Staff Members
Back to staff listingLisa Beutler, Associate Director
Lisa Beutler specializes in helping organizations and communities reach decisions and create effective public policy. She has led numerous complex, high profile collaborative projects involving a broad spectrum of subjects including water, land-use, energy, off-highway vehicles, technology and substance abuse. Her background, covering over 30 years, includes organizational development, law enforcement, resources, and experience in local and state government.
Lisa has led or co-led numerous successful projects throughout California including major planning efforts for the Water Boards and Sierra Nevada Conservancy. Other recent projects include managing a large scale collaborative in the Lake Tahoe Basin and facilitation and mediation for the State Fire Plan, trail designation in National Forests, various State Park projects, and the national award winning Flood Plan Management Task Force. In 2007-2008, as part of California State Water Plan duties, Lisa is spearheading a special initiative to engage California Native Indians in state water planning.
She is a nationally recognized practitioner in large group processes. One international project involved serving on the team helped convene a session for the 2004 Parliament of World’s Religions convened in Barcelona, Spain. This included designing a meeting methodology for engaging 400 global leaders of religious and spiritual communities – in partnership with leaders and others from organizations in civil society, government and business – to address the availability of clean, safe water.
Her work is and has been studied extensively including reviews in the Public Productivity & Management Review (Sage 1996), various professional publications associated with conference proceedings, the August 2005 Off-Highway Vehicle Use and Collaboration Study by the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, and an article by Cornell professor John Forrester in the Journal of the American Planning Association (Fall 2006). Her work is also cited in texts on Future Search, change management, and most recently one of her cases was featured in "Creating the Future Together: Large Group Methods for Faith Communities," a new text book by Billie Alban and Loren Mead for managers working with churches and faith communities.
Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Beutler held key government posts in special offices of two Governors. Her assignments ranged from a special focus on government technology and innovation to serving as an Executive Ombudsman for the Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning and the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency Undersecretary. Earlier in her career, she served as a Chief Ranger in the Department of Parks and Recreation and at the State Lands Commission overseeing management of 500,000 acres of real property, and assisting with program management for the 3-mile coastal zone.
A native Californian, Ms. Beutler holds a degree in Human Relations and Organizational Behavior as well as numerous professional certifications. In addition to her facilitation-mediation practice, Ms. Beutler occasionally instructs at California State University Sacramento and is the instructor for the North Tahoe-Truckee Leadership Program. In her spare time she serves as a Board member for non-profit and professional organizations, including the American Society for Public Administration.
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