Executive Director

For nearly 30 years, Land Watch has been a leading voice for thoughtful growth and environmental stewardship in Monterey County. Guided by core values of sustainability, social equity, and conservation, we focus on lasting policy reform across affordable housing, climate, land use, and water. Our work includes encouraging infill housing and addressing inequities in housing and infrastructure that affect community health throughout Monterey County.

Our advocacy has helped secure urban growth boundaries, protect farmland and open space, create more affordable, climate-friendly infill housing, influence major land use and water decisions, and win precedent-setting legal cases.

Monterey County presents many of the same challenges facing communities across California, including housing affordability, long commutes, climate impacts, pressure on agricultural land, and competing demands for growth. We work at the local level to develop and advance approaches that can serve as models for other communities across the state.

Land Watch is now entering a leadership transition after a decade under Executive Director and co-founder Michael DeLapa. Michael plans to remain engaged as a resource to the incoming Executive Director, helping provide continuity and support key donor and community relationships during the transition. Our Board of Directors has retained CEA Recruiting to assist with the search for Land Watch’s next Executive Director.

The Executive Director serves as Land Watch’s chief executive and is responsible for the organization’s overall leadership, strategy, and management. Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director leads Land Watch’s policy and advocacy work, oversees operations and finances, leads fundraising, and represents the organization with elected officials, agency staff, the media, funding partners, and the public.

The Executive Director leads a small team and works closely with the Board, outside counsel, consultants, and coalition partners. This is a hands‑on role suited to a leader who enjoys the breadth and creativity of running a small organization and moves fluidly between long‑range strategy and day‑to‑day execution. The role offers the opportunity to have significant influence in a region where local policy decisions can shape broader approaches to housing, climate, land use, and community development.

Success in the role requires strong judgment, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to work across disciplines, drawing on staff, consultants, and subject‑matter experts as needed.

• Lead Land Watch’s fundraising strategy and execution across major gifts, foundation grants, direct mail, membership, and events.
• Cultivate, solicit, and steward major donor and institutional relationships, working closely with the Board and staff.
• Work with the Board to strengthen and sustain the funding base needed to support Land Watch’s programs and long‑term financial health.

• Set Land Watch’s policy strategy and priorities across land use, housing, climate, water, and conservation issues, in consultation with the Board and staff.
• Identify and prioritize emerging policy opportunities, balancing ongoing commitments with changing political, regulatory, and community needs.
• Direct the organization’s use of the full range of advocacy tools, including public comment and testimony, coalition‑building, grassroots organizing, ballot measures, and litigation, to advance Land Watch’s mission.
• Serve as Land Watch’s principal spokesperson and the public face of its policy positions before decision makers, the media, and the…