Clayton Page Aldern

Senior Data Reporter – Grist

Clayton Page Aldern is a Seattle-based writer and data scientist interested in science and society. A senior data reporter at Grist, he is the author of The Weight of Nature, a book about the effects of climate change and environmental degradation on neurochemistry, behavior, decision-making, and mental and emotional health.

His writing has been published by The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Economist, Aeon, Scientific American, Logic, Sierra Magazine, Geographical, Crosscut, and others. His reporting and data visualization have been syndicated or otherwise republished by The New Republic, Mother Jones, Vox, Newsweek, Salon, Canada’s National Observer, The Texas Observer, Moyers & Company, Yes! Magazine, Business Insider, and elsewhere.

Previously, Clayton has worked in computational neuroscience, environmental journalism, and homelessness policy. Most recently, he led the data analysis and program evaluation team for homelessness programs at Pierce County, Washington. He also directs a data-science and machine-learning consultancy and serves as a research affiliate of the University of Washington’s Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology. With Gregg Colburn, he is the author of Homelessness is A Housing Problem.

He holds a master’s in neuroscience and a master’s in public policy from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is a Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow, a Salzburg Global Fellow, a Seattle CityArtist, and a Climate Reality Leader, among other honors. He has contributed to reporting teams that have won various awards, including a national Edward R. Murrow Award, multiple Online Journalism Awards, multiple Sigma Awards, and the Breaking Barriers Award from the Institute for Nonprofit News. He conducted his undergraduate work in neuroscience at Brown University. He is originally from Minnesota.

Arlene Walker-Andrews

Professor Emeritus – University of Montana

Dr. Arlene Walker-Andrews attended the University of Texas at Austin for her undergraduate degree in Psychology. She completed her PhD in Psychology at Cornell University in 1981. She taught in the Psychology Department at Rutgers University for 22 years where she taught courses including Introductory Psychology, Infant and Child Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and Cognition. She conducted research funded by NIMH and NSF on human infants’ perception and cognition. In 2003 she moved to Missoula, Montana, as the Associate Provost at the University of Montana. She retired from that position in 2014. Arlene is a member of the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees and a Director for the Montana School Boards Association. She is married to Dr. David Andrews; they have two adult children who both work in education.

Natalia Antelava

CEO/Editor in Chief – Coda Story

Keynote Speaker

Natalia Antelava is co-founder and editor in chief of Coda Media, an award-winning newsroom that covers the roots of global crises. Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia Natalia started her journalism career in West Africa and had been BBC’s resident correspondent in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East, Washington DC and India. She has covered the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, the wars in Iraq and in Eastern Ukraine and reported undercover from Burma, Yemen and Uzbekistan. Her investigations into human rights abuses in Central Asia, Iraq and the United States have won her a number of awards and an Emmy nomination.

In addition to a career in broadcast journalism, Natalia has written for many publications, including the Guardian, Forbes magazine, the New Yorker and CNN. She is the host of Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants and Us, Coda’s podcast about how technology has helped authoritarianism advance and Infamous International: The Pink Panther’s Story. Natalia serves on several non-profit boards, and in 2024 she was a John S.Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford University. In 2019, she also co-founded a cross-disciplinary storytelling festival called Zeg Fest.

Lee Banville

Director and Professor – University of Montana School of Journalism

Keynote Moderator

Director and Professor Lee Banville joined the University of Montana faculty in 2009 after 13 years at PBS NewsHour, where he was editor-in-chief of the Online NewsHour.

With a background in political reporting and digital and social media, Lee teaches courses that include covering elections and the First Amendment and journalism law. He also often teaches the introductory Journalism and American Society class and an information literacy class, “Calling Bullsh*t.”

He received his bachelor of arts in English and government from the College of William & Mary and earned his master’s degree in political science from the University of Montana. Before joining the PBS NewsHour, Lee worked briefly in public relations and as a stringer at the Virginian-Pilot. He is the author of “Debating Our Destiny: Presidential Debate Moments that Shaped History,” written for MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in 2012 and updated in 2013. He also authored a two-volume encyclopedia, “Covering American Politics in the 21st Century: An Encyclopedia of News Media Titans, Trends, and Controversies,” that was published in January 2017 by ABC-CLIO. He appears often in the press analyzing Montana politics and the media.

Amb. Max Baucus

Ambassador, Founder of the Max S. Baucus Institute

In 2014 U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Max Sieben Baucus to be Ambassador of the United States of America to the Peoples Republic of China. He served as Ambassador from February 21, 2014 until January 19, 2017. Ambassador Baucus formerly served as the senior United States Senator from Montana. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1978 to 2014 and was Montana’s longest serving U.S. Senator as well as the third longest tenure among those serving in the U.S. Senate.

While in the Senate, Ambassador Baucus was Chairman and Ranking Member of the powerful Senate Committee on Finance. While Chairman, he was the chief architect of the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) which was signed by President Barack Obama into law March 23, 2009. He also led the passage and enactment of the Free Trade Agreements with 11 countries: Australia, Bahrain, Jordan, Chile, Colombia, Morocco, Oman, Panama, Peru, Singapore and South Korea. He was deeply involved in orchestrating the congressional approval of permanent normal trade relations with China in 2000 and in facilitating China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Ambassador Baucus also served as Vice Chairman of the Senate Joint Committee on Taxation and as a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry where he led in the reauthorization of numerous Farm Bills. He was additionally selected as a member of the Senate Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (Super Committee) following the financial crisis of 2008. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, Ambassador Baucus represented Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1978 and represented Missoula, Montana in the Montana House of Representatives from 1973 to 1974.

Rep. David Bedey

Montana State House Representative

David Bedey has served in the Montana State House as the Representative for HD 86 since 2019. A 4th generation Montanan, Bedey studied civil engineering and economics at Montana State University before serving in the U.S. Army for a 30-year tenure, retiring as a colonel and returning to the Bitterroot to join a small startup engineering firm for which he is CFO. Bedey earned two master’s degrees in national security studies, and a Ph.D. in space physics, and was a professor of physics at West Point. A member of the Hamilton School Board for nine years, Bedey has also served as the chairman of the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee for Education and the Education Interim Budget Committee.

Neil Chase

CEO – CalMatters

Keynote Speaker

Neil Chase is chief executive officer of CalMatters, the nonprofit newsroom covering California politics and policy. He was previously executive editor of The Mercury News and East Bay Times, where his team won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Coverage. He has also worked as an editor at The San Francisco Examiner, The Arizona Republic, CBS MarketWatch and The New York Times and was an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Becky Croghan

Elementary Educator and Union President – Belgrade School District and Belgrade Education Association

Becky Croghan is a dedicated elementary educator based in Belgrade. A proud native of Montana, Becky graduated from Belgrade High School before pursuing her higher education at Montana State University. There, she earned her degree in Early Childhood Education and later completed her Master’s in Public Administration. Becky’s professional journey at MSU included pivotal roles as the Director of the Laboratory Preschool and as a Coordinator for the Early Childhood Education Distance Partnership Program. Becky obtained a Master’s in Teaching from the University of Washington. During her tenure teaching in Washington, she experienced firsthand the transformative effects of the McCleary decision, which significantly increased education funding in the state. Returning to Montana, Becky now teaches elementary school in Belgrade and serves as the local union president, where she continues to champion the interests of educators and students alike. Becky’s unique blend of classroom experience, leadership in educational advocacy, and commitment to public policy reform equips her with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in school funding. She is dedicated to ensuring that every student and educator has access to the resources and support they need to thrive.

Andrea Davis

Mayor – City of Missoula

Andrea Davis is the Mayor of Missoula and has held many leadership positions including board member of Missoula Economic Partnership, Chair of NeighborWorks Montana, Chair of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for the Federal Home Loan Bank and Chair of Mountain Line. Prior to her mayoral post, Davis was the Executive Director of Homeword for 15 years, where she expanded services into 14 different communities across the state, building thousands of homes that Montanans can afford and providing education for tens of thousands of Missoulians to buy their first home and make informed financial decisions.

Timothy Egan

Author

Keynote Speaker

Timothy Egan is an acclaimed writer and veteran chronicler of the American experience, whose interests range wide across history and landscape, and into the spiritual realm. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, a popular columnist, and a National Book Award-winning author of eleven books.

His most recent book is A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, tells the story of a murderous con man, the Klan’s rise to power in Indiana in the 1920s, and the woman who led to their downfall. In addition to being a New York Times bestseller, it was a Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction, NPR Best Book of the Year, Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, Chicago Review of Books Best Book of the Year, New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, and Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist. His previous book, A Pilgrimage to Eternity, goes to the core questions of humanity, as Egan follows an ancient pilgrimage route a thousand miles from Canterbury to Rome. It received rapturous reviews and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2020.

Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick

Senator, Senate Majority Leader – Montana State Senate

Steve Fitzpatrick represents Senate District 10 in the Montana State Senate. Senate District 10 encompasses parts of the City of Great Falls and rural Cascade County. Sen. Fitzpatrick is the Senate Majority Leader and Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. Sen. Fitzpatrick has served in the Montana Legislature since 2011. He has previously served as a Senate Majority Whip and as Chairman of the Senate Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs Committee. Sen. Fitzpatrick is a 2001 graduate of Montana State University and a 2004 graduate of the Arizona State University College of Law. When not serving in the Montana Legislature, Sen. Fitzpatrick practices law at the law firm of Browning, Kaleczyc, Berry, and Hoven, P.C. where he focuses on civil litigation and transactional matters.

Racene Friede

President, CEO – Western Montana’s Glacier Country

With a career that spans 30 years—18 with Western Montana’s Glacier Country—Racene has worked with her board, partners, stakeholders, community and industry—at the local, state and national levels—to navigate the evolution of the visitor economy from a time when tourism was beginning to find its footing as an economic driver to present day being one of the top two industries in Montana. She wholeheartedly believes in the transformative power of the travel industry for Montana, and her commitment is not only professional but deeply personal as she strives to showcase the beauty and opportunities that her cherished state has to offer while at the same time helping communities create a diverse economic base that compliments and aligns with the character and identity of each.

Maritsa Georgiou

News Anchor – Scripps News

Keynote Moderator

Maritsa Georgiou is an evening anchor for Scripps News, hosting the first and only national television news show from Montana. She specializes in politics and wildfire coverage, and did extensive reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. She’s most widely known for her reporting on the planned removal of USPS blue collection boxes before the 2020 election, which earned her the 2021 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism.

Maritsa graduated from St. Louis Park High School and the Twin Cities will always be “home.” Her grandfather, Barry ZeVan, was a staple on Minnesota televisions for decades. He posted a Nielsen ratings record in 1974 for a local weather forecast with 51% of the audience, which still stands today.

Maritsa serves on the Board of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, an institution dedicated to upholding integrity, diplomacy and democracy in the name of the late Sen. Mike Mansfield. She has supported various causes, including animal welfare, childhood hunger, paying off school lunch debt and donating to help relief efforts in war torn countries, such as Ukraine. She believes one person can make a difference and everyone should try.

Mariah Gladstone

Founder – Indigikitchen

Mariah Gladstone is a community leader, food sovereignty activist, self-trained chef, and digital entrepreneur. Blackfeet and Cherokee from Northwest Montana, Mariah graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Environmental Engineering and returned home where she developed Indigikitchen. Mariah has been recognized as a “Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellow” through the First Nations Development Institute, a “Culture of Health Leader” through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and an MIT Solve Indigenous Communities Fellow. She serves on the board of the FAST (Food Access and Sustainability Team) Blackfeet. Mariah completed her Master’s Degree at SUNY – ESF through the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

John Goodnow

CEO – Benefis Health System

John Goodnow has 48 years of experience in hospital administration. Since 2002, Goodnow has served as CEO of Benefis Health System, a not-for-profit health system headquartered in Great Falls, Montana. Benefis serves a quarter of Montana’s population across an expansive, rural region and is one of Montana’s largest health systems.

Benefis Health System, while headquartered in Great Falls, MT also has facilities in Helena (90 miles south of Great Falls), Choteau (50 miles northwest of Great Falls), Fort Benton (40 miles northeast of Great Falls), and outreach sites throughout northcentral Montana. In addition to acute care, Benefis Health System has Senior Services and Home Care subsidiaries.

During his time with Benefis, Goodnow has led the organization to consistent success, always achieving positive operating margins, despite a payor mix that is over 75% governmental. Benefis also achieved what few in healthcare have—Medicare breakeven, for 10 continuous years, a contributing factor to BHS’ financial success. John has provided a no layoff promise as well as an annual raise commitment to Benefis employees for his entire 22-year tenure at Benefis. The organization has been recognized as a best place to work in healthcare numerous times by several national organizations, including in 2024.

Kolby KickingWoman

Bureau Chief – Indian Country Today

Kolby is a reporter/producer for Indian Country Today and currently reports for the Washington Bureau. He attended the University of Montana where he obtained his degree from the University of Montana – School of Journalism. He was selected to the 2018 Wilma Mankiller Fellowship cohort and spent a year working at the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C.

Rep. SJ Howell

Montana State House Representative, Executive Director – Montana Women Vote

SJ Howell represents Montana HD 95 and is the Executive Director of Montana Women Vote. They have worked on a successful campaign to pass Medicaid expansion, managed three cycles of civic engagement with low-income women, and served on ballot initiative campaign committees on several diverse issues. Howell has worked as a field organizer at the Western States Center, a regional social justice non-profit, and has worked on issues including healthcare access, living wages, LGBTQ rights, criminal justice reform, and revenue.

Jacob Kuntz

Executive Director – Helena Area Habitat for Humanity

Jacob Kuntz has served as the organization’s Executive Director since 2015. During that time, Helena Area Habitat for Humanity’s program has grown its programs and services to become one of the top performing Habitat organizations in the country. Helena Area Habitat for Humanity has the goal of building 30 homes each year by 2030 with critical repairs to 50 to 75 more. In 2018 Helena Habitat began negotiations and preparations for a 250 acre land development in the city of East Helena. The organization currently envisions close to 1700 homes on the property for all incomes and all ages. It is the largest land development project endeavored by a Habitat affiliate.

Raised in northwest Montana on a farm, Jacob brings a wealth of experience to Helena Habitat as an educator, mediator, home builder, and community organizer. He holds a Master’s degree in Reconciliation from Trinity College, Dublin and spent several years working as a mediator and facilitator on education for reconciliation projects in Israel, the West Bank, and Northern Ireland. He currently serves the Native American Housing Coalition and as a member of Montana Governor Greg Gianforte’s Housing Task Force.

Jacob lives in Helena, MT with his wife, Jessica Stewart-Kuntz, the Vice-President of the Montana Community Foundation and their two collies, Lambert and Goose.

Sen. Forrest Mandeville

Montana State Senator

Forrest Mandeville (Republican-Columbus) served in the Montan State House 2015-2020 and has served in the State Senate since 2023 representing Senate District 29, which includes Stillwater and Carbon County, and parts of Sweet Grass County. He has worked on and passed numerous land-use bills that have streamlined the subdivision review, and zoning processes.

In 2023 Forrest carried SB 382, The Montana Land Use Planning Act. The LUPA is a major rewrite of Montana’s planning statutes designed to add predictability to the development process for all parties while maintaining local control and public participation.

Forrest Mandeville has worked in the planning profession in Montana since 2007 and currently works as a consultant, providing on-call planning services to counties and municipalities and working on a variety of private planning projects throughout Montana. Forrest has written and updated numerous planning documents, including subdivision regulations, growth policies, trail plans, and zoning codes.

Matthew Mantica

Director of Growth Investments – American Journalism Project

Matt partners with nonprofit news organizations across the American Journalism Project’s portfolio, helping grantees build and execute growth plans to sustainably meet their communities’ news and information needs. He also helps direct AJP’s grantmaking, leading growth planning experiences and designing investments in revenue and operations capacity.

Previously at AJP, Matt managed research and designed solutions to address local information gaps in partnership with local philanthropy around the country. Prior to AJP, Matt led Atlantic Media’s strategy team, addressing editorial, business, and operational challenges for The Atlantic, Government Executive, Quartz, and National Journal.

Melody Martinsen

Editor and Co-Owner – Choteau Acantha

Melody Martinsen was raised on a ranch in north-central Montana and graduated from Choteau High School in 1983. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in Russian from the University of Montana, graduating in 1987. While in college, she served as a news editor at the UM student newspaper, the Kaimin. After graduating, she worked for three years at the Great Falls Tribune as a reporter and as a copy editor. In 1990, she and her husband, Jeff, (then both 24 years old) purchased the Choteau Acantha weekly newspaper, where she is the editor. She is a past president of the Montana Newspaper Association and serves as the president of the Montana Newspaper Foundation and chairwoman of the Montana Freedom of Information Hotline.

The Choteau Acantha is one of two weekly newspapers published in Teton County, population 6,368. The Acantha has a total print and online circulation of approximately 1,687 households with approximately 1,037 households in Teton County. The business employs two owners (the editor-Melody and publisher-Jeff); two full-time reporters; and three part-time employees including a photography editor, columnist and publisher’s assistant.

The Acantha covers all things Teton County with an emphasis on school, city, special district and county government; the US Forest Service and USDA; high school sports in four school systems; business; agriculture; health; education; environment; and lifestyle. In addition to the weekly print edition, the Acantha has a website (www.choteauacantha.com), a Facebook page (Choteau newspaper) and a Facebook Marketplace group. The Choteau Acantha is the Montana Newspaper Association’s 2024 Thomas Dimsdale Award winner. This award is given to the top sweepstakes winner among all classes (sizes) of weekly newspapers in Montana in the 2024 Better Newspaper Contest.

Augusta McDonnell

Journalist – KTVQ

Augusta McDonnell is an award-winning news anchor and reporter at KTVQ, the leading source of news and information for eastern Montana and northern Wyoming. She anchors Montana This Morning, the only local morning show in the region, and produced and hosted a weekly digital public affairs newscast, Face The State, covering the 2023 Montana Legislative Session.

Augusta pursues character-based, community-enriching reporting that gives viewers insight into critical policies, issues, and solutions. She covers a wide range of topics, from politics and policy to rural and environmental issues, to human interest and feature stories. She received a BA in Journalism at the University of Montana and is currently wrapping up a Master’s in Global Affairs at the University of Oklahoma. Augusta is a member of the National Press Photographers Association and Investigative Reporters & Editors.

Jim Messina

CEO – The Messina Group

Keynote Speaker

Jim Messina is arguably one of the world’s most successful political advisors. The mastermind behind President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Jim seized the reins on what Bloomberg Businessweek dubbed “the highest-wattage crash course in executive management ever undertaken.”

In 2013, Jim launched The Messina Group, where he provides strategic consulting to businesses around the world and 13 Presidents and Prime Ministers on six continents.

Previously, Jim served as Deputy Chief of Staff under President Obama, where he was integral to the passage of the historic health care bill and the economic stimulus act credited with saving the US economy.

Jim serves on the boards of Global Counsel, Vectra.ai, LanzaTech, Fortera, Blockchain.com, and the United States Soccer Foundation.

Joseph T. O’Connor

Managing Editor – Mountain Journal

Joseph T. O’Connor is Managing Editor for the nonprofit media group Mountain Journal, a conservation journalism organization covering the wildlife and wildlands of Greater Yellowstone.

Joe previously served as Editor-in-Chief for Mountain Outlaw magazine and the Explore Big Sky newspaper in Big Sky, Montana. His work has appeared in several publications from the East Coast to California, including Newsweek, CNN and Skiing magazine, among others. He moved to Montana in 2012 after taking graduate journalism courses at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Matt Rhoades

Co-CEO – CGCN Group

Keynote Speaker

Throughout his career, Matt Rhoades has worked at the highest levels of political organizations and campaigns. He now applies those insights to the issues most important to his clients. Fortune Magazine described Rhoades as “a diligently low-key, data-oriented operator at the helm of the Romney campaign…”

As campaign manager of Romney/Ryan 2012, Rhoades managed a budget of nearly $900 million. Prior to his time as campaign manager, Rhoades served as Executive Director of Mitt Romney’s Free & Strong America PAC, Communications Director on Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign, Research Director on the Bush/Cheney 2004 presidential campaign, and in various senior-level positions with the Republican National Committee. Rhoades also spent time in the Bush White House as an Associate Director in the Presidential Personnel Office and as a White House Liaison in the Office of Personnel Management.

Rhoades brings nearly a decade of experience in the private sector to CGCN Group. During this time in the private sector, he played a significant role in building numerous political and issue advocacy organizations. He is also the co-founder of Defending Digital Campaigns – a bipartisan initiative to provide political campaigns with the resources to combat foreign and domestic cybersecurity threats.

Michael Rohd

Director – Co-Lab for Civic Imagination

Michael is a theatre-maker, educator, process designer, writer and facilitator. His research and creative practice is focused on civic imagination. He has a 30+ year history of projects across sectors bringing cultural activity to the work of public engagement, community planning and cross-sector coalition building. In 1992 in Washington DC, Michael co-founded Hope Is Vital, an arts & public health program that, over 8 years, helped start up theatre-based public engagement/HIV prevention coalitions in over 80 communities around the US. In 1999, Michael co founded Sojourn Theatre and served as artistic director for 20 years, co-creating & directing nearly 30 devised, often site-specific and participatory theatre works. In 2012, he co-founded the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, a collective of nine artist/facilitators who work with organizations and agencies around the country on community research, transformational process and system change. He is currently Civic Collaborations Director for One Nation One Project, a national arts/municipality/public health project & research cohort in partnership with National League of Cities and he is co-designer/ co-facilitator for Art-Train, a virtual national technical assistance program in partnership with Springboard for the Arts. He recently founded the Co-Lab for Civic Imagination at the University of Montana, and he is author of the book Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue (Heinemann Press).

Hillary Rosner

Assistant Director, Center for Environmental Journalism – University of Colorado Boulder

Hillary Rosner is an award-winning science journalist and the assistant director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, where she oversees the Ted Scripps Fellowships. She has reported on environmental issues from around the world, for publications including National Geographic, The New York Times, High Country News, Men’s Journal, Audubon, Wired, Scientific American, bioGraphic, and dozens of others.

Hillary has received numerous awards and fellowships for her work, including a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship, an Alicia Patterson Fellowship, and two AAAS-Kavli awards. She holds an MS in environmental studies from CU Boulder, an MFA in creative writing from New York University, and a BA in American Studies from Wesleyan University. Born and raised in New York City, she worked at a variety of established media outlets there, including The New York Post, The Village Voice and New York Magazine, and also at a series of startups, before moving to Colorado.

Her first book, about the need to re-connect fragmented landscapes so the planet’s non-human species can continue to thrive, will be published by Patagonia Books next year.

Darby Minow Smith

Writer and cattle rancher – Lazy T Ranch

Darby Minow Smith is a writer, educator, and fifth-generation Montana rancher. As the long-time editor of the environmental magazine Grist, she managed a newsroom of early-career and established journalists and produced a National Magazine Award-nominated package on civic engagement. After Grist, she received her MFA in creative nonfiction at Columbia University in New York. She taught writing workshops in the undergraduate program and an interdisciplinary class in the grad school. She’s a cofounder of the Climate School’s working group Bridging Artistic and Scientific Approaches, which brings together professors from across the university for pedagogical collaborations. At Columbia World Projects, she codeveloped a program that teaches botany and creative writing to New York teens through tracing the paths non-native plants took to arrive in the city. She recently returned to Montana to help run her family’s cattle ranch near Boulder. She continues to collaborate on teaching and writing experiments at the intersections of art, science, and climate—as much as haying season allows.

Cindy Stergar

CEO – Montana Primary Care Association

Cindy Stergar is the CEO of the Montana Primary Care Association. A long time advocate for health quality care access for underserved and vulnerable populations, Stergar was previously the CEO of the Community Health Center in Butte where she oversaw exponential growth of staff and services for the SW Montana region. Stergar has over 20 years of experience as an administrator and consultant, working with multiple healthcare organizations across Montana and the Northwest U.S. She holds a masters degree in organizational development from Whitworth College.

Michelle Uberuaga

Senior Yellowstone Program Manager – National Parks Conservation Association

Michelle Uberuaga is an environmental attorney, field organizer and researcher, and mother of three who is currently the Senior Program Manager for Yellowstone with the National Parks Conservation Association. The former Executive Director of the Park County Environmental Council, Uberuaga also launched the Mom’s Clean Air Force chapter in Montana which has grown to over 4,000 members. She has been a working advocate for conservation, climate and public lands policy in Montana for over 15 years.

Robert Watson

Executive Director – School Administrators of Montana

Born and raised in Montana, Dr. Rob Watson has spent over 30 years serving in various leadership roles in K12 public education. Currently, Rob serves as the Executive Director at School Administrators of Montana. Having recently celebrated 50 years in existence, the SAM organization is a non-profit designed to serve the needs of more than 1000 public education leaders from across Montana. As Executive Director, Rob supports public education through advocacy, development of policy, and leadership professional learning. In addition, Rob provides specific support for school districts and communities by leading a facilitated consensus process to develop comprehensive solutions for complex issues.

Previously, Rob served in leadership roles for more than 10 years as the school superintendent in two of Montana’s largest communities, Bozeman and Missoula. Other experience has included leadership positions in several schools, both in Montana and Alaska. Rob began his career as a math and science teacher in Anchorage, Alaska.

Rob holds a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from Montana State University, a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Alaska, and received his Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Montana in 2009. At the state level, Rob has provided leadership with the Board of Public Education and Office of Public Instruction as a consultant and content provider. Rob has also taught graduate level leadership courses at both the University of Montana and Montana State University. At the local level, Rob has served as a board member for the Missoula Economic Partnership, Bozeman Health, Missoula County United Way and the Greater Gallatin United Way.