NCLI instructors bring broad and deep experience from academia and business integrated with today’s top leaders in conservation. All instructors and speakers bring world-class perspective. In some cases they wrote the book (literally) on leadership, and others have applied leadership in conservation. The result is a rare combination of experience and perspective: the latest leadership thinking and practice with conservation luminaries and real challenges from the conservation field.

Marty Linsky — At Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Marty is one of those memorable teachers one never forgets. An interactive, dynamic style highlights his teaching about leadership, press, politics, legislatures, and public management. He has extensive experience as a consultant, facilitator, and trainer in leadership with a wide range of public and private sector clients in the U.S. and abroad.  A prolific author, his most recent book, Leadership on the Line, co-authored with Dr. Ronald Heifetz, is a widely read classic on Adaptive Leadership™. Marty is a co-founder of the Cambridge Leadership Associates. www.cambridge-leadership.com

Margaret Wheatley — Writer, teacher, researcher, lecturer, and out-of-the-box thinker, Wheatley was thrown into the public spotlight in 1992 with the publication of her groundbreaking book, Leadership and the New Science. Wheatley will captivatingly challenge the bases of the Fellows’ fundamental assumptions and help them to move past outdated Newtonian images of the way things work in our organizations to a fresh, current understanding based on new discoveries in quantum physics, chaos theory, and biology. Ms. Wheatley is a professor at Brigham Young University and president of The Berkana Institute, a research foundation working on the design of new organizations. www.margaretwheatley.com

Hugh O’Doherty —  An engaging personality with native roots in Northern Ireland, Hugh is an expert on conflict management and leadership. A faculty member at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, he consults extensively with the Cambridge Leadership Associates, developing Adaptive Leadership™ capacity in a wide variety of private, corporate, and public clients. In the U.S., Hugh’s work often focuses on community and public service challenges, such as assisting urban school superintendents to address the complex challenges inherent in meeting the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Education Act.

Dr. Tom Kalous — For the last 13 years, Tom has gathered first-hand observations and case studies on human behavior and emotional intelligence while running a successful, counseling psychology private practice in Denver, Colorado. His inviting teaching style and rich context of real life examples add considerable dimension to his interesting instructional workshops on emotional intelligence. Tom specializes in the psychology of disease management and the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace.

Max Petersen — In more than 50 years of work in natural resources, Mr. Peterson has served in a variety of regional, national, and international organizations including 10 months as Interim Executive Director of the National Fish and Wildlife Zooquarium in Springfield, Missouri; 14 years as Executive Vice President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies; 37½ years in a variety of positions in the U.S. Forest Service, the last 7½ years as Chief. Upon his retirement in 1987 he was designated Chief Emeritus of the Forest Service by the Secretary of Agriculture, the first person to receive this designation. He has also served the North American Forestry Commission; the FAO’s Commission on Forestry; the National Conservation Committee of the Boy Scouts of America; the Board of the Graduate School of the USDA; and the U.S. Delegation to World Forestry Congresses (1960, 1971, 1978, 1986).

Mr. Peterson received Distinguished Service awards from the University of Missouri, the Advertising Council, and the USDA, as well as the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive, the Boy Scout Hornaday Gold Medal, and the 2000 Seth Gordon Award. In 1985, 1990, 1995, and 2001 he worked actively with 15 other non-governmental organizations to develop agreed-upon principles for important features of the Farm Bill such as the Conservation Reserve Program and Swamp buster.

Barry Rellaford: With long experience as a leader, trainer, and speaker, for FrankinCovey, Mr. Rellaford is a globally sought-after leadership development expert. He was a principal developer of the new book and training program “Leading at the SPEED of TRUST” and now works with CoveyLink. Barry previously led FranklinCovey’s Learning Expedition Center. He has a Master’s degree in Labor and Human Resources from Ohio State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communication from BYU’s Marriott School of Management.