Linda Hunter has over 15 years of experience as an executive director and leader of nonprofit organizations focused on environmental protection and community engagement. She has successfully implemented strategic plans, diversified funding streams, managed multi-million dollar budgets, overseen staff, cultivated partnerships, and developed impactful new programs. Throughout her career, Ms. Hunter has inspired thousands of volunteers and raised over $5 million dollars for local watershed protection and marine sanctuary advocacy.

1. LINDA J HUNTER
415.378.7832
linda.waterwonk@gmail.com
224 NOE STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114
Executive Director -The Watershed Project
2008 – 2015 | Richmond, CA
The Watershed Project is a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire Bay Area communities to understand,
appreciate, and protect our local watersheds. Programs engage communities and students of all ages to
actively participate in innovative programs that ensure clean water, discourage the use of materials that
become marine debris, use visionary approaches to preserving water through low impact design and expand
the sense of what encompasses our watersheds.
In my role as Executive Director, I Ied a new strategic planning process propounded by strategy expert David
La Piana who wrote The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution, a fluid, organic process that engages staff and
board in a program of systematic readiness and continuous responsiveness. We successfully implemented all
aspects of this plan that was honed and improved by the enthusiastic participation of staff and the Board of
Directors.
Created new and unique programs that include:
• The Greening Urban Watershed Initiative utilizes low impact design to create healthier
watersheds. We worked with the community to create the Richmond Bioswale, a dry creek installed at a
park in Richmond that slowed the flow of rainwater - allowing it to penetrate and soak into the ground
rather than rush into the storm drain carrying legacy pollutants and trash into the Bay and Ocean. This
was the first of many achievements of our community driven program that is designed to let water go
where it wants to go - into the ground or a larger body of water, recharging groundwater and greening
our urban lives. We also managed the Oakland Rainbarrel Program that allowed Oakland residents to
capture rainwater rather than risk further erosion and overburden to Oakland creeks. The initiative
provided educational workshops, green job training for youth and interns and remarkable rainwater-
loving, cistern and water conserving demonstration projects including Chabot Space and Science
Center, Skyline High School and Merritt College. In the first year after its implementation, the program
kept 400,000 gallons of rainwater from flushing into creeks or storm drains.
• The Healthy Watershed Initiative has turned The Watershed Project’s local celebrations of
Martin Luther King Day of Service, Earth Day, and Coastal Cleanup Day from a service day of shoreline
and creek cleanups into major events that educate the public about the dangers of marine debris and
plastic in the marine environment. The Watershed Project now engages thousands of volunteers each
year and the message is becoming clear. A plastic juice box scooped up from the sidewalk while you’re
out for a stroll and put safely into the trash will keep it out of the marine debris stream. Most
participants in these major volunteer events now know that those who choose to refuse, who reuse and
recycle and thus put a stop to all the “stuff” in our lives that often end up in our watersheds, directly
affect The Pacific Garbage Patch –the ever-accumulating amount of plastic in our ocean -. People are
beginning to understand that there is no “away” where things can be tossed after we have used them.
Citizens are making change in their communities, their schools, and their homes to stop the scourge of
plastic pollution.
• The Living Shoreline Initiative that expanded our Kids in Marshes Program to include the subtidal
habitat of the Bay and created the very first community built Native Oyster Reef at Point Pinole

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in Richmond. Organizing a small army of volunteers, The Watershed Project built artificial reef balls
out of BayCrete – a combination of cement and crushed oyster shell. 100 reef balls were deployed to a
chosen spot where native oyster recruitment looked promising. When oysters are born, they swim
around through the water column for a time, looking for a place to settle. Other oysters are their
favorite hangouts and our oysters now have a place to call home! These native oysters have begun
their work as ecosystem engineers – providing habitat for many other critters and filtering water to
make our Bay cleaner.
• Environmental Careers Initiative was developed as a program for interns that went far beyond asking
interns to assist with office work. Each intern was paired with a program in which they had a particular
interest and were directly mentored by that Program Manager. These passionate young people often
stayed for a year or more and at least two of those participants used the research and fieldwork
garnered at The Watershed Project to write their Masters thesis.
Other Duties:
• Diversified the organization’s revenue stream significantly
• Wrote successful foundation and corporate proposals, cultivated and nurtured relationships with
funders
• Wrote and managed government contracts
• Raised over $5 million dollars for local watershed protection
• Planned and directed special events including our annual event, Bubbles & Bivalves that celebrates
native oyster restoration and promotes sustainable seafood – 6 years of hosting and building this event
led to many new partnerships, friends and supporters.
• Created a series of fun pop-up oyster fundraisers, nerd nights and movie events that that were about
fundraising but also about educating the public about our programs
• Represented The Watershed Project at meetings and public forums
• Cultivated relationships with other nonprofits and NGOs
• Oversaw financial operations
• Developed annual budget
• Human Relations including payroll, benefits and reviews
• Worked with Board of Directors, to encourage each to help them find how their particular talent and
expertise could benefit the organization. An Across the board giving and annual commitment letters
kept these conversations lively and helped board members to see how they, as volunteers, could be
the best board member they can be, while having fun and contributing to a cause that they were
passionate about
• Number of Direct Reports 7 -10
Executive Director, Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association
2004 – 2008 | San Francisco, CA
The Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the wildlife
and habitat of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary through advocacy, education, and
outreach. In my role as Executive Director, I successfully
• Implemented all aspects of Strategic Plan passed by the Board of Trustees in 2004
• Hired a stellar team of Program Managers and provided vision and program direction
• Diversified the Association’s revenue stream significantly
• Submitted a 9 million dollar Appropriations Request to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office that was
approved by Congress and worked with Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey to expand the marine
sanctuaries’ boundaries off the coast of California
• Represented the Association at meetings and public forums

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• Provided leadership during the Cosco Busan Oil Spill
• Wrote many successful foundation and corporate proposals and cultivated and nurtured relationships
with funders
• Wrote and managed government contracts
• Planned and directed special events - On the Sea’s Side – a special celebration of the 25th
Anniversary
of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, emceed by the Honorable Leon Panetta and
recognizing Ocean heroes Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and
Congresswoman Lyn Woolsey. Produced OceanFest –that drew thousands to Crissy Field to celebrate
our marine sanctuaries and promote sustainable seafood
• Cultivated relationships with other nonprofits and NGOs
• Oversaw financial operations
• Developed annual budget
• Worked with Board of Trustees on developing new planning strategies and continue to advocate for
our marine sanctuaries
• Number of Direct Reports - 5
Associate Director, Neighborhood Parks Council (now the San Francisco Park Alliance)
1998 – 2005 | San Francisco, CA
The Neighborhood Parks Council was a coalition of 130+ park groups whose mission was to launch a
renaissance, through community participation, in the parks and recreation system that will be sustainable for
future generations.
• Provided program oversight
• Created and guided new programs – including Nature in the City, Native American Art in the Parks and
The Playground Campaign
• Represented NPC at meetings and public forums
• Attended and testified at commission and Board of Supervisors hearings
• Cultivated relationships with other nonprofits and NGOs
• Wrote foundation and corporate proposals
• Wrote and managed government contracts
• Special events and direct mail appeals
• Foundation reporting
• Developed and oversaw financial operations
• Oversaw office systems
• Developed annual budget
• Planned and facilitated quarterly board meetings
• Managed human resources
• Found funding for and guided “Leaving a Lake Legacy”, an important environmental study which
sparked renewed interest in San Francisco’s three remaining fresh water lakes
• Directed The Playground Campaign that led a community effort to rebuild a toxic-laden, dilapidated
playground in a working class neighborhood in San Francisco. Solicited and received over $ 350,000 of
In Kind services and materials and organized Community Build Day where 321 volunteers built the
largest play structure in the City - in one day!
• Number of Direct Reports - 4-5
Finance Director, The NAMES Project
1994 – 1996 | San Francisco, CA
• Managed annual 2.8 million-dollar budget
• Provided support to display, development, administrative and warehouse staff
• Reported to Executive Director and the Board of Directors

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• Served on the Management Team
• Supervised accounting staff
• Filed tax returns
• Oversaw payroll, accounts receivable and payable, cash management
• Invested the Foundation's surplus in secure, interest bearing accounts
• Rewrote the chart of accounts and converted the agency's accounting system
• Coordinated annual audit
• Number of Direct Reports - 3
Finance Manager, Greenpeace
1986 – 1994 | San Francisco, CA
• Managed annual budget of 5 million dollars
• Provided support to five canvasses, thirty-five campaigners, equipment center, retail stores, Media and
Communications departments
• Worked closely with the Regional Director to develop new fund-raising strategies
• Supervised accounting staff and provided financial reporting to the Regional Director and National
office of Greenpeace in addition to all budget managers and canvass Directors within the South Pacific
region
• Wrote and monitored budgets, handled tax, legal and insurance matters, payroll, accounts payable
and receivable and cash receipts.
• During the “Big Consolidation” of all Greenpace offices in the United States, developed a intricate
chart of accounts and accounting system that provided budget to actual reporting by region, by
campaign and by departments – both singularly and collectively
• Number of Direct Reports - 4
Other Affiliations
• Parks Recreation and Open Space Advisory Committee – appointed by Supervisor Matt Gonzalez
(District 5) in San Francisco, Board Member, Citizens Advisory Committee to the PUC, Chair, Water
Subcommittee
• Treasurer (1999-2000) Committee for Better Parks – a political action committee that successfully
promoted a $ 110 million dollar bond measure to benefit neighborhood parks in 2000. (the first in
over 50 years) The committee raised over $ 250,000 in four months and voters passed the bond
overwhelmingly.
• Board Member - Sustainable Watershed Alliance (SWALE)
• Board Member - Fund for Peaceful Research - an international subsidiary of Greenpeace that
opened environmentalism to former communist countries.
• Lake Merced Task Force
• San Francisco Department of the Environment – Integrated Pest Management Ad Hoc Committee
• Green Streets Working Group – SPUR
• Advisory Committee to Mayor Gavin Newsom on watershed issues
Other Skills
Exemplary writing and editing skills, accomplished traveler and schmoozer
EDUCATION
University of San Francisco School of Law, Juris Doctor Degree
Florida State University, Bachelor of Arts Degree, Philosophy Major with minor in religion