Recently Purdue University’s Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy held its graduation ceremony in Indianapolis. Theresa Sailor, left, watershed coordinator for the Clean Waters Partnership and Eileen Oaks, marketing and outreach specialist for The Watershed Foundation, received professional certificates in watershed management from Purdue University. (Photo provided)

NORTH WEBSTER — Eileen Oaks, marketing and outreach specialist for The Watershed Foundation and Theresa Sailor, watershed coordinator for the Clean Waters Partnership, received the Professional Certificate in Watershed Management from Purdue University, recognizing their completion of Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy, at a ceremony in Indianapolis May 25.

Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy builds local capacity to protect and manage water quality. Oaks and Sailor attended five days of training and completed nine distance education modules to complete certificate requirements, learning to engage watershed stakeholders, use innovative computer tools in watershed management, develop an effective plan and evaluate watershed outcomes.

Jane Frankenberger, director of the academy and professor of agricultural and biological engineering said, “The graduates of the Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy are pioneers in leading watershed management programs across the state. They have committed the time and effort needed to strengthen their technical competence as well as leadership skills that are vital in bringing about water quality improvements.”

The Watershed Foundation was founded in 1997 to protect and improve water quality in the Upper Tippecanoe River Watershed; spanning from Crooked Lake in Whitley County to Lake Tippecanoe in Kosciusko County. Clean Waters Partnership was founded a year ago as an extension of TWF in the Warsaw-Winona area. During the past 19 years, TWF has worked with farmers and lake residents to implement more than 150 water quality improvement projects. In the last three years alone, these efforts have prevented more than 556 million pounds of weeds and algae from growing in area lakes and streams.

For more information about the Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy visit the program website.