By Anya Blaney
Kate Janeway has dedicated her life to environmental causes, including nine years of volunteer service with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Washington. She has completed her third and final 3-year term with TNC in Washington’s Board of Trustees and remains actively involved with TNC’s chapters around the U.S. During her tenure, she served three years as board chair, chaired TNC in Washington’s Philanthropy Committee and co-chaired the Rock Our World Campaign that exceeded the global campaign goals by more than 15%.
“The Nature Conservancy is a perfect fit for me,” she said, “and it’s been that way for four decades.”
© Kate Janeway
Kate first joined TNC as Assistant Director of the Washington and Alaska field office in 1984. She was employee #10 at the once-combined chapters. Leading up to the position, Kate had practiced environmental law but found herself looking for something different.
“There were no environmental laws in the United States until Congress passed The Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts in the 1970s,” she said. “Working in a law firm, my clients were mostly concerned with evading protections or responsibility for their impacts.”
From her perspective, “In the 1980s, the practice of environmental law was being used to blunt the laws’ effectiveness, and that wasn’t what I wanted to do.”
Kate searched for a role within a large, effective conservation organization, and became assistant director of TNC for the Washington and Alaska chapters in 1984. In that role, she helped to double its membership, increase its board capacity, and support land acquisitions and preservation efforts. Moving on from her staff role, Kate served on the Ohio, Alaska—and, most recently—the Washington Board of Trustees.
“The Conservancy is consistently effective in its approach,” Kate explained when asked what drew her to the organization for so long. “With environmental issues becoming more front and center, both globally and in the minds of individuals, the Conservancy has continued to evolve to meet the challenge where they can have the highest impact. That’s what’s kept me engaged, and every time I’ve stepped away and come back, I find that they have actively led the field and moved to where the environmental issues are most critical.”
Her views mirror the growing concerns of the American public as planetary well-being comes into stark focus. Pew research from 2023 reveals that two-thirds of all Americans support the expansion of renewable energy, and the same amount believe businesses and corporations must take greater responsibility in reducing the effects of climate change.
Kate highlighted the Floodplains by Design program, a “tremendous innovation” by TNC in Washington that funded projects in 15 counties across the state. This initiative aims to restore the floodplains of Puget Sound, an area with dry land intersected by flood-prone rivers. By prioritizing the protection of salmon, diverse wildlife, and nearby communities from devastating floods, TNC's collaboration with various counties has proven to be a remarkable achievement in designing solutions that benefit nearby residents, rivers, trails, farms, and shellfish beds.
“We work far more effectively at the systems level,” Kate said of the project’s success, which has protected over 3,000 homes from flood risk, preserved 500 acres of land for long-term agricultural use, and restored over 70 miles of river and species habitat. “We engage in policy, which is critical because that’s where the action is happening, and we take innovative approaches to hard-to-solve problems.”
While on TNC in Washington’s Board of Trustees, Kate served as vice chair, board chair, and chair of the Philanthropy Committee. While on that committee, she helped the Rock Our World 5-year fundraising campaign, which surpassed its fundraising goals by 15%. While Kate was the board chair, the staff and board worked together to create the Washington Equity Statement. This was a ground-breaking effort in the Conservancy to deeply commit to diversity and inclusion in addressing environmental challenges.
Although not every initiative Kate participated in at TNC in Washington yielded the desired outcome, even perceived failures provide unique opportunities for growth and learning. During her tenure as Board Chair, TNC fought to pass Washington Initiative 1631, which ultimately did not pass. That failure laid the ground for the successful fight to pass the Climate Commitment Act in 2021.
“One of the lessons we learned from the loss of 1631, the first effort to put a price on carbon in Washington State, was that we need everyone to be at the table,” Kate said. “We are going to have to make [...] painful compromises, but it’s worth it to pass a suite of laws like the Climate Commitment Act (CCA), currently the most progressive in the United States. We wouldn’t have succeeded without nearly every environmental organization and group in Washington working together to make it happen.” The CCA legislation makes polluters pay for carbon pollution while maintaining a cap set by Washington state. Coupled with Federal investments, the generated revenue is funneled into climate resilience funds for Indigenous peoples and communities exposed to the worst effects of climate change, investment in clean energy, and preserving healthy lands and waters.
© Kate Janeway
The experience further deepened Kate’s commitment to collective action and diverse representation. Kate felt privileged to be at the table as part of the first delegation from an environmental group to meet with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (also known as the Iroquois). In 2018, the delegation met in council with the Haudenosaunee Elders at Akwesasne, a town near the Canadian border in upstate New York. It was the first invitation by a North American tribe to engage in discussions with an environmental organization, and Kate was humbled by the opportunity.
“We were profoundly aware that this was a unique honor,” Kate recalled. “No one invited from the global, regional staff, state staff, or the trustees knew what the Haudenosaunee had on their agenda.”
She continued, “As the delegation approached the meeting spot, we lit a fire to signal our wish to enter, and a runner was sent to ask our intentions. The three-day Council was conducted in traditional ceremony, meaning that the fire was lit and kept alive day and night.”
The Haudenosaunee Chiefs and Clanmothers expressed their profound connection to the land and their worries about the realization of prophesied events such as forest fires, poisoned waters, and devastating storms. They linked these events to climate change and the latest scientific evidence supporting it. Their main objective was to understand how TNC's scientific knowledge could work alongside their wisdom and the Great Law of Peace—believed to be a model for the U.S. Constitution—to prevent the prophecies from becoming realities
“The Council reminded me of how intimately connected we are to everything,” Kate said. She was moved by engaging with a Clanmother named Mama Bear and the young women she mentors. “One of these young women spoke eloquently about how deeply she is led by her connection to the Earth and how much it means to her to live on the land that her ancestors have lived on since time immemorial. She looked at us and said with compassion, ‘I wonder how it is for you that you don’t?’ That statement hit home and has stuck with me ever since.”
The meeting had a transformative effect on Kate and her colleagues, especially the valuable tradition of “sitting and talking in Council until reaching a shared understanding, which the Haudenosaunee call ‘one mind.’ Our shared understanding after three days in Council became the foundation for our commitment and our realization of the necessity to work together at this critical time in our shared history.”
By actively listening and sharing the knowledge gained from their experience with the Haudenosaunee, TNC's staff and volunteers were able to foster collaboration and enhance the impact of their work, aligning their efforts with those of the long-standing stewards of the land.
In addition to her involvement with TNC, Kate has an extensive background in environmental activism and leadership. She has served as a board member of the Cincinnati Environmental Council, worked as the National Director of the YMCA Earth Service Corps, and successfully managed multiple consulting firms. Her time on the TNC in Washington board, the connections she has made, and the people she has worked with have contributed to her growth as a leader.
Kate describes how her leadership style has evolved over the decades to focus more on building trust and generous relationships rather than working from a cultural norm that achieves success by force and intimidation. "I was trained early in my career how to argue and sue your way to a resolution,” she reflected. “I’ve learned that the changes you compel don’t endure. Respectful engagement with all stakeholders to build agreement about what matters, across perspectives, builds a path to enduring change. It’s a perspective that has worked for the Haudenosaunee for thousands of years.
“When I think about my time on the board; it feels much more like being ‘in the stream,’” Kate said of the perspective that became rooted during her time with the Haudenosaunee Council and their concept of one mind. “One Mind doesn’t mean that we all agree, but that we can reach an agreement about what’s important. From that foundation, we open a way to work together because we’re aligned in what matters.”
© Kate Janeway
As Kate transitions away from TNC Washington’s board of trustees, she has confidence in the future of the Washington Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, its skilled staff, and committed trustees. She continues to participate in TNC’s Alaska Affinity Group, established to raise awareness about the significant global potential to preserve biodiversity and sequester carbon in Alaska, the U.S. state with the greatest intact ecosystems.
As for the future of TNC in Washington, Kate is “confident the current board will continue to provide outstanding support for the staff to ensure that Washington, its contiguous states, and First Nations will thrive,” she said. “Everyone on the board is just so incredible! Just fantastic human beings to work with. I will miss them terribly.”
To TNC staff, volunteers, and supporters in Washington, she said, “It is the privilege of my lifetime to work with you, and I will stay engaged in any way that is helpful to advance our work.”
By Anya Blaney, partner, Blaney Consulting
