Stewardship starts with the people who call a place home.

Community stewardship starts from a premise: a place belongs to the people who live in it, and the work of caring for it belongs to them too. My role is to help build the systems, partnerships, and capacity that let communities lead the stewardship of their lands, cultures, and economies. This has taken the form of destination management in Jackson Hole and AlUla, tourism governance with tribal nations in South Dakota, sustainability certification for local businesses in Teton County, and buffalo rematriation across Indian Country. The scale changes; the practice doesn't.

Designing Sustainable Tourism Systems
Visit Jackson Hole | Jackson, Wyoming

The Work

  • Provide executive leadership to Visit Jackson Hole in stewarding one of the wildest landscapes in the lower 48 toward a regenerative future, through operational capacity building, organizational evolution, and partnership development

  • Coordinate and enhance board governance, multi-agency partnerships, and contractor relationships, developing meeting agendas, leading retreats, vetting funding requests, and translating priorities into actionable goals

The Impact

  • Repositioned the organization as an innovative model for sustainable tourism governance while strengthening community trust and industry alignment. 56 of 64 SDMP priority actions have been implemented since the plan's adoption in January 2023.

Restoring Ecological and Cultural Heritage
National Wildlife Federation, Tribal Buffalo Program | United States

The Work

  • Support tribal buffalo rematriation efforts advancing food sovereignty and ecological restoration across Indian Country

  • Advance buffalo restoration with five tribal nations, contributing to returning 350+ buffalo designated as wildlife to tribal lands

  • Establish collaborative frameworks bridging tribal sovereignty, federal regulations, and conservation science, now informing initiatives nationwide

  • Build Indigenous-led capacity for autonomous conservation leadership

The Impact

  • Contributed to a replicable model for culturally grounded conservation that strengthens tribal self-determination and ecosystem health.

Protected Area Development in a World Heritage Region
Royal Commission for AlUla, Senior Project Manager | AlUla, Saudi Arabia

The Work

  • Contracted by the Saudi government to lead development and activation of five nature reserves in the UNESCO World Heritage region of AlUla, managing eight concurrent projects spanning eco-tourism, endangered species reintroduction, and community engagement

  • Coordinated technical experts, local stakeholders, village leaders, and government agencies across a complex multi-project portfolio

  • Directed endangered species reintroduction planning and implementation, including the Arabian leopard recovery program

  • Developed community education and engagement programs that improved local participation in conservation efforts

The Impact

  • Advanced the activation of five nature reserves using science-based data to inform infrastructure development and ecosystem restoration, and built local capacity that continued after the contract closed.

Indigenous Tourism Governance
South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance | Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, South Dakota

The Work

  • Developed place-based tourism governance models and implementation roadmaps for the Oglala and Rosebud Sioux Tribes, establishing frameworks for community-led tourism development

  • Conducted situation analysis and facilitated a participatory planning process with tribal project leaders to co-create governance frameworks

  • Developed good practice guidelines for replication by other tribal nations

The Impact

  • Built local capacity to advance culturally appropriate tourism independently while preserving cultural integrity, with guidelines now available to other tribal nations pursuing similar work.

Indigenous Entrepreneurship
Wind River Startup Challenge | Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming

The Work

  • Provide over 500 hours of individualized mentorship and business development coaching for 50+ Native entrepreneurs on the Wind River Indian Reservation

  • Develop a five-year program expansion strategy honoring Indigenous business practices and community values

The Impact

  • Contributed to a scalable model for Native entrepreneurship that centers cultural integrity while building economic opportunity.

Sustainability Certification for Local Business
Business Emerald Sustainability Tier (BEST) Certification Program | Jackson, Wyoming

The Impact

  • Established a locally grounded sustainability standard that connected small businesses to broader destination stewardship goals.

The Work

  • Implemented the BEST Certification program for local businesses in Teton County, Wyoming, assessing sustainability initiatives and supporting certification pathways

  • Built assessment methodology, business advisory processes, and program infrastructure over five years