About Elise

Some careers follow a straight line. Elise Weiland's follows a thread.

Across Colorado, Sonoma County, and California’s Central Coast, Elise has built coalitions around some of the most complex challenges communities face:

  • Watershed resilience

  • Emergency response and recovery

  • Public infrastructure

  • Community trust and engagement

  • Regional governance

Her work begins where good intentions stall: helping diverse partners find common purpose, build trust, and create systems that continue working long after the project ends.

Elise specializes in bringing together organizations that need one another but don’t always work together:

✓ Tribal Nations

✓ Utilities and water districts

✓ Government agencies

✓ Nonprofits and conservation organizations

✓ Businesses and community leaders

✓ Scientists and researchers

She designs the frameworks, partnerships, communications systems, and governance structures that transform fragmented efforts into collective action.

Elise with curly blonde hair, smiling and wearing a blue t-shirt that reads 'NoCo Mini Maker Faire,' stands next to a metal sculpture of a mythical creature outside a building with a brick wall and window.
A woman speaking at a podium with a National Park District emblem, holding a microphone, standing in front of a beige wall, with a black wall sconce to her left, wearing a light green short-sleeved shirt, glasses on her head, earrings, and a name tag.

A Growing Commitment to Water

Although her early career focused on communications, innovation, and community development, water increasingly became the thread connecting her work.

Her advocacy journey included participation in efforts surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline, where she saw firsthand how water sits at the intersection of environmental stewardship, Indigenous rights, public policy, and community resilience.

At Sonoma County, that perspective expanded into watershed management, drinking water systems, wastewater infrastructure, flood resilience, and emergency response.

As Executive Director of the Carmel River Watershed Conservancy, she worked alongside researchers and agencies including:

  • NOAA and USGS

  • California Department of Fish and Wildlife

  • State and Regional Parks

  • MIIS and CSUMB University Researchers

  • CalAm Water, Monterey Water Management District

Exploring how healthy watersheds depend on groundwater recharge, forests, floodplains, sediment dynamics, and community stewardship—not simply the rivers visible on the surface.

Selected Impact

  • Rebuilt a dormant watershed collaboration into an active regional coalition involving:

    • Two counties

    • Tribal partners

    • More than a dozen agencies and nonprofits

    Authored the governance framework and Memorandum of Understanding still guiding the partnership today – See More

  • Led community engagement during major floods and wildfires.

    Created bilingual community forums that connected previously underserved Latino farmworker communities with county decision-makers – See More

    Produced emergency communications relied upon by first responders throughout the region – See More

    • Tripled grant revenue in 18 months

    • Doubled donations and sponsorships

    • Expanded scientific partnerships

    • Reinvigorated regional watershed collaboration

    • Launched Science Uncorked community forums

    See More

  • Elise remains deeply connected to the landscapes she serves through:

    • Watershed stewardship

    • River restoration projects

    • Kayaking

    • Community science

    • Seasonal steelhead rescue efforts

    Because the best watershed work happens with boots in the creek as often as it happens in meeting rooms.

    She believes the strongest watershed solutions emerge when communities, science, and partnerships move in the same direction.

An aerial view of a coastal landscape at sunset, showing a beach, a small town with houses, winding river, and lush green vegetation.

Recommendation from LinkedIn:
Bryan Hughes, Co-Founder of @VIAlab

Elise Weiland is a dedicated and passionate public servant with a proven track record of success in her work with nonprofits, community organizations, and government agencies. She is a skilled grant writer, project manager, and policy analyst with a deep understanding of the complex issues facing rural communities.

In her role as Field Representative and later Program Manager for District 5 of Sonoma County, Elise has been instrumental in helping communities and organizations like my own to navigate the complexities of county policy. She has been a leader in giving guidance for grant writing and securing funding for a variety of important projects, including a Governance study for the Lower Russian River.