Many people sign up for the Green Foothills Leadership Program to gain career skills, but it’s also a great way to forge a new path and develop new interests during retirement. Karen Madsen is a retired lawyer who volunteers for marine and land conservation causes. In 2022 she enrolled in the Leadership Program to learn advocacy skills to help advance a cause she’s passionate about: reducing single-use plastics.

Karen loves the ocean and open spaces, and upon retiring she began volunteering extensively for state and county parks, and for nonprofits such as the Peninsula Open Space Trust and the Marine Mammal Center. Her first volunteer endeavors were mostly hands-on, outdoor work such as serving as a docent and educator, leading hikes and helping with land/beach surveys. Having been a lawyer, she thought her legal background might make her a good volunteer for advocacy-related work as well, so she began researching opportunities to volunteer as an advocate. She saw the Leadership Program advertised in Green Foothills’ newsletter and decided to sign up to learn more about how environmental advocacy works.

She found the Leadership Program valuable, and was inspired by the varied projects that her fellow program participants were involved in. After several months in the program she felt ready to volunteer as the Plastic Pollution Lead for the Surfrider Foundation’s San Mateo County chapter. She helped Surfrider advocate for a proposed 2022 ballot measure related to plastic pollution and recycling at the state level, and for disposable food service ordinances in cities throughout San Mateo county. She also had the opportunity to participate in Surfrider’s national lobbying efforts to Congress.

“Because of what I had learned in the Leadership Program I knew how to reach out to people to ask them to sign on to letters in support of the ballot measure,” she said. Because of the program she also knew how to prepare comments for city council meetings, and more.

She felt that one of the most useful skills she learned in the program was how to identify stakeholders. “For anything you want to get passed legislatively, you have to understand who the stakeholders are – the key people you’d want to speak to,” she said. “You need to think about who’s likely to be an ally, how you will reach them, and how you will persuade them.”

Karen adds that she would absolutely recommend the Leadership Program to others in her position. “If you want to do any public policy work or community advocacy work it’s excellent training. I found it really worthwhile.”

Supporters of the Green Foothills Leadership Program include Applied Materials Foundation Community Fund, the County of Santa Clara, North Santa Clara Resource Conservation District (NSCRCD), Sand Hill Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Green Foothills donors. Please consider making a donation to support the Leadership Program.