This November, Massachusetts voters could create permanent funding for environmental conservation—without adding new taxes—thanks to the Nature for All bill (H.901/S.2571).
Navigating the complex legislative procedure of proposing a bill and mounting a ballot initiative might be daunting and prohibitive for citizen organizations, but the Nature for MA Coalition has the public policy expertise of Harvard Kennedy School’s Rand Wentworth on its side.
Wentworth is an adjunct lecturer of public policy at the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at HKS. Before joining the School, Wentworth served as president of the Land Trust Alliance (LTA), which lobbied Congress to dramatically expand the funding and tax incentives for conservation—doubling the pace of conservation in the United States.
“David Gergen [founder of the CPL] wanted to create an environmental leadership program at HKS,” said Wentworth. Gergen brought him on as the Center’s inaugural Louis and Gabrielle Bacon Senior Fellow in Environmental Leadership. “I was thrilled to come to HKS and be a part of a whole community that lifts up sound leadership practices,” Wentworth said.
From his time with the Land Trust Alliance, he was aware of the long-term need for states to financially commit to protecting their natural environment. “I knew what other states were doing to invest in conservation, to really address the challenges of our times: clean drinking water, the impacts of climate storms and floods, a nationwide loss of biodiversity and natural habitat, especially in urban areas,” said Wentworth.
Working with Mass Audubon president David J. O’Neill, Wentworth championed the idea of a coalition of conservation and environmental groups. “We knew we wanted to develop the influence and political power of conservations groups throughout the Commonwealth,” he said. “That idea became the Nature for MA Coalition.”
“Everything we teach here at HKS and at the Center for Public Leadership is to lead from the side, to lead by lifting other voices.”
Like many states, Massachusetts has a Community Preservation Act, or CPA, a source of funds that helps communities preserve open space and historic sites, create affordable housing, and develop outdoor recreational facilities, enacted in 2000. But, as Wentworth pointed out, there is not enough money to fund the urgent needs in the state.
“With this bill, the Nature for MA Coalition is asking for 100 million a year of the sales taxes that have already been collected to be set aside for conservation of land and protection of water,” said Wentworth. “By comparison, Florida has been committing over 300 million a year for the past 30 years. Minnesota commits 250 million a year.
Numerous studies show the benefits of nature on humans, including those outlined in this piece by the University of Chicago. But this initiative goes beyond protecting natural resources; it also helps to make the health benefits more accessible to populations of color.
Wentworth points to a Center for American Progress report that finds people of color and low-income communities are more likely to live in nature-deprived areas. “Environmentally progressive Massachusetts is tied with Kentucky for the worst access to nature for low income and diverse populations,” said Wentworth. Meanwhile, Texas approved a $1 billion dollar state fund to support its park system.
“So why not Massachusetts?” asked Wentworth.
Leadership with impact
After several years of research and polling, including developing a feasibility study, the Nature for MA Coalition produced a bill that was ready to present to the state legislature.
Here, Wentworth saw a unique opportunity for his students. “I teach a class in the spring on climate leadership,” he said. “We work on persuasion and advocacy, using lobbying and negotiation as fundamental skills in getting things done at a legislative level.”
To put the lesson into action, Wentworth took any student who was interested in practicing these skills with him to the State House for lobby day, an event at which people can meet with their legislators to advocate for policies.
“HKS really specializes in experiential learning, but Rand’s course had a variety of experiences like role playing at a simulated COP [United Nations Conference of Parties] event and legislative debates.”
“Over the last 20 years, CPL has been doing this kind of hands-on engagement with communities by placing students in the trenches,” said Wentworth. “I have watched with admiration what David Gergen, Cornell Brooks, and Linda Bilmes have done and decided to do this for the environment.”
The chance to speak to lawmakers on a concrete piece of potential legislation provided an invaluable lesson for his students.
“It was really a great day,” said Ryan Prior MC/MPA 2025, about his time at the State House. It is an experience that he owes, oddly enough, to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am a science journalist, focusing on the health industry. I joined CNN in March 2020 and at the same time I got my acceptance letter to HKS. My editor said, ‘Harvard is later, the pandemic is now. You will stay and cover COVID.’ So, I deferred my admission.”
Prior spent almost two years writing about the pandemic, eventually publishing a book,The Long Haul. When he entered HKS in 2024, he was mostly interested in building his negotiations and leadership skills. He was introduced to climate negotiations during a summer event and was hooked.
“Climate and energy are areas of science that also worked with my interest in geopolitics,” he said. “HKS really specializes in experiential learning, but Rand’s course had a variety of experiences like role playing at a simulated COP [the U.N. Conference of Parties] event and legislative debates.” The highlight of these exercises was presenting a climate bill to legislators.
After a briefing from the coalition on the proposed bill, Prior and his classmates called on about 30 members of the House and Senate. “If they were familiar with the bill, we could give them an update on it. If they had never heard of the bill at all, we gave them the basic primer,” said Prior.
Another student who took the class, Tom Klein MC/MPA 2025, is the director for the Center for Urban & Community Design at the University of Miami School of Architecture. As a landscape architect and urban designer working with municipal clients, he tries to help them understand the timelines and complexity of federal funding. He realized he needed to build additional capacity in finance, specifically infrastructure finance, and economic development.
“That brought me to HKS and especially to the mid-career program. I came to learn economic development skills, which I did with great professors like Henry Lee,” he said. What he also learned was that he lacked some soft skills in leadership and communication.
“When I got the opportunity to take Rand’s class, I was excited because his background was so inspiring, going from the private sector to public impact. Designers feel like we are responding to existing policies,” said Klein. “My interest is in how, we as designers, can use our soft skills to impact what those policies are so that we can actually improve quality of life in our cities.”
“The Kennedy School talks about negotiation and conversation across differences. Rand had us do it by playing roles that were maybe in opposition to how we see the world and made us think empathetically about how that person might view the world,” said Klein.
“My interest is in how we, as designers, can use our soft skills to impact what those policies are so that we can actually improve quality of life in our cities.”
Prior and Klein were excited to join their classmate Bill Driscoll MC/MPA 2025, a Massachusetts state senator during their visit to the State House. “After lobby day concluded, we found his office, and he was generous with his time, giving us a tour of both chambers,” said Klein.
While there was widespread support for the bill and it cleared the Ways and Means Committee, Wentworth and his students learned it could take time to get a vote in the State House. “I know they have a job to do to shape a balanced budget. But we have a job to do as well, and that job is to protect the nature of Massachusetts.”
The coalition hopes that the legislature will approve the bill, but they are simultaneously pushing forward with their “Plan B,” a ballot initiative that gives the voters a chance to vote directly for the funding.
Prior and Klein were excited to learn that the initiative got over 90,000 signatures, and the bill they lobbied for could end up in front of voters in November.
As the Protect Water and Nature ballot initiative begins its journey to the November ballot, the Nature for MA Coalition is grateful for the expertise and leadership Wentworth has provided.
Sam Anderson is Mass Audubon’s senior director of government affairs, serves on the steering committee of the Nature for MA coalition with Wentworth, and sits as chair of the ballot committee. “Rand’s involvement in the coalition has been foundational,” he said.
“We started in a small room with a dozen people, and from the get-go, Rand was laser-focused on the daunting project of building a broad and diverse coalition. Before long, we were convening large rooms of full of people, with Rand’s initiative and momentum keeping everyone driving forward.”
“Rand Wentworth’s lifelong commitment to conservation and land protection reflects a deep dedication to safeguarding nature for future generations,” said Jodi Valenta, associate vice president and Massachusetts state director of Trust for Public Land. Valenta also serves on the Nature for Massachusetts Coalition steering committee with Wentworth and Anderson, and was deeply involved in those early discussions.
“A former vice president at Trust for Public Land, [Wentworth] also helped provide the vision and leadership that shaped the Nature for Massachusetts Coalition’s founding principles—grounding its work in the understanding that protected lands, healthy ecosystems, engaged communities, and equitable access to the outdoors for all are essential to the Commonwealth’s resilience and well-being,” said Valenta.
Wentworth sidesteps praise, preferring to acknowledge the possibilities this kind of experience can create. “Everything we teach here at HKS and at the Center for Public Leadership is to lead from the side, to lead by lifting other voices,” said Wentworth. HKS can be proud of the way students lean into these experiential learning experiences, he said. “My job is getting talented people, like our students, excited about environmental policy and participating in it.”
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Portraits courtesy of Rand Wentworth, Ryan Prior, Tom Klein