NCF Announces the 2025 Next Generation Leadership Institute Cohort.

NGLI was formally launched in August 2019 as a year-long program to advance conservation leadership. The program aims to provide conservation leaders with the tools and resources to become national leaders through personal, civic, and organizational leadership development. 

Program learning objectives include advocacy and public policy, effective communication, leadership style, media training, conflict management, team building and delegation, and partnerships. 

When asked about investing in those future leaders, Kelli Bowen, 2024 Cohort, says, “I believe that it's a great group of people I'm with. We had a lot of good discussions right away. Sometimes, if you go into a situation where you don't know people, it's usually the opposite, where it's very quiet and nobody wants to share. So it's exciting to be in this environment with a group already so interested and passionate about what they're doing.”

The 2025 NGLI Cohort participants were selected through a competitive national application process. This will be the program’s fifth cohort.  

The 2025 Cohort consists of:

• Stacey Conly, Saline Soil and Water Conservation District, Louisiana
• Josh Myers, Guilford County Soil and Water Conservation District, North Carolina
• Randy Smith, Mower County Soil and Water Conservation District, Minnesota
• Carmen Bruner-Still, Creek County Conservation District, Oklahoma
• Patricia Brown, Sabine Soil and Water Conservation District, Louisiana
• Gregory Powers, James River Soil and Water Conservation District, Virginia
• Sadie Lister, Little Colorado River Soil and Water Conservation District, Arizona

NGLI participants will gather for several training sessions throughout the year, with a capstone session at the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) Annual Meeting in 2026. The NGLI curriculum will equip these leaders with skills and resources for personal, civic, and organizational leadership development. Educational and training opportunities throughout their program will encompass topics related to communication training, marketing, resource utilization, policy, and much more.

This comprehensive training will help prepare participants to meet the future needs of natural resources management, equipping them to navigate and manage current and future complex conservation challenges at the national level. 

The Cohort will convene for their first session during the 2025 NACD Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 8-12, 2025.

Learn more at www.nationalconservationfoundation.org/ngli/.