Do “Natural Leaders” Exist? - Online Classroom

7:30-8:30pm PST via Zoom Meeting
Meeting link will be sent to registered attendees the day of the session.

Do “natural leaders” exist?

What is leadership? Who decides a person’s ability to lead? What is this weird and wonderful niche we call outdoor experiential education? And, to go full Zoolander, “Who am I?”

Consider these and other existential questions with this casual one-hour introductory seminar on the history of outdoor leadership theory. We’ll start with a quick post-it note exercise to set you thinking about your motivations as an outdoor leader, then take you on a whirlwind tour through the most well-known early and contemporary theories of leadership. We’ll address bias in these theories and argue that the most important starting place for any (aspiring) outdoor leader is your own leadership philosophy. 15-20% low-key active participation.

ONLINE ONLY

This seminar will be delivered online via Zoom meeting. You will need access to a computer or device (preferably with a speaker and camera), as well as high-speed internet. Information about how to log-on to the Zoom meeting will be emailed the day of the session.

PResenters

Amelie Mabbutt holds a MSci in Community and Public Health Nursing: Leadership and Program Development from Seattle University, which impresses exactly no one in the Netherlands, where she has lived and worked since 2012. In 2024, she will finish a three-year International Mountain Leader certification and can start professionally guiding folks who dig trail running, backpacking, and snowshoeing in high places. When not bouncing around in the mountains, Amelie is a self-employed member of an all-women furniture maker’s collective in Amsterdam, a city as non-mountain as it gets.

Edward Monrad whetted his mountain appetite from an early age, on epic Boy Scout trips in the Cascade and Olympic ranges. Camping in snow caves, climbing volcanoes, 50-mile backpacking trips, and one rain-drenched canoe trip to Bowren Lakes taught teenaged Ed that he was built for endurance in nature.  Today, his happy flow place is running pell-mell down single-track paths, wherever he can find them. In 2024, he will finish a three-year International Mountain Leader certification and can start professionally guiding folks who like running the European steep and rocky as much as he does. Ed lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.  

L:ead Image: Emerald Peak. By Luke Helgeson