Renée Rhodes
WATER Institute Associate Director of Development & Communications
Renée Rhodes (she/her) is the Associate Director of Development and Communications with the WATER Institute. She is a communications professional, multimedia storyteller, and nonprofit program manager with an abundance of experience working in environmental and cultural nonprofits. Her love of watershed-scale restoration and storytelling is informed by years of hands-on ecological education and land stewardship throughout the dehydrated West. At OAEC, she creates responsive writing, visual materials, and development strategies to build capacity for the WATER Institute’s visionary, watershed-scaled projects and campaigns.
On Staff Since: 2025 Email Phone: x140
In Their Own Words
My work at OAEC:
I am looking forward to connecting with the WATER Institute’s dedicated supporters and collaborating with them on shared ecological visions for Californian watersheds. I love crafting informative communications that connect people to the WATER Institute’s innovative advocacy, training, and research projects.
My background:
When I was seven, I wrote a short book about the Suwannee River in North Florida, where I spent a lot of time as a child. Growing up in a hurricane-prone place and living (too) close to wetlands, floodplains, and other important transition zones made a profound imprint on me; it shapes my relationship with land and water today.
I’ve lived on the Pacific coast for 19 years, working in cultural, environmental, and social justice-based nonprofit spaces during that time. Meanwhile, I’ve continued along with my seven-year-old self, as a multi-media artist, writer, and land steward interested in deep ecology and the intersections between people and the ecosystems they live within. OAEC’s interdisciplinary mode of operating feels like a relatable web to weave into.
My passions:
My passion is telling stories and building capacity for socially just ecological resilience. Working at the WATER Institute is a wonderful manifestation of those passions in my professional life.
In my personal life, you might find me creating multimedia projects about ecological histories of the Bay Area, writing essays about native grasslands, participating in fire stewardship in Sonoma County, or tending to a small oak understory meadow with friends in my urban San Francisco neighborhood.
Why my work matters:
Having spent the past 16 years in California, with its tightly controlled rivers and dehydrated lands, I am very tuned to how disordered watersheds affect the lives of everyone in an ecosystem. I am honored to create timely communications, build additional capacity and development strategy, and manage the everyday flow of the team. I like how we work together to create a well-rounded WATER Institute ecosystem.
What calls to me:
Books! I love gathering new ideas and learning from others, and I feel indebted to the many writers and thinkers who have so freely shared knowledge and shaped my understanding of the world. If only I could read them as fast as I seem to collect them!
My favorite resiliency resource:
Putting my hands in the soil or swimming in wild waters whenever I can!
What gives me hope:
Making things with friends: dinner, gardens, art, and time for playing outside.
