carried out real, in-the-trenches applications for their respective organizations.
Since arriving at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute this past October and participating in the leadership program, Stockwell has been working to foster a collaborative approach to Atlantic herring management in the Gulf of Maine. While a broad cross-section of the marine community worldwide has embraced the conceptual shift to an ecosystem approach to fishery management, there is a growing awareness that implementing this transition will require the development of strategies to balance complex ecological, economic, and political forces and choices. Unlike most of his classmates from NCLI who are natural resource managers or policy makers, Stockwell is a scientist. The stereotype of the scientist is to be holed up in a laboratory, running experiments, isolated from the rest of the world. Given the complexity of the issues revolving around the management of herring the Gulf of Maine, there is a critical need for scientists to engage diverse stakeholder groups to better understand the issues, hopefully leading to improved science to better meet these societal needs, said Stockwell. He will continue working with stakeholder groups to identify scientific research needs that will inform an explicit social and political process to deal with the tough trade-offs inherent in moving from single species management to an ecosystem approach.
Offered each year to a select group of approximately 36 individuals identified by their nominating organizations as high potentials, the National Conservation Leadership Institute is by no measure only a training program. Each Fellow was chosen for his or her potential to build effective coalitions, lead organizational change, and deliver results; as well as work experience and goals.
Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Sally Guynn, says, Training alone is insufficient to develop the extraordinary leadership called for in our uncertain times. The Institute is a unique, comprehensive learning experience designed to challenge assumptions, teach skills, facilitate networking, and strengthen confidence. It is not a redundant program; it is a remarkable experience for preparing an extraordinary leadership capacity for the future.
