South Sound Leadership Conference Presenters
We are excited to offer two in-person days of professional development - one in Seattle and one in Tacoma - dedicated to thanking, inspiring, and empowering The Mountaineers current and aspiring volunteer leaders. Both conferences will offer equivalent content, with a similar line-up of presenters, expanding our reach and giving volunteers the flexibility to select the program that is most convenient for them.
Join us at one of our Leadership Conferences!
Breakout sessions
- Click here to view a list of the North Sound Leadership Conference breakout sessions
- Click here to view a list of the South Sound Leadership Conference breakout sessions
Presenters
Jeannette Stawski
Keynote Speaker
Jeannette Stawski is the author of, “The Outdoor Leader '' which was released by Mountaineers in 2024. She currently serves as executive director for the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE). She is a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and a Certified Executive Coach. She was the director of Outdoor Adventures at the University of Michigan for eleven years and has worked as a professional outdoor guide, a wilderness medicine instructor, and NOLS instructor. She is currently the chair of the Coalition for Outdoor Access (COA) and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband and their two children.
Tom Unger
Tom Unger grew up in Michigan, family camping and messing around in small boats on rivers and big lakes. In 1989 he moved to Seattle to be near mountains and the ocean. In 1993 he joined the mountaineers, got equivalency for basic climbing, completed the intermediate climbing course, and became a climb leader. That started his 3 decade carrier of exploring the outdoors in various modes, including:
- hiking and backpacking, especially traverses in the Sierra
- crag and alpine climbing
- backcountry skiing
- canyoneering in Utah
- sailing in the great lakes and Salish sea
- scuba diving in Puget sound and the tropics
- flying small planes here and in the Idaho and Utah backcountry
- canoeing and packrafting locally and in the arctic
- sea kayaking in the Salish sea and the coast of Canada and Alaska
Bam Mendiola
Bam Mendiola (they/them) is an award-winning anti-racism facilitator who has facilitated hundreds of trainings and gone on dozens of Mountaineers trips. Their work is informed by their lived experience as a non-binary person of color and has been featured by NBC, REI Co-Op, WTA and Mountainfilm Festival. Bam is the recipient of the Outdoor Industry Associations’ Together We Are A Force Award and lives on Duwamish land with their four-legged teacher, a ragdoll cat named Mitzi.
Katja Hurt
Katjarina “Katja” Hurt (she/her/hers) is the Founder and Director of the non-profit organization, Wilderness Chaplains. She is a master-level trainer with a background in behavioral health and public safety and volunteers as a chaplain with the King County Sheriff's Office. With over eight years as a member of The Mountaineers and 17 years as a Ski Patroller, you will most likely find her in the mountains.
Angie Marie
Angie Marie is a speaker, author and recreational mountain athlete who's fascinated by the intersection of adventure and womanhood. Fueled by her nonprofit background in increasing outdoor accessibility to underserved communities, she inspires teams to think and act adventurously so they can face fear, beat burnout and live like leaders.
With experience as an adaptive recreation guide, outdoor curriculum writer, wilderness first aid instructor and search and rescue team member, Angie blends her multi-hyphenate background with storytelling that encourages a happier, healthier, more adventurous world.
She lives in White Salmon, WA in the Columbia River Gorge, where she enjoys ultrarunning, mountaineering, and, recently, learning to whitewater kayak. Find her work at www.itsangiemarie.com.
Steve Smith
Steve Smith is a risk management consultant at Experiential Consulting, LLC. He has worked in the outdoor industry for over thirty years, including hundreds of days in the field instructing, administrative leadership roles with national organizations including Outward Bound and The Student Conservation Association, and helping The Mountaineers envision and launch Progressive Climbing Education as a member of the Adult Education department. Steve served as chair of the Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) for three years. He has a Master's degree in English Composition, along with six years of university-level teaching experience, and earned a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification from the Society for Human Resources Management, all of which help him view outdoor education through a variety of educational and administrative lenses. A regular speaker at regional and national conferences, Steve strives to make his presentations fun, engaging, and practical. He lives in Seattle and enjoys exploring the mountains, forests, and coastlines of the Pacific Northwest.
Liz Riggs Meder
Liz Riggs Meder is an educational experience designer who most recently worked as the Director of Education at AIARE, an avalanche education non-profit. Liz draws on her teaching and curriculum design background to craft impactful workshops and presentations that help people build outdoor expertise. Based in Seattle, Liz holds an M.Ed from the University of Washington. A learning and cognitive science nerd, Liz loves combining her education interests with her love of traveling through the mountains.
