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Collaborative Leadership Program

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Preserving & promoting collaborative natural resource policy making

Background/Overview

Washington state is where collaborative governance on natural resources began in the early 1970s, with a groundbreaking agreement to resolve conflicts over flood control on the Snoqualmie River. As the new field grew, it helped resolve a key civil rights struggle over tribal fishing rights in Washington known as the “Fish Wars,” which came to a head in a landmark legal case referred to as the Boldt Decision. After the US Supreme Court upheld the Boldt Decision’s recognition of tribal treaty rights, the parties eventually turned to collaborative governance to resolve their conflict, and the resulting state/tribal co-management of salmon and steelhead persists to this day. Since then, collaborative approaches in Washington have led to many groundbreaking outcomes, greatly influencing the rest of the nation over a 50-year history.  

The goals of Collaborative Leadership Program are to:

  • Capture and document this unique and important history
  • Make it available and accessible to scholars, students, researchers, and the public
  • Build on the history to foster collaborative leadership for the future.

 

Finding Common Ground (a co-production of the Puget Sound Institute and TVW (Washington’s public media network) is a documentary film that tells the story of people with diverse interests overcoming differences to resolve some of the most complex conservation challenges in the Pacific Northwest. Watch the trailer.

Finding Common Ground was the focus of HistoryLink‘s annual luncheon in September 2024 in Seattle, featuring a panel of people from the film (more information, including a video with highlights from the event). Preview screenings were held in Tacoma, Everett, Seattle, and Toppenish. The documentary had its broadcast premiere on November 5, 2024,and is now available for streaming on TVW. Finding Common Ground has been screened at more than 20 local, state, regional, national, and international events, featuring post-screening discussions with people from the film.

Ways to watch include broadcast and cable TV, online from TVW’s webpage, mobile app, Roku TV, and more. How to Watch.

Collage of four video interview screenshots showing three men seated in chairs during a panel discussion (top), a woman in a green shirt speaking (second), a young woman with long dark hair smiling (third), and another young woman in a University of Washington jacket (bottom).The Collaborative Leadership Program (CLP) has conducted oral history interviews with more than 60 remarkable past and present leaders from across Washington state representing federal, tribal, state, and local governments; mediators and facilitators; natural resource and other private sector businesses; scientists, academics and educators; and others.

UW Libraries is providing a permanent home for archival versions of the interviews in their Special Collections section, and is in the process of archiving the collection so that it will always be available for scholars, authors, researchers, and the general public. In the meantime, reference versions of the interviews are available on the digital online platform Internet Archive.

The CLP is adding next generation voices to the oral history archive. UW Earthlab summer interns are conducting interviews with emerging leaders focused on how collaborative leadership can help address the challenges they face today and in the future, such as climate change, social and environmental justice, and Puget Sound protection and restoration.

Collage of five photos presented vertically of 1. documentary title credits, 2. room of people watching Seattle screening, 3. another shot of the Seattle screening, 4. Group of people standing in front of projection of the film title screen, and 5. people seated before a screen in a room with large timber beams in the ceiling

With our partners at TVW, the Collaborative Leadership Program (CLP) has created Finding Common Ground: Collaborative Leadership in Washington State (PDF), a documentary film based on the oral history interviews.

Watch the film trailer.

The CLP hosted preview screenings of the documentary during fall 2024 in Tacoma, Everett, Seattle, and Toppenish. These well-attended and well-received events included a showing of the film, followed by Q&A with the producers and interviewees.

The documentary premiered on TVW on Tuesday, November 5th at 7:00 pm Pacific, and is now available on demand. Ways to watch include broadcast and cable TV, online from TVW’s webpage, mobile app, Roku TV, and more. How to Watch.

Finding Common Ground was also the focus of HistoryLink’s annual luncheon on September 17, 2024 in Seattle, featuring a panel of people from the film (more information, including video highlights from the event). The Henry M. Jackson Foundation spotlighted the film in its Winter 2024 Newsletter.

Finding Common Ground has been screened at a number of events, featuring post-screening discussions with people from the film. This includes The Evergreen State College in Olympia on 2/24/25; 2025 Northwest Hydroelectric Association Conference in Seattle on 2/25/25; 2025 NW Dispute Resolution Conference at UW Law School in Seattle on 3/28/25; Washington State Department of Ecology HQ and Regional Offices on 4/8/25; Western Washington University’s Ralph Munro Institute in Bellingham on 5/5/25; Association for Conflict Resolution Virtual Conference on 6/12/25; International Association for Conflict Management Conference in Burlington, VT on 7/14/25; The Tulalip Tribes Hibulb Cultural Center on 7/26/25; and others.

An accomplished project team produced the oral histories and documentary, combining of subject matter expertise and experience with TV/film production talent and excellence. The team included:

Co-producers

Jennifer Huntley (TVW) and Michael Kern, (PSI)

Director of photography

Michael Peters (TVW)

Executive producers

Michael Kern, Renee Radcliff Sinclair (TVW), David Troutt (Nisqually Indian Tribe), and Jim Waldo (Center for Urban Waters).

Photos left, from top to bottom: Film opening title; Tacoma premiere screening; Seattle preview screening; screening at The Evergreen State College; The Tulalip Tribes screening at Hibulb Cultural Center Longhouse. Photos: Michael Kern & Mason Hadley

Collage of three images showing a large group selfie of approximately 25 people in a conference room (top), a woman presenting about collaborative governance to an audience with a projection screen (middle), and a person standing next to outdoor signage for the University of Washington Tacoma Center for Urban Waters and City of Tacoma Environmental Services Division (bottom).The Collaborative Leadership Program (CLP) has done important, time-sensitive work to ensure that vital knowledge about how we have come together to address complex challenges is not lost, and that both current and future generations benefit from this shared and earned wisdom. But the challenges we face in achieving conservation outcomes are complex. Leaders must have collaborative skills to successfully navigate conflict, understand interdependencies, and build relationships.

So now, the CLP will build on this knowledge base to focus on fostering collaborative leaders for the future. We will develop and pilot curricula to train and teach the current and upcoming workforce about collaborative leadership. We will create opportunities for interaction between the next generation and their elders, exploring how collaborative approaches have solved past conflicts, and considering how they, as upcoming leaders, can adapt and apply this leadership to meet their generation’s interests and needs. We will build partnerships and work with talented partners to expand collaborative capacity among today’s and tomorrow’s natural resource leaders. Elements of this work include:

  • Training and teaching curricula to foster collaborative leadership for those currently working to resolve complex policy challenges in Puget Sound, Washington state, and the Pacific Northwest.
  • Case studies of landmark collaborative processes.
  • Capturing voices of the next generation. Mentoring and amplifying voices of the next generation of leaders
  • Panels/dialogues/intergenerational exchange.  Knowledge exchange between current and next generation leaders, in-person and via the filmed archive.
  • Video profiles of important collaborative leaders from various sectors.
  • Regional collaborative stories about watersheds, basins, and parts of the state that have been important to our history of collaborative policy making.
  • Supporting collaborative capacity building among tribal and non-tribal governments and communities, with help from our Tribal Advisory Committee.

The CLP is excited to announce its Developing Collaborative Leaders for Puget Sound project, a two-year effort to train the next generation of collaborative policy makers for Puget Sound. The project will build on lessons from Puget Sound’s groundbreaking history of salmon co-management and other natural resource policies. Major tasks include:

  • Developing and piloting curricula to teach and train current and emerging natural resource professionals about collaborative leadership, using Puget Sound examples and case studies.
  • Creating opportunities for interaction between next generation leaders and their elders.

View the Developing Collaborative Leaders for Puget Sound fact sheet for more information.

Support for the Developing Collaborative Leaders for Puget Sound project comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Puget Sound Fund through the Habitat Strategic Initiative Lead (HSIL), which is a collaborative partnership between the Washington State Departments of Natural Resources (DNR) and Fish & Wildlife (DFW).

PSI’s partners on this effort will include Leadership Program Director Scott Linklater at the Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation, Student Programs Lead Lissan Tibebe and Program Manager Anastasia Ramey at the UW College of the Environment’s EarthLab, UW Tacoma Milgard School of Business Professor Zoe Barsness, and UW Evans School of Public Policy & Governance Professor Stephen Page.

The Milgard School wrote about the project in a 11/27/24 article, as did PSI in a 12/16/24 blog post.

Partners and sponsors

The Collaborative Leadership Program is hosted by the Puget Sound Institute at the University of Washington Tacoma’s Center for Urban Waters. Video production services for the Program are provided by TVW, Washington’s award-winning public media network.

We are grateful to our diverse sponsors including Anchor QEA, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Lummi Nation, The Nature Conservancy, Nisqually Indian Tribe, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, Puget Sound Partnership, Puyallup Tribe Charitable Trust, Seattle City Light, Sequoia Foundation, Squaxin Island Tribe, Suquamish Tribe/Suquamish Foundation, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, City of Tacoma Environmental Services, The Tulalip Tribes, Washington State Department of Agriculture, Washington State Department of Ecology, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State University Extension CED, William D. Ruckelshaus Center, and 12 individual or anonymous donors.

The Developing Collaborative Leaders for Puget Sound project is funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement PC-01J89501 through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The contents of this website do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency or the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

Thanks to the CLP’s Program Advisory Committee which includes Kathleen “Kas” Guillozet, Bonneville Environmental Foundation/Floodplains by Design; Joel Baker, Puget Sound Institute; Carolyn Kadyk, AgForestry Leadership; Renee Radcliff Sinclair, TVW; Anastasia Ramey, UW Earthlab; and Jim Waldo, Center for Urban Waters.

Special thanks to the CLP’s Tribal Advisory Committee which includes Willie Frank III and David Troutt from the Nisqually Indian Tribe, Doreen Maloney and Scott Schuyler from the Upper Skagit Tribe, Paul Ward from the Yakama Nation, Robert Whitener from the Squaxin Island Tribe, and Shawn Yanity and Kadi Bizyayeva from the Stillaguamish Tribe (note that all members are serving as individuals, not representing their tribes).

Program Lead

Michael Kern serves as Program Lead of the Collaborative Leadership Program and Principal Investigator for the Developing Collaborative Leaders for Puget Sound Project. Michael was Co-Producer and an Executive Producer of the Finding Common Ground documentary. Michael is Director of Special Projects at the Center for Urban Waters (CUW)/Puget Sound Institute (PSI); Principal of Michael Kern Consulting, LLC; Adjunct Associate Professor at WSU Extension, and Adjunct Faculty at Seattle University’s Department of Public Affairs & Nonprofit Leadership. In 2021, he wrapped up 12 years as Director of the William D. Ruckelshaus Center, a joint effort of WSU and UW that fosters collaborative public policy. Michael has more than 30 years of experience, and a national/international reputation, as both a practitioner and an academic in the field of collaborative governance. He began his career at the Northwest Renewable Resources Center, working on several of the landmark collaborative processes featured in this project. In addition to private practice, and leading large-scale collaborative processes for non-profit organizations, he has done so at universities, and has been a Senior Associate at Triangle Associates, Inc.

Support the program

The Collaborative Leadership Program relies on support from individual private donors, universities, public or private foundations, as well as federal, state, tribal, and local governments.

If you would like to support The Project, here are several ways:

1. Make a gift online through the UW Foundation by visiting the Center for Urban Waters Project Fund. On the payment screen, specify “Collaborative Leadership Program” in the Comments/Special Instructions box. Or mail a check made out to the UW Foundation with “Center for Urban Waters Collaborative Leadership Program” in the memo field to:

UW Tacoma
Attn: Amanda Walker
Box 358432, 1900 Commerce Street
Tacoma, WA, 98402

2. Donate to the Collaborative Leadership Program Fund, a component fund of the 501(c)(3) Greater Tacoma Community Foundation. This fund supports the CLP’s work to build enduring and inclusive collaborative solutions for current and future generations. It also supports efforts by community leaders to collaboratively reimagine the Center for Urban Waters, which hosts the Puget Sound Institute and the CLP. Checks can be made out to “Greater Tacoma Community Foundation” with the fund name on the memo line, to ensure that the funds are applied to the correct fund at GTCF. The mailing address is 950 Pacific Avenue, Suite 1100 Tacoma, WA 98402.

3. To sponsor via a grant or contract, contact Program Lead Michael Kern.

Thank you!