Penn State University will hold a workshop on June 11-12 to establish the Pennsylvania Natural Resources Leadership Institute in State College.

The goals of the workshop are to assess the feasibility of a Pennsylvania Natural Resources Leadership Institute, to identify the framework for the Institute, and to engage a core team of people and organizations willing to support its further development.

Penn State would like to bring together many of the Commonwealth’s leaders from nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and industry to accomplish these goals.

Several other states (e.g. North Carolina, Virginia, Florida) have highly successful statewide leadership programs for individuals involved with natural resource issues. A group of faculty, staff, and students at Penn State have been investigating these programs and are now assessing the feasibility of creating a similar program here in Pennsylvania.

Based on their research, we have identified best practices used by these programs and have begun to develop an outline for the creation of PA-NRLI. The program would include:

-- A cohort of participants that meets multiple times over the course of a year or so in sessions held in differing parts of the state, to increase familiarity with a range of natural resource issues and perspectives;

-- A focus on collaborative leadership skills, to enhance the capacity for facilitation, conflict management, and public engagement;

-- A diverse set of participants, to develop relationships among individuals from differing perspectives and backgrounds;

-- Experiential and interactive sessions, to increase the opportunities for hands-on learning and engagement with colleagues; and

-- A partnership among key organizations and agencies in the state to support the program.

Click Here for a tentative Agenda.  Click Here for registration information and more details.  Questions should be directed to Kathy Brasier, Associate Professor of Rural Sociology, Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education, by email to: kbrasier@psu.edu or phone: 814-865-7321.

3/23/2015