Kellen grew up in the Northwoods of Bemidji, Minnesota, where she cultivated her love of the outdoors, fishing, camping, and hiking among the beautiful paper birch trees and melodic love songs of the Common Loon. She moved to Missoula thirteen years ago and completed her B.A. in Print Journalism at the University of Montana. Over her years in Missoula, Kellen has worked in the service industry, wearing many hats, most recently working at Conflux Brewing Company as a manager and the event coordinator. Always passionate about conservation work, Kellen began as a field volunteer with the Owl Research Institute three years ago. Her volunteering involved catching and banding countless owls throughout western Montana. After years of persistence and dedication, she was hired on as ORI’s social media coordinator. In Kellen’s spare time she can be found hiking through the mountains with her two dogs, Sage and Yogi, her son, River, and her husband, Dean. She loves reading, writing, birding, and, above all, gardening.

Nora grew up in central Ohio, attending and volunteering at STEAM day camps and programs, where she developed her love of sharing the natural world with others. She moved to Missoula in June 2020 to pursue a B.S. in Ecology and Organismal Biology at the University of Montana. While studying, she worked as a research assistant for several projects at the university. Most recently, she worked on a study of pine tree sapling survival and regeneration after wild fires in Gold Creek, Montana. In her free time she likes to go hiking with her two dogs, attending concerts in town, and crocheting.

Alyssa grew up in Livingston, Montana’s windiest city. Although one must avoid being swept away by the wind, Alyssa still loved to explore outside. Hikes to Pine Creek Falls, bike rides with her family into the valley, and summers filled with floating and fishing on the Yellowstone River cultivated her love for nature. In 2012 she moved to Arizona, where she held a collections internship with the Arizona Historical Society Museum and received her B.A. in History and M.A. in Public History from Arizona State University. After five years, the mountains were calling and she and her husband, Josh, moved to Missoula. In December 2022 Alyssa graduated from George Washington University with a Graduate Certificate in Collections Management and Care. She is currently serving as the Montana representative for the Mountain-Plains Museums Association of Registrars and Collections Managers Network (RC-MPMA). Outside of museum collections, Alyssa enjoys reading, drawing, volleyball, track and field, rafting, hunting, Dungeons and Dragons, and playing with her dog, Copper.

Allison spent her childhood in Iowa, where she climbed trees, splashed in streams and puddles, and explored the wildish green spaces scattered throughout her hometown. In between outdoor explorations, she spent most of her time reading and writing, which eventually led to a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from Dordt College. Allison has always been passionate about volunteering and doing work that gives back, spending several summers in high school and college volunteering for service projects in both the U.S. and abroad. After college, she spent a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Chicago, then canvassed for environmental issues with North Carolina PIRG, which inspired her to pursue an M.S. in Environmental Writing at the University of Montana. Living in Missoula has given her an even deeper appreciation for the natural world, and she and her husband, Greg, and son, Rowan, get out into Montana’s beautiful wild places as often as they can. Allison has been with MNHC since 2009, thrilled to work at an organization whose mission is to connect people of all ages with their place, and to get to combine her love of nature with her love of writing.

Raised in the Midwest, Jen has lived in Missoula for nearly three decades. She attended the University of Minnesota, earning a B.A. in English Literature, then promptly headed West to explore as many new places as possible. Since settling in Missoula, Jen has spent as much time as possible becoming familiar with the trails in and around Missoula. Over the past decade or so she has worked getting folks geared up for outdoor adventures, as well as sharing her own outdoor experiences. In her free time, you will find her hiking with her husband and two dogs, tending to her flower beds at home, volunteering with Run Wild Missoula and the Missoula Marathon, and travelling to new places around the globe.

Ryan moved to Missoula in the spring of 2019 and has no plans to live anywhere else. In early adolescence, he fell in love with the lakes and mountains of New Hampshire, and devoted most of his time studying the natural history of the Northeast. He loves teaching, especially outdoors, and spent five summers instructing at several different summer camps around New England. He developed a particular fondness for birds since moving out West but enjoys finding–and learning about–all manner of Rocky Mountain flora and fauna. Most recently, he spent five years researching the physiological and genomic mechanisms allowing small mammals to persist in extreme, high-altitude environments. Ryan is excited to devote more of his time to environmental education and community building. In his free time, you can find him hiking, biking, skiing, birding, and playing soccer.

Christine has a B.A. from Stanford University in Anthropology and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, where she focused on Environmental Education. Her previous experience includes work as an Interpretive Park Ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park, middle school science curriculum writer for Rice University’s digital textbook, STEMscopes, and as the Environmental Education Director for Boys & Girls Clubs of Seattle and King County, Washington. Christine spends as much time as possible recreating and wandering outside with her husband and son.

Originally from southern Indiana, Kevin grew up where the Midwest meets the South, exploring the forested hills and muddy river bottoms along the Ohio River. Obsessed with wildlife, evolution, paleontology, and sharing the curiosities of the natural world with anyone who would listen, Kevin has always sought out every outlet to learn and teach others about finding new ways to see and experience the landscape. He came out West in 2014, exploring the coasts of western Oregon before spending four years working for Canyonlands Field Institute in Moab, Utah. Kevin then spent a year working as an educational Wildlife Expeditions Guide for Teton Science Schools in Jackson, Wyoming, before moving to Missoula in 2020 to return to school and complete a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana. While completing his degree, Kevin volunteered on various large-scale research projects and worked several seasons for Ecology Project International as an instructor for their Yellowstone Program. In his free time, Kevin loves straddling the line between nerd and naturalist, playing fantasy tabletop games with friends, creating ceramic sculptures, soaking in natural spaces, rafting rivers, and recharging at home with his introverted cat. He is excited for the opportunity to build community through the Montana Natural History Center and help more students connect to this beautiful region we call home.

Elena grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, and has loved nature from a very young age. She obtained a B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and moved to Missoula in 1999. Early in her career she worked as a field biologist and technical science writer for the U.S. Forest Service. In 2020 she became a Master Naturalist and Certified Interpretive Guide and discovered a new passion—teaching people about nature, specifically ornithology and botany. Elena currently teaches classes at the Lifelong Learning Center and MOLLI as well as teaching the Master Naturalist program in the Bitterroot Valley and Glacier National Park. She recently created a new business: Blue Heron Nature Tours. In her free time she enjoys camping, growing her own food, and paddleboarding with her daughters, Ella and Lucy, and her husband, Seth. She and her family are currently keeping busy building a tiny off-the-grid cabin themselves in the Seeley-Swan Valley.

Inspired by the bald eagles of her childhood home in Minnesota, the maple trees of her grandmother’s Wisconsin farm, the salmon of her grandfather’s cabin in Alaska, and countless other creatures, Kayla works in environmental education to reciprocate the gifts of nature and share her awe for our ecological communities. Having studied philosophy, biology, and journalism at Occidental College in California, she is interested in helping people of diverse ages and backgrounds better understand their relationships with the landscapes they live, work, and play on. Following college, Kayla moved to Missoula to work at the conservation nonprofit Vital Ground, assisting with their outreach efforts across the region. She has gotten to know this incredible place through running, backcountry skiing, fly fishing, and foraging. When reluctantly trapped indoors she writes poetry, cooks, and occasionally attends hot yoga.

Raised in Western Washington, Abby is a lover of rivers, books, roasted vegetables, and walking slowly in the forest. Growing up in and around the Cascades and Salish Sea, she witnessed the awe and curiosity that living closely with a place allows. She earned a B.A. in Anthropology from Whitman College, where she also studied Creative Writing. During those years she began working in outdoor education, first in the oak chaparral of Northern California and then in Grand Teton National Park with Teton Science Schools. She delights in examining the ways we relate to one another and the more-than-human world and is thrilled to build community at MNHC.

Lisa is an interpretive planner and designer who launched her small business, Field to Frame, in 2019. She worked as staff for the Montana Natural History Center and has taught outdoor and environmental education in Washington, Colorado, and Minnesota. She holds a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana and an M.Ed. from Western Washington University with an emphasis in nonprofit administration through the North Cascades Institute’s residency program. Skiing, hiking, gardening, reading, keeping up with teenagers, and searching for huckleberries keep her busy. Though she’s never met an MNHC nature journaling class she didn’t like.

Carol, a seasoned public servant with over 37 years of experience as an elected official, was fortunate to grow up in Missoula, Montana. Her parents instilled in her a deep love for the outdoors, a love she has passed on to her son and grandson. This profound connection to the Montana way of life is a defining aspect of her character.

Having lived in Sanders County for the last 48 years, Carol has witnessed many changes. Her unwavering commitment to preserving the beauty of this state, a place she deeply loves, is evident in her enjoyment of its offerings: skiing, ice fishing in the winter, and fishing and exploring in the summer. She holds a deep hope that we don’t lose sight of the incredible place we call home, inspiring appreciation for our local heritage.

When Carol is not immersed in outdoor activities with her husband Tim and their family, she can be found engaging in a variety of other pursuits. She enjoys cooking for events at Runners Edge Events and Run Wild Missoula, counseling at the summer kids camp at the Paradise Center, and tending to her native plant garden. And when she needs a break, she can often be found curled up with a good mystery novel.

Caroline was born and raised in Springfield, Ohio, and has degrees from Vassar College (B.A., English) and Boston University (M.S., Science Communication).  She and her husband, Willis, have lived in Missoula since 1997, and have a daughter, Ella. MNHC became a wonderful home for Caroline soon after arriving in Missoula; she began coordinating MNHC’s Field Notes program around 1998, and created Field Notes Quarterly in 1999, which transitioned into Montana Naturalist magazine in 2004. She managed Field Notes and Montana Naturalist through 2011, and has continued to support MNHC in various ways since then. Natural history centers and museums had been a staple of Caroline’s upbringing in Ohio and the east. She was lucky to find a way to connect with MNHC and its people during the formative years, and loved feeling part of the beginning of what is now such a powerful force and resource for naturalist education and nature appreciation in Missoula and beyond.

Graham developed his curiosity for Montana’s natural history while growing up hiking in the hills and mountains near Missoula. He earned a BA in biology from Colorado College, and a Master’s in botany at Miami University. He studied a rare plant in the Mosquito Range of Colorado, which are too high and dry to have many mosquitoes. He also studied fire regimes in Sequoia National Park and worked as a plant ecologist for the USGS in Yosemite National Park. Graham taught middle and high school biology in Denver, CO, for several years and volunteered with Wildlands Restoration Volunteers as a crew lead and project lead. When the rigors of inner city teaching grew tiring, Graham pursued his lifelong interest in cooking and moved home to Missoula where he owned a restaurant for 5 years. Graham met his wife soon upon his return and they now have a daughter. Together they enjoy watching movies, hiking, swimming at the lake, and sampling Graham’s baking.

Kathy Settevendemie is a retired teacher, a retired native plant nursery owner, and an active artist and nature journaler. She has served on the boards of several Montana conservation groups, including the Montana Native Plant Society, where she was board president for several years. She lives in Potomac with her husband, Michael.

Mandela was raised on a private nature reserve in South Africa and in the mountains, rivers, and open plains of Montana. Growing up in the African bush and on Montana’s public lands cultivated an early passion for wildlife conservation, habitat stewardship, and experiential outdoor learning. Her intention is to seek and share knowledge of the natural world by producing and sharing multimedia storytelling via outreach and her long-running radio series and podcast, The Trail Less Traveled.

Mandela has lived and worked in over 26 countries with a focus on leading multi-day whitewater expeditions across Africa, New Zealand, the Grand Canyon, Idaho, and Alaska. Mandela spent half her life guiding because she feels people who spend time in wild places are more likely to fight to protect them. Mandela strongly believes children are our greatest natural resource and whenever possible she does outreach at schools in order to inspire the next generation of conservationists. Mandela values the ancient knowledge of elders and the process of hunting and gathering locally and mindfully.