A message from Paul Howard, president of the Board of Directors.
April 28, 2023
Dear friends,
Today is an inspiring time to be part of the Wyoming Outdoor Council. While we still embody the hardscrabble spirit of our founder Tom Bell and those early days as a home-grown Wyoming conservation group, we’ve also matured as an organization.
We have a strong base of passionate and engaged members, a dedicated group of staff, and a committed board of directors. Most importantly, we continue to bring people together to protect this place we love. Public lands, wildlife, clean air, and clean water have a voice in Wyoming thanks to you.
Much of the Outdoor Council’s progress during the last six years has come under the guidance and leadership of Lisa McGee, our executive director. It’s my bittersweet responsibility to announce that Lisa has decided to step away from WOC later this year.
From intern to executive director, Lisa has been a constant at the Outdoor Council for the last 18 years. Lisa first joined the staff in 2005 as a staff attorney to lead our National Forest work. Over the next decade, she and our partners secured lasting protections for the Wyoming Range and parts of the Shoshone National Forest. She took the helm as director in 2017, the year WOC celebrated our 50th anniversary. She and our board of directors set some ambitious goals around this milestone, most of which we’ll realize by the year’s end.
As Lisa told me, “So few people have the good fortune to work for and grow professionally within an organization whose mission they so deeply believe in. I’m honored to have contributed to the Outdoor Council’s mission over these many years. It’s been a joy, and I know the best is yet to come for Wyoming’s conservation community.”
While her departure will be felt by all of us, Lisa is leaving the organization on solid footing. Our conservation advocates are driving meaningful change to protect the Red Desert and big game migration corridors, support Indigenous-led conservation efforts, and help Wyoming communities respond to climate change. We’ve committed to becoming a more equitable organization where all people and perspectives are respected. We’ve strengthened our fundraising capacity and are about to break ground on our “forever home” in Lander.
I’m grateful that another of Lisa’s lasting contributions will be a well-thought-out transition to her eventual replacement. Lisa will be staying with us through the end of September and we, the board, hope to have a new executive director in place this fall. The board will be conducting an exhaustive search to find a candidate who can fill Lisa’s shoes — no easy task.
Please join me and the entire Wyoming Outdoor Council board of directors in wishing Lisa good fortune with her next endeavors and thanking her for her leadership, service, and friendship through all of these years.
Sincerely,
Paul Howard
President, Wyoming Outdoor Council Board of Directors
Cheyenne, Wyoming