The McKinley Fellowship
A Sagebrush Institute program in conservation substance and public advocacy
The public-lands fight has plenty of people who are right and very few who can champion it where it matters. The substance sits with academics and practitioners and policy hands who rarely have an audience. The reach sits with creators who can hold an audience but couldn’t tell you why the policy matters, or whether you should change it. The movement loses arguments it should win because the people who understand the issue and the people who can move the public are almost never the same person.
The McKinley Fellowship is built to manufacture that person on purpose. Eight weeks: two weeks of conservation boot camp so fellows actually know the ground they’re standing on, then six weeks turning that knowledge into a public voice — writing, social media, advocacy, and a working read of the political landscape. They finish as identified Sagebrush advocates, equipped and affiliated, ready to be deployed.
What the fellowship is
An eight-week, part-time advocacy fellowship for emerging conservation communicators. Each fellow receives a modest honorarium, formal affiliation with Sagebrush, two weeks of intensive grounding in public-lands substance, and six weeks of advocacy and communications training.
The model
Phase 1 — learn the substance (Weeks 1–2). A compressed, demanding grounding in how public lands actually work. By the end of week two a fellow can hold their own on the substance.
Phase 2 — learn to speak (Weeks 3–8). Six weeks turning substance into reach: writing, platforms and production, advocacy and persuasion, the political landscape, running an actual campaign, and principles of leadership.