Board
Kristin Troy, Board President
Kristin grew up in Salmon Idaho where she and her husband, Mark raised two beautiful children, now grown. Kristin, along with her husband, have owned and operated their own whitewater rafting and fishing company, Idaho Adventures, for 20 years. In addition, Kristin is the founding executive director of Lemhi Regional Land Trust, a non-profit private land conservation organization that has protected thousands of acres of land and wild habitat in the region. Kristin is now one of the General Managers for the Middle Fork Lodge.
Dave Hillary, Vice President
Dave Hillary is Executive Director at American Friends of Canadian Conservation. He works to develop and sustain deep, meaningful, and long-term relationships with land trust organizations, individuals, corporations, foundations, and governmental organizations who align with the vision, mission, and mandate of American Friends across Canada and the United States. He is a champion for the idea of conservation outcomes through collaboration and was founding member and Chairperson of the Kootenay Conservation Program and the Heart of the Rockies Initiative in addition to leading Nature Conservancy Canada's trans-boundary North America Partnerships Initiative. Off the clock, Dave likes to explore, take very long short-cuts, paddle his kayak, travel in Latin America and spend time with his vagabond children and grandchildren who are all global travelers. Dave is also known for sayings like "shoot the puck" and "keep your eye on the prize and don't blink".
Max Ludington, Treasurer
Max has had a career leading conservation in the Western US. Max first moved to the Tetons in 2001 to work seasonally for Grand Teton National Park. Inspired by the open views and wild character of Northwest Wyoming, he has dedicated his professional career to preserving the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Prior to the Jackson Hole Land Trust, Max launched and led Teton LegacyWorks where he directed large-scale, collaborative conservation projects targeting critical regional concerns such as water availability and migration corridors. Max enjoys hiking, biking, backcountry skiing, fishing, hunting, and any other excuse he can find to get outside and enjoy the Tetons.
Karen Rice, Secretary
Karen is retired from the Bureau of Land Management. One of the highlight of her career involved working with land trusts to conserve key private properties that intermingle with public lands. Since 1996, she worked with the BLM’s Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Teton Regional Land Trust, The Conservation Fund and The Nature Conservancy to form an award winning partnership that has conserved 90 private properties valued at approximately $65 million along the upper Snake Rivers’ corridors and at Henry’s Lake. She also has extensive experience as a wildlife biologist and program manager. Karen notes that she is extremely fortunate to continue land conservation work with the Heart of the Rockies Initiative.
Brian Bean
Brian and his wife Kathleen founded Lava Lake Ranch in 1999 with the purchase and consolidation of six historic sheep and cattle ranches with the intention of producing and marketing 100% grass-fed and finished lamb while protecting the natural characteristics of the landscape. Today, Brian is working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and TNC to complete the 11th and 12th conservation easements on Lava Lake Ranch’s deeded lands. The Beans established the Lava Lake Institute for Science & Conservation in 2004, a non-profit organization that supports conservation research in the Pioneer—Craters area. Lava Lake is one of several sheep producer members of this successful nonlethal predator control collaborative and Brian serves on the Project’s Steering Committee. Brian also serves on the Board of the Heart of the Rockies Initiative and is active in the Pioneers Alliance.
Liz Bell
Elizabeth Bell recently retired as a Senior Program Officer, Wilburforce Foundation serving its Yellowstone to Yukon Priority Region. Prior to joining Wilburforce Foundation, Liz was the Northwestern Regional Director for the Land Trust Alliance. She first worked at a number of local and state-wide lands trusts in Massachusetts. Liz, a passionate fan of private land conservation, has long admired the accomplishments of Heart of the Rockies land trust members, staff and board. She hopes to contribute to the Initiative’s ongoing success.
Katie Egland Cox
If you are running on local trail systems in Sandpoint, Idaho early in the morning, you are likely to bump into Katie Cox. Katie’s love of nature was cultivated during her youth growing up in the wilds of Idaho. Summers were spent swimming in lakes, backpacking into the Frank Church Wilderness and taking long drives through the wheat fields of the Palouse. Born and raised in Moscow and Elk City, Idaho, Katie has always believed that spending time in nature is integral to one’s growth. She and her husband, Brian, believe in cultivating these same values and traditions in their three young girls. Katie and Brian are proud to be raising fifth generation Idahoans. The threads of Katie’s life have woven together her deepest passions — a love of the Idaho landscape, teaching and learning, building community, and spending time outdoors with her family.
Jessica Crowder
Jessica was born in Victoria, Texas and spent her childhood on a cattle ranch in central New Mexico, where she first began to understand the relationships that exist between the land and those who steward the land. Prior to joining the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust, Jessica was the policy director and a policy associate for the Western Landowners Alliance. She served as a policy advisor for former Wyoming Governor Matt Mead, a position she held for over four years. Jessica has also worked as a policy analyst for the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, as a technician for the Agricultural Research Service and as an instructor at Northwest College in Powell, WY. Much of her work has focused on natural resource management with an emphasis on keeping working agricultural lands intact and economically viable across varied land ownerships. Heart of the Rockies shares this vision of the West, and Jessica is honored to be part of the organization. The work Heart of the Rockies does to build partnerships, conserve lands, and honor heritage, is vital to maintaining and improving the West into the future. Jessica enjoys spending time outdoors – riding horses, gardening, fishing, hiking and traveling – with her husband Jason and their daughter Adelynn.
Denny Iverson
Denny Iverson is a rancher/logger in the Blackfoot valley of Western Montana. A native of Minnesota, Denny followed his parents to Mt. in 1975 to help run the ranch in Potomac Mt. He still ranches with his brother and now the next generation from both sides of the family are coming home to roost. Denny and his brother have taken a proactive approach to ranching in a changing landscape for years and continue to look (with the help of the kids ) for ways to adapt. He recently joined the Board of Heart of the Rockies. Denny appreciates being involved with Heart of the Rockies because of the mission to help land trusts across the service area with capital and expertise to conserve land for agriculture, wildlife and the well being of humanity. His wife asks him all the time if he will ever learn to say no to an opportunity to volunteer!
Jim Owens
Jim Owens retired from the Brainerd Foundation in 2015 where he oversaw the foundation’s Place-based Conservation program investments in the Northwest. He is a fourth generation Northwesterner who served as Executive Director of the Smith River Alliance and Western Ancient Forest Campaign before joining the Brainerd Foundation. Jim has explored many back-country roads in the High Divide, and has an appreciation of the quality and consistency of the region’s gumbo as well as the importance of protecting and sustaining strong communities and wildlife connectivity. across the Central Rockies.. In addition to serving on the Heart of the Rockies Initiative's Board of Directors, Jim is president of the Heart of the Rockies Foundation. Jim and his wife Deborah Dain are artisan chocolatiers and enjoy birding, back-country camping and spending time with their three far-flung daughters and three grandchildren.
Gary Wolfe
Gary holds a PhD in wildlife biology, and has more than 45 years of professional experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. He retired from the Cinnabar Foundation in June 2021, where he served as their executive director. Prior to his tenure with Cinnabar Gary served as executive director of Vital Ground, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and general manager of Vermejo Park Ranch in northern New Mexico. As a wildlife conservationist who has worked in the land trust community for many years, Gary was interested in joining the Heart of the Rockies board because of our focus on wildlife and landscape connectivity at the regional level. Gary and his wife, Rita, split their time between Missoula and Condon, Montana; and enjoy a wide variety of outdoor activities including fly fishing, whitewater rafting, hunting, hiking, camping, and cross-country skiing. They have a special passion for the wildlife and wild places of the Rocky Mountain West.
Our team
Gary Burnett
Managing Director
he/him
gary@heart-of-rockies.org
Gary has been working in conservation for more than 40 years, dedicated to retaining access to natural resources. He has been with Heart of the Rockies since 2017, where he has been building momentum for private land conservation in our region to make a durable impact and help others make a difference in this special place. On the land, Gary loves birding, building, skiing, and cherishing his family. Gary’s colleagues appreciate that he is a “man of action”, and is eager to move past planning into action.
JoAnn Grant
Managing Director
she/her
joann@heart-of-rockies.org
JoAnn has been a valued member of the Heart of the Rockies staff since 2011. In her role, she is responsible for managing finances and land trust relationships. She also leads the communications team, where she is particularly passionate about utilizing creativity to develop and enhance branding, storytelling, and problem solving strategies. JoAnn is passionate about finding ways to keep family farms, ranches, and timber lands in family hands and is continually inspired and humbled by the commitment, kindness, and integrity of the people in this field of work. JoAnn’s colleagues appreciate her kindness and compassion, her pursuit of harmony, and the experience she brings to her work.
Kali Hannon
Managing Director
they/she
kali@heart-of-rockies.org
Kali started working with Heart of the Rockies Initiative in 2018. Though trained as a dancer, Kali makes our organizational culture welcoming and inclusive, a place where each of us is valued and invited to show up as a full human. She ensures our strategies and visions are well planned, but easily and creatively adapts when those plans go sideways. Kali is committed to conservation not only to protect wildlife, but also to ensure that the world remains habitable for her child and future generations. People are her motivation in her work and her life – Helping people with whatever they need help with, big or small – solving a problem, cooking them a meal, organizing around a neighborhood issue, or just listening. She is passionate about ensuring all people can have agency in their lives and meaningfully contribute to solving problems that affect them. Kali’s colleagues appreciate that she is ambitious, focused, and wicked smart, with a delightful sense of humor and enviable taste.
Emily Harkness
High Divide Collaborative Program Manager
she/her
emily@heart-of-rockies.org
Emily has worked with Heart of the Rockies Initiative since she interned in 2017. In her work, Emily is inspired by our partners in the High Divide, who are incredible people doing great work. She loves taking the time to listen and get to know each individual partner, then bring them all together in community during field trips or any sort of workshop that gets people outside on the ground. Emily brings her love of building and supporting community into all facets of her life by making a meal for a friend, shoveling a neighbors driveway, driving folks to the airport, or any small gesture that shows care and appreciation. Emily’s colleagues appreciate that she is a humble, hard worker who, despite her busy schedule, always makes time for dog-related conversation.
Amy Katz
Conservation and GIS Manager
she/her
amy@heart-of-rockies.org
Amy has worked with Heart of the Rockies Initiative since summer 2021. She is trained as a cartographer, and uses her skills to make maps that artistically express the places people love. She also uses those skills at Heart of the Rockies to bring people together to uncover and connect over commonalities as humans. And that is what she loves most about her work: cultivating community and strong relationships between people and landscapes. Amy’s colleagues appreciate her appetite for stimulating, intellectual challenge and problem solving, as well as the compassion she shows everyone with whom she interacts. Amy loves skiing and trail running and really any super hard endurance activity.
Kara Maplethorpe
Rural Development Manager
she/her
kara@heart-of-rockies.org
Kara recently came to Heart of the Rockies from the Centennial Valley Association. She is known for her homemade orange rolls and her ability to boil water in a paper cup over a campfire, which comes in handy more often than you might think. At work, she enjoys listening, learning, and collaborating with people of various perspectives, as well as finding opportunities to amplify community voices while setting the stage for future generations. To Kara, every day is a new adventure with a lesson to learn, a river to canoe, or a book to read. She emphasizes this belief by commonly quoting the movie UP: “Adventure is out there!”
Nate Owens
Policy Director
he/him
nathan@heart-of-rockies.org
Nate joined our team in 2022 from the Utah Division of WIldlife Resources. Nate moves through life determined to leave things better than he found them: in conservation this means helping communities and individuals adapt to change, and on the trails during his long training runs in the mountains this means practicing stellar Leave No Trace principles. He enjoys the challenge of trying to understand how pieces of a complex issue fit together, which ultimately will help shape how the landscape he loves will look moving forward. Nate relishes the simple daily actions of opening the door for someone or smiling at people on the trails as an easy way to give back. The ultimate test of his compassion came when he was smacked on the back by a baby mountain gorilla in Rwanda, but even then, Nate managed to smile.
Jim Williams
Partnerships Manager
he/him
jim@heart-of-rockies.org
Jim came to Heart of the Rockies in 2022 after a long career as a biologist for Montana Fish, WIldlife and Parks. Other notable achievements and talents of his include writing and publishing a book, The Path of the Puma, alligator wrestling, surfing, and being able to make friends with anyone. The latter is important for his work as well, where people and connections motivate him. Jim loves storytelling and mentoring younger professionals, and is excited to work with rural and local communities to conserve wild things and wild places.
Friends of Heart of the Rockies
Bray J. Beltrán
Bray served Heart of the Rockies from 2013 to 2023 as our Conservation & Equity Director. We will be forever grateful for Bray’s transformational leadership. We are thrilled to continue receiving his consult in the coming years.