Client Projects
Public Participation: Engaging our Stakeholders
California Water Boards
A multi-disciplinary team of water resources professionals and community development specialists delivered 12 workshops to more than 650 Water Board staff over an eight-week period in 2005.
The need: State Water Board managers sought immediate training for technical and administrative staff in all of their regional offices. Employees needed to understand how to better engage stakeholders and integrate the public in their processes, strategies and decisions about water quality protection.
The solution: UC Davis Extension developed one-day courses emphasizing effective public involvement for every Water Board program. The training defined effective involvement, taught basic concepts of involvement and provided resources and opportunities for assistance. The course provided a forum for staff to discuss the particular constraints and opportunities for involving stakeholders and helped staff create models for effective stakeholder involvement in each particular job setting.
In November 2005, UC Davis Extension accepted an award from the Cal EPA in recognition of their efforts in customer service for the Water Boards.
Meet the lead instructors:
Sharon Huntsman, M.S., has 16 years of experience serving communities, nonprofits and local governments as a facilitator, mediator and project manager for the Center for Collaborative Policy, the Environmental Careers Organization, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, and as a private consultant. Her accomplishments include managing the Silicon Valley 2010 visioning project, launching the Sustainable Communities Leadership Program and facilitating numerous community change efforts through community forums, strategic planning workshops and capacity-building initiatives. She is also an experienced trainer in collaborative problem solving.
Jeff Loux, Ph.D., is the chair of the Science, Agriculture and Natural Resources Department at UC Davis Extension, and adjunct faculty in the Department of Landscape Architecture, UC Davis. Loux has 25 years of experience in land use planning and natural resources policy, much of it as a facilitator or mediator of complex multi-party negotiations.
