Programme leadership, strategic storytelling, and change-making growth
A portfolio of nature-based renewal
Hello…
I’m Sam Williams and this is Reflexive Ecology
Working at the intersections of ecological recovery, social innovation and wellbeing, I’m a project manager and impact-growth specialist supporting regenerative transformation.
From nature-based solutions and rewilding to health, education and the experience economy, I provide project leadership together with strategic communications and fundraising support.
Portfolio
Supporting purposeful organisations
Nurturing meaningful systems change, resilience and healing - and rooted in practical action within natural systems - below is a selection of current and recent clients and projects.
Each aims to enable, support and inspire bioregional place-making, embodied movement by engaged communities, and active cultures of solidarity, care and innovation.
-
Nature’s Rights is a leading rights of nature charity registered in Scotland. The founders of the Integrated Rights Framework, they are led by the lawyer and environmentalist Mumta Ito who authored the UK Rights of Nature Bill currently going through parliament. They have also worked on similar initiatives aiming to bring the rights of nature into law in the EU.
I’ve been supporting the charity with fundraising and communications consultancy, and more broadly to best use this moment to build a broader coalition of support for the rights of nature in the UK and globally.
-
Celebrating stories of meaningful exploration, Wildside Journeys is a global community of storytellers aiming to shift dominant narratives in adventure travel and outdoor lifestyles. Hosting creatives from around the world, this is where people, landscapes and the more-than-human meet.
As co-founder and associated editor, I contribute articles and photo essays mostly exploring human relationships with the wilderness, as well as musings on what I call "emergent adventure": the space where experiential movement meets nature connection in a living world.
www.wildsidejourneys.com
-
My dad and I found an old horse box in a field, and set about rebuilding it as a mobile sauna. Doing things the old fashioned way, we sourced local materials, milling and processing Dartmoor timber before combining with a top-of-the-range Scandinavian woodburner.
Sharing the sauna, together with a farm-made shower and plunge pool, for weddings, parties and retreats, this has become a small local business encouraging healthy, nature-connected lifestyles, embodied connection and social get-togethers in beautiful places.
-
The Mountains are Gods is a writing project exploring stories of sacred mountains. Indigenous people have for millennia felt and understood mountains as living, intelligent beings with agency. This work asks what this form of panpsychism might mean for us as we attempt to adapt to the climate and nature crises of today.
The aim is simply to meet these more-than-human mountains and explore the gaps in dominant narratives that cast these landscapes as deadened objects. With special thanks to support from Local Futures, this project weaves explorations of ecological anthropology, deep ecology and the rights of nature.
First article, on Nanda Devi, coming soon…
-
The world over, local communities work tirelessly to protect and restore the places they love from the impacts of the climate and nature crises. The Conservation Collective is a global network of local foundations funding these effective grass-roots initiatives.
Providing programme management for a large-scale biodiversity mapping and ecosystem restoration project, I coordinated partners in the UK and Spain, including experts in ecology and nature finance, community groups, private sector sponsors and the University of Seville.
www.conservation-collective.org
-
Many of us yearn to re-entangle ourselves with the more-than-human world, to re-align our bodies to the rhythms of nature, and to rekindle what it means to be “home”. The Land-Based Living Collective is a response to this call, and is a growing movement nurturing low-impact land-based lifestyles.
Building beautiful straw bale, timber and earthen buildings, I supported the organisation with management consultancy, programme development and coaching. I was also lucky enough to roll up my sleeves and help with construction projects in Devon, Cornwall and the Cotswolds.
www.landbasedliving.com
-
Alethean Lifeworlds is an exploration into light as a medium through which we experience life, the world, and memory. Understanding nature as physis, it is a record of serendipity and the meeting of places, people and the more-than-human, as well as how the past and future-present collide.
From expeditionary photography to landscapes and portraits, this project that emerged through travel, mountaineering and working overseas. In an era of attention-grabbing, social media ready content, maintaining this small photoblog has been a small attempt to give light to past experience.
-
A CIC at the intersection of art, academia and activism, Radical Ecology explores imaginative transformations in response to our planetary crises. Their purpose is to decolonise the environmental justice movement through research, events and campaigns.
I supported the team with growth and communications consultancy and project management. As well as building their fundraising pipeline, and writing bigs, I also helped embed the cultures and systems required for sustainable growth.
www.radicalecology.earth
-
Beginning as pandemic-era walks on Dartmoor, Untitled Immersions is a small collaboration that aims to share the therapeutic benefits of being in nature. Coming together for reflection, connection and peace, we support relaxed, unpretentious experiences in the wild.
Non-profit and no logo, we run two immersions each year. We do this to receive and share the incomparable gifts of sleeping under the stars, bathing in the rivers, and reconnecting with the ecology of which we’re part. Each experience has proven uniquely powerful for both ourselves and those we’ve who have joined us.
No website, no logo!
About
Nature connection as participatory action
Working with purpose-driven organisations, partnerships and campaigns, I provide programme leadership, consultancy, research, coaching and hands-on delivery.
Ecological in nature, my approach draws from a background in higher education, health and wellbeing, conservation, technology, and the curation of transformative experience.
-
A programme manager, researcher and consultant, I work at the intersections of ecological renewal, social innovation and wellbeing. I collaborate in movements towards place-based systems change, environmental recovery, physical and mental health, and regenerative transformation.
With nearly two decades of experience in health, education and technology, I have worked with universities, NGOs and businesses in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Americas, collaborating with brilliant, diverse leaders from Nobel-prize winners to indigenous communities.
Starting at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, I spent many years in research and development roles at the Institute of Development Studies, UCL’s Institute of Education, Goldsmiths University of London and the London Business School, as well as Rethink Mental Health.
After founding Project Cordillera, an award-winning adventure travel social enterprise, which later evolved into Wildside Journeys, I held senior roles in health technology in the US (Managing Director of Corporate Health) and public health policy in the UK (Enterprise & Communications Director).
With a BA in history and an MA in anthropology and politics (both Uni. of London) - as well as training in social enterprise leadership (Uni. of Cambridge), systems theory (ETH Zurich), human-centred design (IDEA), nature-based leadership (Green Minds) and storytelling for change (Ariel) - I am interested in how ecological renewal and social transformation merge.
In 2024, I received the Radical Seeds Fellowship awarded by Emergence Magazine (Kalliopeia Foundation), and in 2026 I studied Gandhian Ethics and Leadership with Vandana Shiva at Navdanya Earth University in India. I am currently based in Devon in the UK - the region I grew up in and where much of my work is grounded.
-
Drawing on experience from a range of sectors - from education, health and technology to conservation, public policy and the experience economy - I employ highly adaptive programme management and relationship-based leadership in the following areas:
Products and services: I design, deliver, support and enable collaborative efforts towards impactful outcomes within a focused, risk-managed strategic framework. While contextual, values-based and empathetic, I offer operational leadership that provides meaningful and sustainable results.
Communications: Whether local or global, I work collaboratively to provide human-centred strategic communications, storytelling and digital transformation, as well as proposition design and the production of brands, campaigns, events, and other facilitated, curated and guided experiences.
Growth: Drawing from international experience of B2C, B2B and B2G fundraising, sales and partnerships, I offer sustainable growth services including commercial, philanthropic and enterprise sales strategies, pipeline development, network and CRM management, bid writing, and more.
-
“A champion of clear outcomes and continuous learning, Sam’s technical programme management skills are matched by his high emotional intelligence, diplomacy and care. With a rare combination of strategic insight and entrepreneurial doing, Sam is a valuable asset for any conservation organisation.” Jade Brudenell, Executive Director, Conservation Collective
“It was a genuine pleasure to work with Sam. He’s one of the most grounded and relationally skilled people I know, and these qualities made collaboration feel easy and deeply human. His presence consistency brought clarity, calm and connection, while his lived embodied understanding of regenerative culture brought valuable depth and insight.” James Bullen, CEO, Land-Based Living Collective
“A champion of developing strong self-awareness through connection, meaningful engagement and purposeful storytelling, Sam’s leadership approach reflect the values he articulates: a values-driven beyond profit leader. His passion brings collaborations together, and he is an impressive social entrepreneur and program manager.” Maria Ranallo, Associate Editor, Wildside Journeys
“Sam is a charismatic leader who earned the trust and admiration of his teams. Many colleagues would highlight how inspiring and supportive his leaderships was. He is a master communicator - whether rallying a team internally or representing the company with partners and clients externally, he brought clarity, confidence and maturity to every conversation.” Kalen Pino, CCO, Virtuagym
