HCA Leadership Summit
On September 24, 2026 the Hill Country Alliance hosted its 14th annual Leadership Summit in Dripping Springs. The event theme, Small Choices, Big Changes, brought together over 300 Hill Country leaders – online and in-person – eager to learn from each other in a day full of insightful discussions and informative panels. The Hill Country Leadership Summit is the Hill Country Alliance’s premiere annual gathering, and provides an opportunity for learning, networking, and being inspired among our region’s top community leaders, conservation practitioners, and natural resource managers.
Mark your calendars – our next Leadership Summit will take place on Thursday, September 23, 2027.
Share feedback from the Summit!
Did you attend the 2026 Hill Country Leadership Summit? If so, we’d love to hear about it! Please click the button below to take a brief survey which will be used to inform future Leadership Summit planning efforts.
Brad Lancaster - Re-hydrating and Re-enlivening Our Communities
This dynamic keynote shares patterns and strategies to harvest, integrate, and enliven free local resources in a way that generates far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is re-visioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and utilization of what is already at hand. Costly and consuming habits and infrastructure are reoriented and reconnected to maximize enriching opportunities. Brad shares examples of community transformation - including how simple, hand-built structures are regenerating dying wetlands and creek, how "pre-legal" urban water harvesting was legalized and incentivized, and how blighted, overheated streets were transformed into thriving, flood controlling greenbelts by planting native food forests.
Missed the chance to purchase a copy of Brad's books? Purchase a copy here.
View Photos from the 2026 Leadership Summit
Click to view photos from the 2026 Leadership Summit, courtesy of Jacob Gonzalez.
Photos from the 2026 Hill Country Leadership Summit - Small Choices, Big Changes, hosted at the Sacred Oaks Hall at Camp Lucy, are now available!
Photography courtesy of Jacob Gonzalez (Instagram - @colorsxj or email).
Honoring Ira Yates and Wayne Gosnell
Click here to view an album celebrating these two and their numerous contributions to conservation.
The Heart of The Hill Country Award was created by HCA in 2019 to recognize and thank our region's greatest natural resource champions. This year’s honorees, Ira Yates and Wayne Gosnell, have both supported and led impactful conservation and environmental education organizations in their communities. Ira and Wayne were presented with a beautiful award, designed and crafted by Hill Country artist J.J. Priour using Cordova limestone and glass.
View and Download Presentations from the 2026 Leadership Summit
Gullivar Shepard - Mediating Scales in Landscape Planning
Brad Lancaster - KEYNOTE: Re-hydrating and Re-enlivening Our Communities
Kathleen Brinkman & Leah Jenkins - A Tale of Two Counties: Night Sky Edition
Hill Country Alliance - Grassroots and Grasstops: Supporting Leaders Across the Region
Adrian Shelley - Data Centers: What We Know and What We Don’t
Sarah Mendez - The Return of Buffalo: Land, People, and Self
Tonda Sallee - Preserving Night Skies at Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape
Angel Schatz - Fungi, Lightning, and the Electric Web Beneath Our Feet
Katherine Romans - Impact and Intention: The Work of Our Alliance
Please contact leah@hillcountryalliance.org for copies of these presentations. Click here to view the full program.
2026 Leadership Summit Sponsors
A tremendous thank you to our partners and supporters who signed on as sponsors for the 2026 Summit:
SIGNATURE SPONSOR
Yates Pecos River Enterprises
MULTIMEDIA SPONSOR
The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
BREAKFAST SPONSOR
Edwards Aquifer Authority
Native American Seed
LUNCH SPONSOR
Lake Flato
Tres and Lida Plummer
Mike and Pam Reese
COMMUNITY SPONSORS
Defenders of Wildlife
Edwards Aquifer Conservancy
Texas Agricultural Land Trust
Texas Regional Bank
Trinity Edwards Science and Policy Alliance (TESPA)
Lucky Lindy
Karen Ford
GRASSROOTS SPONSORS
Halff Associates
Siglo Group
Pedernales Electric Cooperative
National Wildlife Federation
Llano River Watershed Alliance
Pioneer Water Tanks
Pedernales River Alliance – Gillespie County
Hill Country Preservation Coalition
The Cibolo Center for Conservation
Simplecity Design
Ozona Bank
Rainwater Calculator
Lon Shell
WOODLAND SPONSOR
Re:wild
Texas State University – The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment
Shield Ranch
Michelle Whitwell Pokorny
Commissioner Ann Howard
Gary Sertich
Past Summit Testimonials
The Leadership Summit provide an annual opportunity for learning, networking, and celebrating and features presentations and conversation with local leaders and regional experts. Learn more from past attendees:
“Congratulations on putting on a fantastic Leadership Summit! I’ve been following HCA for about 10 years now and this was my first official event to attend – I feel like I’m truly a part of the HCA family now!”
“Just a quick note to say THANK YOU for a wonderful event yesterday. It was my first in person HCA event, and I left feeling such positive energy and hopeful confidence in what we want to work on in Real County. Thank you for all you are doing and for all of the support you are providing all of these people and entities doing the Good Work. We feel it!!”
“The “rapid fire” session and the panels were extremely well moderated and helped us participants engage with so many worthwhile people, causes, and concerns… As a first-time participant, that was the best bang-for-my-buck networking and learning opportunity I could have imagined.”
“Thank you, and all of HCA for putting the Leadership Summit on. It was a fantastic event and so great to be in the presence of like-minded conservationists! It was such an honor to listen to the panelists storytelling and perspectives. I left feeling inspired to take action and continue to work with the organizations involved with HCA, and those outside of it as well with common goals.”
“Just wanted to say you all did an awesome job on the Summit! The content was varied and interesting, the venue felt more like an adventure than a conference room, and the people were fun and friendly. It was informative, restorative and inspiring.”
Share Feedback from the Summit
Did you attend the 2026 Hill Country Leadership Summit? If so, we’d love to hear about it! Please click the button below to take a brief survey which will be used to inform future Leadership Summit planning efforts.
Past Leadership Summits
For more than 10 years, the Hill Country Alliance has been convening partners for an annual summit. Click the button below to explore resources from past Leadership Summit events.