Reflecting on the Past, Looking to the Future

by Joy Hazell, NRLI Interim Director

2024 has been quite a year for NRLI and Florida. During this holiday season, we are grateful to be able to look back on this year and celebrate our alumni, current fellows, new opportunities, and lessons learned throughout the year. 

In the spring NRLI successfully graduated our 23^rd class of fellows in our 8-month program and our 7^th class of DEP staff in our 4-month program. This brought our total number of alumni to almost 600 leaders throughout Florida, the United States, and internationally. We are continually impressed by the work our alumni do to promote collaborative decision-making to improve natural resource protection and management. Our 24^th class of 24 fellows will be a great addition to the NRLI cohort.

NRLI made some personnel changes in 2024. Jonathan Dain stepped down as director, maintaining his role on the project team and I became your interim director. This experience has been a wonderful one for me and I look forward to continuing with our amazing project team in 2025.

We have also had challenges in the state of Florida this year. Three hurricanes, all hitting spots that were still in recovery from past storms, put pressure on our team, our alumni, and the people we work with each year. You can read about these impacts in our article by our fellows this month.

Looking forward, NRLI has some exciting plans. This month we kick off our inaugural training for the St. John’s River Water Management District staff. One week later, NRLI will hold a strategic planning session with 30 alumni, partners, and administrators. The session will envision the next three years for the Institute and propose how to reach that vision. NRLI is also working hard behind the scenes. In 2025 we will update our website, engage with our alumni, and practice our skills by facilitating collaborative decision processes.

Thank you for a wonderful year of growth and learning, we look forward to seeing and hearing from you in 2025! Happy Holidays!

Building Resilience in Rural Florida: Lessons from Live Oak

By Ashley Smyth & Danielle Terrell, NRLI Class 24 Fellows

During the latest NRLI session, we had the chance to visit Live Oak, Florida—a place that proved both challenging and inspiring. Driving along I-10, the lingering impact of recent hurricanes is evident: uprooted trees, scattered debris, and workers tirelessly clearing the damage. The NRLI project team noted how unusual it was to see so few trees in this area—a reminder of how recent the destruction was and how long the recovery process can be. Yet, throughout our session, we encountered stories of resilience, compassion, and deep dedication to community.

The Suwannee River was the perfect backdrop for our session. We worked on skills such as meeting facilitation and managing group dynamics and were introduced to the groan zone. These lessons were even more powerful as we explored hurricane recovery in rural Florida, where there are difficult conversations, no clear solutions, and a strong desire to support each other. Our local hosts and panelists shared heartfelt stories about the region’s importance to them. These stories revealed their commitment to their communities and their determination to keep Florida’s agriculture thriving.

One unique aspect of this session was how we engaged with our panelists. Rather than the traditional format, our speakers joined us in a circle, creating space for genuine, dynamic conversations. This setup allowed for questions, shared insights, and meaningful dialogue.

Forgotten, hopeless, and overwhelmed are some of the words that the panel members used to describe the current feeling of many farmers in the Live Oak area. This was a farming community that once thrived, however, after three hurricanes in 14 months many are on the brink of giving up after generations in the industry. Hurricanes Idalia, Debby, and Helene destroyed crops, equipment, and infrastructure, and damaged spirit. Many cannot even get insurance, and they certainly cannot repay the loans they took out to get back on their feet from the previous hurricane.

The panelists shared that many farmers are reluctant to even talk about the damage their farms suffered, meaning the extent of the damage to the farming community, loss of crops, and loss of revenue is difficult to quantify. This makes recovery challenging when there is not a good measure of what people need.

All panel members agreed that innovative solutions are needed, and awareness of the issue is key. Because Live Oak is a rural community, they feel forgotten by the world. Getting better data, securing funds for hurricane recovery in rural communities, and educating legislators are just a few of the ideas discussed. This is crucial because as one panel member stated – “We feed the world, and we need to get back to it”.

When asked after the panel discussion about takeaways, one panelist stated, “It was helpful to advocate for and raise awareness about this issue, I see NRLI fellows as like-minded individuals that can take what they have learned and hopefully advocate as well. The process was thought provoking and triggered forward thinking.” 

The panel experience also reinforced the session’s facilitation focus on participation and dialogue. Sometimes, the best thing a facilitator can do is to let the conversation progress naturally. Give people the space to let things unfold if it is not a decision-making forum. This was highly effective with this panel situation and dynamics.

This session also marked a significant milestone: the halfway point of our NRLI program, and we began to dive into our practicum projects. The diversity of ideas and interests among our group was evident, but there were clear commonalities and themes to the projects. While we are slightly intimidated by the practicum, we are excited to put our NRLI skills into practice.

Reflecting on Resilience

The live oak tree, a powerful symbol of safety, strength and resilience, mirrors what we witnessed during our visit. Live Oak, much like their namesake tree, has shown immense strength and resilience over the last year. Moving forward resilience will be a key factor to success, as we progress through the NRLI program, we’re grateful to be part of this group. Together, we’re growing, learning, and preparing to face the challenges ahead—just as the communities we’ve visited continue to do.

We look forward to gathering in Ocala for the next session. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!

Sara Zybell Ferson

Professional Engineer, Suwannee River Water Management Distrcit

Sara Ferson earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Engineering in May 2018 and a Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering Sciences in May 2023, both from the University of Florida. Since being hired she has earned her Professional Engineer certification, has become a certified stormwater erosion and sediment control inspector, as well as a certified floodplain manager.

Prior to working with the District, she was employed with UF as a teaching assistant under Dr. Pamela Dickrell and performed lab work and tests for Merieux Nutrisciences; a prominent food science testing lab in the Gainesville area. Additionally, she taught beginner coding courses at the University of Michigan during the summer of 2017 with iD Tech Camp.

Sara enjoys playing piano has performed alongside music students at the 19^th and 20^th International Festival of Women Composers at UF. She is currently teaching piano and clarinet to two students ages 11-14.

Mike McMunigal

Strategic Planning Basin Coordinator, St. Johns River Water Management District

Mike currently serves as the Strategic Planning Basin Coordinator within the Upper St. Johns River Basin and the Indian River Lagoon. Primary responsibilities include working with interested parties to identify water resource challenges and opportunities, developing basin priorities, drafting basin plans, and project development.

Mike has had a diverse career, albeit one that has consistently focused on the management and conservation of aquatic systems and associated critters and has spent most of that time in Florida with stints in Virginia and West Virginia. He earned a degree in Biology from Virginia Tech, and also has a background in agriculture while helping to manage the family beef cattle operation in Virginia and as a former owner of a dairy farm in West Virginia. Mike’s diverse career and life experiences enable him to appreciate the many complexities typically encountered in natural resource management and looks forward to implementing the skills learned through the Natural Resources Leadership Institute.  

Outside of work Mike enjoys house renovation projects, diving, fishing, hunting, the occasional ski trip to soak up some Utah powder, spending time with family…and of course anything written by Carl Hiaasen.  

Brendan Myers

Regulatory Biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

I’m from Seminole, Florida and have loved living in this state my entire life. I live in Saint Petersburg with my wife and young son. After a career that spanned working with multiple organizations, I have spent the last 6 years with the US Fish and Wildlife Service working on military lands projects and implementing the Endangered Species Act throughout the state. In our spare time, my family and I like going to the Florida Aquarium, visiting family around the Southeast, reading science fiction, cheering on all the Tampa Bay sports teams and working on our house

Samantha Barquin Chief of Staff, Miami Waterkeeper

Kathleen Coates Division Director, Northwest Florida Management District

Jason Daniel Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida

Mike Davis Captain, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Sara Ferson Professional Engineer, Suwannee River Water Management District

John Hall President, Deeper Roots Leadership Solutions

Ryan Kennelly Sr. Environmental Specialist, Alachua County Environmental Protection Dept

Mike McMunigal Strategic Planning Basin Coordinator, St Johns River Water Mgmt District

Brendan Myers Regulatory Biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Heather Nagy Strategic Conservation Planning Coordinator, North Florida Land Trust

Heather Obara Associate Director, Alachua Conservation Trust

Jyoti Parmar Organizing Representative, Sierra Club of Florida

Geoffrey Patterson Director of Agricultural Policy, Florida Farm Bureau Federation

Jessica Quiggle Assistant Deputy General Counsel, St Johns River Water Mgmt District 

Tom Reinert Regional Director, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Holley Short Shorebird Program Manager, Audubon Florida

Tessa Skiles Owner & Underwater Cinematographer, Karst Productions

Ashley Smyth Asst Professor & State Extension Specialist, UF/IFAS TREC

Danielle Terrell Asst Director of Central Operations, Division of Recreation & Parks, FDEP

Amanda Thompson CCI Training & Education Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy

Jacob Thompson Biologist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Delsina Trigoura Environmental Specialist, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida

Marnie Ward Extension Agent II, UF/IFAS Extension Citrus County

Debra Woithe Environmental Lands Division Manager, Manatee County

Natural Resources Leadership Institute

352.294.7643

jpeskin@nrli.ufl.edu

nrli.ifas.ufl.edu