The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.
Brightstorm is a program of The Nature Conservancy. It embodies the organization’s spirit of innovation and drive to deliver tangible lasting results for both people and nature.
Brightstorm was created to support the development of better planning tools, data insights, and stormwater infrastructure upgrades designed for present-day and future challenges, and demonstrate them in real-world pilots.
Brightstorm works with a range of corporate and government collaborators. For the public sector, this means Brightstorm offers a pathway to program and policy innovation.
We help communities test and validate new stormwater technologies within the context of their own programs, access private lands through collaborative partnerships, and use practical tools and data to strengthen local planning and compliance efforts.
Learn more about how The Nature Conservancy works »
We have the shared goal of improving water quality and ecosystem health and creating more climate-resilient communities.
Brightstorm’s work is in support of
The Nature Conservancy’s Goals for 2030.
Our Team
The team of TNC staff and advisors have decades of experience in water resources engineering, technology development, environmental regulation, policy and markets, corporate sustainability, and conservation science.
Craig Holland
Brightstorm Program Lead
Craig oversees all aspects of the Brightstorm program, providing strategic leadership and identifying and managing key relationships to restore natural hydrology and advance digital water solutions across U.S. watersheds. He drives innovation, donor cultivation, and program integration across TNC and Brightstorm’s external collaborators to achieve ambitious conservation outcomes, positively impacting thousands of river kilometers and estuary ecosystems by 2030.
Craig has extensive experience developing private financing mechanisms for water and has advised global initiatives from Berlin to Beijing. He has served on key advisory boards, including the U.S. EPA’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board, the Federal Stormwater Taskforce, The World Economic Forum’s Task Force for Nature-Positive Cities, and is an Expert Reviewer for the upcoming IPCC report on Climate Change and Cities.
Matthew Rea
Director of Water Technology
Matt leads Brightstorm’s technology strategy, identifying transformative digital water solutions with the promise to accelerate data-driven stormwater management at scale. He cultivates partnerships, leads the design and implementation of foundational demonstration projects, and develops open-source tools to advance AI, IoT, and adaptive systems for watershed restoration.
Matt brings deep expertise in water technology and water resources engineering. He helped launch Opti, a pioneering water technology company, designed and implemented novel public-private partnership models utilizing emerging technology, and has managed multi-million dollar annual compliance programs for some of the world’s largest companies.
Valerie Strassberg, P.E.
Director of Public Sector Alignment
Valerie leads Brightstorm’s strategy to ensure public-sector adoption of emerging technologies and digital water solutions drive systemic change in how communities approach water resource management. She builds national partnerships, supports policy development, and facilitates high-impact initiatives to align Brightstorm’s strategies with ambitious conservation and infrastructure goals.
Valerie brings deep expertise in shaping policies for equitable urban water management and climate resilience. As The Nature Conservancy’s first Healthy Cities Director in Michigan, she led stormwater initiatives with the City of Detroit to advance green infrastructure policies and programs. She serves on the boards for Wayne State University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and Detroit Future City, and previously spent six years as Ann Arbor’s Environmental Commissioner.
Jaysea Jennings
Geospatial and Data Analyst
Jaysea leverages the foundations of computational sustainability to provide Brightstorm with the data resources needed to enhance stormwater management in built environments. She provides technical expertise in spatial analysis, data management, data science, and the creation of custom maps to advance conservation goals and support collaboration with internal and external stakeholders
Who we are working with
The Nature Conservancy is working with a host of local decision-makers and experts, from the local water management districts to local universities, state-legislators and local community stakeholders. The Lab also receives engineering and computing support from collaborators.
