MONTANA — Anchored in the belief that every employee is a leader, the Forest Service invests heavily in employee training and development. Emerging Leader, Senior Leader, Line Officer Academy —there is a seemingly endless range of development opportunities available to support career development and help advance the Forest Service mission. Agency staff can now add the Job Corps Leadership Academy to the list of choices. Constructed with the needs of Forest Service Civilian Conservation Centers in mind, the JCLA is built on the same underlying principles, but offers unique leadership enrichment opportunities atypical of other agency programs.

District Ranger Brian Stultz, Wilderness Ranger District, Gila National Forest, completed the one-year JCLA in October 2024. Employed at Wild Arizona prior to joining the Forest Service in February 2023, his leadership training spans decades. Stultz served as an engine captain in the Arizona Wildland Fire Division and graduated from the National Fire Academy. He took advantage of the extensive wildland fire training opportunities that came his way. But, outside of fire, the JCLA is the first Forest Service leadership training program he’s completed.

“The value in the JCLA for me was the focus on culture and the importance of setting a culture as a leader,” shared Stultz. “If you have a solid culture your people will tend to fall into a place to follow your leadership. As a district ranger, it is critical to set the tone/culture that you want within your district, as you would as a center director.”

JCLA’s initial week of in-person training focuses on culture. The second and third week of in-person learning focuses on budget and administration and integration. For Stultz, the pieces of the puzzle came into focus during the third week devoted to the practices and principles of integrating the CCCs into the day-to-day work of the national forests and grasslands. 

Stultz’s career has been built on partnerships--specifically on building partnerships aimed to increase capacity--so the principles of integration were not new. Stultz previously supervised four Job Corps interns that, although successful, left him burnt out. Having also worked with a cross-section of Job Corps students on the Gila National Forest Barracks Project, Stultz is acutely aware that forging successful projects within the framework of the Job Corps program presents unique challenges. 

“I would stand firm on two concepts I believe are the keys to success when it comes building partnerships to include Job Corps. They are relationships and community,” shared Stultz. “Building relationships is key and vital for the success of all partnerships. For us to have success we--the Forest Service--must build a community around these individuals. Community is what you build at each center and for the student, a similar community must be transcended and built upon at the local unit. I believe this academy has allowed me the opportunity to start doing just that.”

If you are a GS-12 or GS-13 and want more information about enrolling in JCLA Cohort 4, please contact Jesse Casterson at 406-369-5138 or jesse.a.casterson@usda.gov. Applications for Cohort 4 will be available next fall; training will begin in 2026. The training is a combination of three one-week in-person session and bi-weekly virtual webinars. Other than your unit covering travel costs, there are no enrollment fees to participate.