Conservation Florida Executives Complete Prestigious Florida Leadership Programs

Congratulations to Conservation Florida's Executive Director & Assistant Director on their completion of two prestigious leadership programs.

Their experience with Leadership Florida & IFAS’s Natural Resources Leadership Institute, and their new status as alumni, are part of our long-term strategy to build community and collaboration across boundaries, as Conservation Florida pursues its vision of Florida's land conservation future.  

Team Conservation Florida is very proud!

CFL’s executive director , Traci Deen, pictured front row, third from left, with Leadership Florida Connect classmates at Florida’s Historic Capitol in Tallahassee Florida.

Our executive director, Traci Deen, completed the Leadership Florida Connect program. Deen joined 43 other young leaders from across the state to participate in the 9-month program, which was created to educate, engage, and inspire Florida’s top young professionals. Leadership Florida Connect is a leadership program that spans industry boundaries and focuses solely on developing Florida's existing and emerging leaders.

“Leadership Florida is a statewide organization dedicated to bringing together emerging and existing leaders from across the state to challenge, prepare and inspire them to build a better Florida,” according to the group. “By providing meaningful forums and creating unique opportunities, our members are introduced to fresh transformative ideas and information, which allow them to enhance and recharge their leadership skills. Our goal is to activate, educate and engage leaders of today and tomorrow through top-level programming and development.”

“I am honored to be a part of the Leadership Florida family,” said Deen. “I am now armed with new perspectives, tools, experiences, and leadership skills that I am looking forward to applying in my role as executive director of Conservation Florida.” 

During the course of the 9-month program, the class engaged with high-caliber speakers, leadership professionals, Florida’s policy makers, and one another as they were trained to serve as Florida’s future leaders.

Conservation Florida’s assistant director, Cyndi Fernandez, pictured front row, third from left, with NRLI Fellows in Gainesville, Florida.

Cyndi Fernandez, our assistant director, graduated from the Natural Resources Leadership Institute (NRLI). NRLI is a specialized leadership training program for natural resource professionals. Over the course of eight months, fellows learned about a series of contentious issues facing Florida, such as sea-level rise, endangered species, land use, marine resources, and water use.

NRLI brought together natural resource professionals from many sectors, providing them with training to find inclusive solutions to Florida's dire natural resource problems.

Cyndi completed an intensive practicum as part of her fellowship, which builds on her skillset and assures that what she learned translates into everyday impact. Cyndi and her practicum teammates developed a project focusing on landscape-scale conservation and the barriers and opportunities for creating a new, statewide network of landscape conservation practitioners. She will continue to apply the skills and concepts learned in NRLI to help manage conflicts, make inclusive decisions, and facilitate land conservation in your organizations or communities.

The curriculum offered on-the-ground tours to experience issues firsthand, expert briefings, experiential training in collaborative decision making, and engagement with stakeholders.

Congratulations to both Traci and Cyndi! We are so proud of you.