Susan O’Neil

Susan O’Neil joined the Washington Water Trust as a board member in 2023. She is a Senior Conservation Planner at Environmental Science Associates. With over 20 years of natural resource management experience in various sectors from non-profits to federal agencies, she currently focuses her practice in collaborative planning and strategic funding focused on open space protection, species recovery, and ecosystem restoration. Susan enjoys building actionable plans with clients and moving them to implementation by identifying and accessing funding and financing mechanisms. Susan has assisted in the development of market-based credit exchanges in Puget Sound, developed traditional grant proposals for clients accessing public and private funding, and overseen the retooling of funding programs managed by local and state agencies.

Susan is a certified Conservation Coach and keeps up on best practices as a member of the international Conservation Coaches Network. She is a Kinship Conservation Finance Fellow (2008) and former lecturer (2015-2020). Susan loves connecting dots across systems, plans, and networks of people. She is keen to connect water availability to the resource planning conversations she participates in, particularly in west-side salmon recovery plans. She is personally committed to maintaining and improving the hydrologic function of watersheds in our gorgeous state as someone who enjoys fishing, skiing, and drinking water.