Beutler, Lisa

Lisa Beutler specializes in helping organizations and communities reach decisions and create effective public policy. After a decade as the Associate Director of the Sacramento State University Center for Collaborative Policy she moved to Stantec, a global design and engineering firm. At Stantec she helps clients with strategic thinking, collaborative policy, and water resources and other planning. Earlier in her career she was a state park ranger and served in special offices of two governors. As an elected leader for the American Water Resources Association, her water management expertise and passion for excellence is well known. In addition to being the California Water Plan Executive Facilitator, she is also a nationally recognized practitioner in large group processes and continues to explore the use of technology to improve collaboration, transparency, and decision making. Her expertise has also led to key roles in California’s implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Internationally, she helped lead the team that engaged 400 global leaders of religious and spiritual communities to address the obligations of the faith community in providing clean, safe water to the people of the world at the 2004 Parliament of World’s Religions in Barcelona, Spain. A popular presenter at professional conferences, her work is and has been studied extensively and as far back as reviews in the Public Productivity & Management Review (1996). She has also been featured in a variety of publications and books including Planning in the Face of Conflict by John Forester. With a proven track record leading numerous complex, high profile projects ranging from water, land-use, and energy planning to off-highway vehicles, technology, substance abuse, and religious conflict resolution, she is a go-to resource for agencies with wicked problems.