Community Planning Manager
Brooke grew up near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and first realized her love for national parks on a family road trip to the Tetons at the impressionable age of fourteen. She went on to study Conservation Planning and Management, including coursework in urban planning, at the University of Idaho. After a stint at Mount Rushmore National Memorial and another with the Glacier National Park Conservancy, she accepted a master’s fellowship studying outdoor recreation policy at Utah State University in partnership with the National Park Service Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Division in Washington D.C. While in D.C., she survived two government shutdowns, the D.C. metro system, and the hordes of Cherry Blossom goers, all while completing her thesis analyzing how state institutions are leveraging outdoor recreation for greater environmental, economic, and social outcomes.
Although she remains a “parkie” at heart, Brooke realized that gateway communities like Jackson, and other natural-amenity-rich areas such as her hometown, were perhaps more in need of conservation champions. Brooke believes there is just as much at stake for conservation on our private lands – which far outnumber publicly protected lands – and that local land use and community planning decisions are powerful tools in protecting wildlife, wild places, and community character. She looks forward to working with local government to proactively plan a Teton County that remains a place that people want to live, play, and work.