California Council of Land Trusts is pleased to announce it has named a new Executive Director.
Ane Deister is an energetic executive manager with more than 25 years experience leading public water-related organizations in Southern and Northern California. She has held officer-level positions in large environmental, resource management and construction private sector firms since 2008. She serves on the board of directors of the Water Education Foundation, Bay Planning Coalition, Urban Water Institute and several positions with the national American Water Works Association.
She previously served on the California Water Commission, appointed by Governor Davis, confirmed by the State Senate and to the President’s National Drought Policy Commission by President Bill Clinton’s administration, representing urban water for the country. In her initial private sector appointment, she served as the Restoration Administrator for the San Joaquin River Restoration program.
Ane is a facilitator-style leader blending engaged dialog, guided discovery, conflict resolution, and visioning in her leadership practice. At Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Calabasas, CA she served as Department Director for three departments: Resource Conservation, Operations, and Engineering. She was instrumental in establishing the Malibu Creek Watershed Dialog process. At Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles, she served in the Executive office working with environmental stakeholders and member public agencies on conservation, drought, environmental resource management, legislative and policy issues by establishing regular two-way dialogs among stakeholders. In that role she led a year-long dispute resolution process resolving a lawsuit involving more than 30 local stakeholders, the Los Angeles County Departments of Public Works, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
At El Dorado Irrigation District she served for more than 6 years as General Manager leading a major organizational change process involving environmental compliance, financial management, personnel practices, and created first ever linkages with resources management and land trust organization in the Sierras.
She believes that nonprofit service is an important part of her professional portfolio and has devoted a key part of her time to organizations especially involved in environmental awareness practices and programs.
Ane lives in Shingle Springs, CA with her husband, dog, and cat. Their daughter is newly married and attends college in the area. Ane holds two masters degrees: M.A. in Biology from the Universtiy of South Florida, her thesis topic involved genetic testing and population modeling; M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Sciences from the University of Florida in Gainesville, where her thesis topic involved an energy cost/benefit analysis of power plant thermal discharge impacts on near shore coastal environments.