Brenda’s extensive professional experience makes her a valuable partner in addressing a variety of land and water conservation issues. She has direct experience in a multitude of areas, including but not limited to: risk management; project design (negotiation, political dynamics, funding, and appraisals); training, coaching and mentoring land protection staff; and designing and implementing training.
At this stage of her career, Schick also enjoys leveraging her considerable skills to support clients in establishing and/or evolving their conservation programs and strategies and in transforming strategies into action.
Singing Stream Services:
• Partners with landowners who are placing land into conservation
• Advises clients on transforming strategies into action
• Mentors nonprofit and corporate real estate staff to help them succeed
• Educates people about the complexities of land and water conservation
partner services:
Brenda’s knowledge of the national conservation geography combined with her extensive network of contacts make her an excellent partner for landowners seeking to acquire land for conservation or place land in conservation.
For example, Brenda worked with a large corporate landowner seeking to sell land for use as public open space. The corporation had sophisticated real estate staff but they didn’t have experience with conservation. Brenda helped them understand the process of preserving land for open space, how public funding could be brought to their project and oversaw the relationship with the buyer of the property and the conservation group facilitating the sale.
“I’ve worked with Ms. Schick for close to 15 years, and I can’t think of an individual in the conservation space that I trust more. Brenda is professional, competent and has deep expertise. And, it is precisely this skill set that enabled her to create significant value for our company. In our history, Brenda not only ran a national team that successfully completed numerous large-scale transactions valued in the 10’s of millions across a broad geography, but she did so while handling significant complexity, across a myriad of governmental agencies (from Federal to local) and private donors. Moreover, while she’s results driven and has a terrific sense of urgency, she understands the politics and nuances needed to be successful in her space. In closing, I love her collaborative, service oriented style and I wouldn’t hesitate to hire her again in the future.”
James A. Kilberg
SVP Real Estate, Energy, and Natural Resources
Weyerhaeuser
advisor Services:
Brenda’s experiences at The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land gave her a unique vantage point in the conservation community. She oversaw a real estate portfolio that spanned the nation. Her experiences benefit clients in their quest to empower strategic conservation at the local, state, regional or national level. The depth of her professional experience and the geographic diversity of her work make her an excellent advisor.
For example, Brenda worked with a landowner to help him understand the issues around placing a conservation easement on his working cattle ranch. Her analysis included helping him understand funding and partnership opportunities as well as the likelihood of success and timing. The landowner then hired her to execute his conservation strategy.
“There are many great strategists and many great implementers—but very few people who can integrate the two. Brenda is a rare leader who can advance game-changing and complex land conservation from formulating a vision to the finish line. She is an ideal partner for the big aspirational moves that we need in land conservation today.”
— Jad Daley
President and CEO
American Forests
Mentor Services:
Brenda’s extensive professional experience in the nonprofit environment developed her skills in risk management, project design, and project delivery. While at The Trust for Public Land, she reviewed over 3000 project proposals and during her tenure, they completed 1700 land and water protection projects in 44 states. This vast experience and her empowering approach make her an ideal mentor.
For example, Brenda mentored staff at a nonprofit organization that wanted to acquire land from a timber company and place the land into permanent conservation status. Brenda provided strategic direction to keep the project on track, consulted with timber industry contacts regarding submitting a strong bid, drafted the bid, and mentored staff as they evaluated and developed options for securing the property.
“Brenda is an excellent listener. She is able to listen closely to the issues that are posing challenges to a project moving forward. She quickly understands the complexities and is able to tease out the important pieces and identify key steps to move forward toward a solution and success. She does this methodically, but also with great care and understanding.”
— Becky Bremser
Director of Land Protection
Save the Redwoods League
Educator Services:
Brenda comes alive when educating people which she has done for over twenty years in a variety of professional settings. Her philosophy is to engage, educate and empower people to be successful.
For example, Brenda developed materials so a client could educate the new CEO of a Fortune 500 company about land conservation and funding for land conservation.
“Brenda and I met through her efforts to support training and education at the Trust for Public Land and for the Urban Land Institute. Seeing Brenda with one of her teams or in a classroom setting is to see someone dedicated to ‘getting things right’ and helping everyone in the room improve. Her dedication to and experience with natural resources brings a combination of warmth and rigor to each session. I so enjoyed working with her”
— Brooks Mendell, Ph.D
President & CEO
Forisk Consulting