Western Conservation Leadership Development Program
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Dillon Tabish

Communication and Education Program Manager
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Kalispell • Fundamentals Cohort 3

  • EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
    The experience of WCLDP impacts people in a multitude of ways — but what sets it apart is its deeply participatory design.

“The best part of the class was it was participatory and was not a typical ‘PowerPoint’ lecture on leadership. It was not passive! This program threw participants into practice, which was hard for me but very impactful.”

  •  This practice among fellow cohort participants created an incredible bond and community very quickly.
  • TEAM CHALLENGE
    A significant portion of the WCLDP experience is engagement in a team challenge. Teams self-organize around intractable western conservation challenges — issues that are complex, contested, and deeply human.
Western Conservation Leadership Development Program

“Conservation in the west is a complex, conflict-ridden subject, and we’re not going to make progress by focusing on the traditional wildlife science mindset; most of the issues are more increasingly rooted in social science and people dynamics.”

Dillon’s group focused on building conservation engagement across different and often marginalized communities. They continued meeting beyond graduation and developed an app to promote opportunities for youth to spend time in nature — an effort that earned national recognition. Their work was recognized with the prestigious Congressional App Challenge award — a testament to what conservation leaders can achieve when they lead together.

Congressional App Challenge Winners: Emma Anderson & Makayla Davenport

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  • CALL TO ACTION

“These tools will reshape agency culture and staff. WCLDP offers not only the concepts but more importantly the time and space to practice and experiment with colleagues. The course creates a community through which to explore new ideas and ways of thinking and thus grows our own capacity for our agencies and the broader conservation community.”

“WCLDP opened my eyes to the idea that leadership is a life-long practice for the benefit of myself and my agency.”

  • WHY IT MATTERS
    Fellows empowered to participate in WCLDP are exposed to a more diverse and impactful way of diagnosing challenges — and leave with an outsized capacity to affect organizational change. These skills include increased comfort with uncertainty, surfacing and addressing the loss felt by nearly everyone in difficult situations, and slowing down to recognize the space between a stimulus and a response.In today’s culture of impatience, desire for certainty, and demand for immediate answers, these skills are foundational to creating the kind of change we all desire in conservation.