Denise Schlener has devoted her career to creating sustainable, impactful organizations in which people can thrive professionally and personally. Serving in executive and senior level positions for over 30 years, she has successfully led leadership transitions, fundraising turnarounds, responses to budgetary and cultural crises, and board and staff development.
She draws on this breadth of experience in her interim executive roles. Most recently she served as interim executive director for the non-profit Wildlife Land Trust, which manages 21,000 acres of land for conservation. She also served as interim chief of the 120-person fundraising division at the Humane Society of the United States.
Executive and board roles in both large and small non-profits have given her a deep understanding of the unique leadership challenges in organizations of all sizes and life cycle stages. As national director at the Land Trust Alliance she led a strategy to increase organizational capacity and effectiveness of member land trusts that resulted in 300 newly accredited land trusts. Under her leadership as vice president of the non-profit publishing firm, Island Press, she led a successful turnaround in contributed revenue that spurred the expansion of its urban environment program. And as chief of staff at the Humane Society her work resulted in major new investments in the professional development and support for staff.
Denise never fails to see opportunity for organizational growth in every situation. She thrives in bringing people together– staff, board members, funders and other key stakeholders—to create a path forward.