The WATER Institute team from left to right: Brock Dolman, Kate Lundquist, Renée Rhodes, and Grey Hayes
We are excited to introduce Renée Rhodes as our incoming Associate Director of Development & Communications and the newest addition to the WATER Institute’s team. Renée joins us with a background in media-based storytelling, science communications, nonprofit program management, and community-powered ecological restoration.
This summer, Renée Rhodes joined the WATER Institute as the Associate Director of Development and Communications. Photo Credit: Jim Coleman
Her work will strengthen the capacity of the team, in turn, providing support to community partners and watersheds throughout California. She looks forward to developing storytelling strategies, managing projects, and cultivating fundraising capacity for the WATER Institute.
Over the course of her career, Renée has managed programs, collaborated with culture-makers, and brought strategic capacity to programs at Root Division, San Francisco Art Institute, and South Seattle Community College; stewarded people-centered communications channels at Creativity Explored; and guided creative direction and editorial vision with Greenhorns on The New Farmer’s Almanac Vol VI: Adjustments & Accommodations. In her most recent role, she managed communications channels, produced multimedia storytelling, and contributed to development strategies at the Tuolumne River Trust.
Her ability to represent watershed-scale campaigns is also informed by years of hands-on ecological education and community land stewardship including process-based stream and meadow restoration at Vesper Meadow Education Program (southern Oregon), water-wise regenerative farming at Alemany Farm (San Francisco), and community-powered forestry and fire stewardship with Landpaths (Sonoma County).
Renée participating in a prairie patch burn at Ocean Song Farm and Wilderness with LandPaths. Photo Credit: Lara O’Herlihy / LandPaths
About her upcoming work, Renée shared: “As I get started with the WATER Institute, I look forward to collaborating with our dedicated supporters on shared ecological visions for Californian watersheds. It feels meaningful to tell the story of the innovative advocacy, training, and research generated by WATER Institute projects such as the Fuels to Flows Campaign and the Beaver Coexistence Training and Support Program!”
As the WATER Institute demonstrates, many of our land-based troubles actually start with degraded watersheds. Returning water to our dehydrated Western lands is an excellent way to respond more holistically to the stacked crises of catastrophic fires, flooding, drought, and species extinction. Thinking in whole systems, Renée shared that “I see my role as playing a similar part: I’ll bring process-based structure to the WATER Institute’s workflow. Building this critical programmatic capacity frees up the WATER Institute Co-Directors to engage in more training, education, and research throughout California, empowering communities and partners who, in turn, will restore literal water to our Californian watersheds. It all goes hand-in-hand.”
Join us in welcoming Renée to the WATER Institute, and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, story interests, or partnership ideas. She can be reached at renee@oaec.org.
