Oaks, Sailor Graduate From Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy
Posted
Staff Report-
INDIANAPOLIS – Eileen Oaks, marketing and outreach specialist for The Watershed Foundation, and Theresa Sailor, watershed coordinator for the Clean Waters Partnership, received the Professional Certificate in Watershed Management from Purdue University, recognizing their completion of Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy, at a ceremony in Indianapolis May 25. The Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy builds local capacity to protect and manage water quality. Oaks and Sailor attended five days of training and completed nine distance education modules to complete certificate requirements, learning to engage watershed stakeholders, use innovative computer tools in watershed management, develop an effective plan and evaluate watershed outcomes, according to a press release from the Leadership Academy. Jane Frankenberger, director of the Academy and professor of agricultural and biological engineering, said, “The graduates of the Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy are pioneers in leading watershed management programs across the state. They have committed the time and effort needed to strengthen their technical competence as well as leadership skills that are vital in bringing about water quality improvements.” The Watershed Foundation was founded in 1997 to protect and improve water quality in the upper Tippecanoe River watershed, spanning from Crooked Lake in Whitley County to Tippecanoe Lake in Kosciusko County. The Clean Waters Partnership was founded a year ago as an extension of TWF in the Warsaw-Winona area. Over the past 19 years, TWF has worked with farmers and lake residents to implement over 150 water quality improvement projects. In the last three years alone, these efforts have prevented over 556 million pounds of weeds and algae from growing in area lakes and streams, the press release states. For more information about the Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy, visit the program website at www.purdue.edu/watersheds
