Category: Profiles

By Rebekah Phillips

I am deeply humbled and honored to be joining the Mazamas as your Executive Director, and wish to thank you, our supporters, for your warm welcome, as well as the Mazama Board of Directors, Interim E.D., and staff for facilitating such a smooth and focused transition during this exciting time.

Throughout my 20 years in nonprofit leadership, accessibility and advocacy have been the guiding principles behind increasing both engagement and revenues. On the marketing end, I’m often responsible for developing the strategies that bring folks through an organization’s door for the very first time. If I do my job right, that initial experience generates a spark that then keeps a person coming back for more. As a fundraiser, I’m a fierce champion of our mission and values, always striving to keep members, volunteers, and donors inspired and empowered by our programming and impact. In any nonprofit, acquisition means nothing without retention, and I’m eager to roll up my sleeves on both fronts.

After so many years in the performing arts, joining the Mazamas has the distinct feeling of coming home. A lifelong Oregonian (and a rather chest-thumping one at that), my passion for the outdoors was stoked at an early age. I was lucky enough to have elementary school teachers who valued the natural sciences, and we often learned them in the field. Our classrooms ventured to the Redwoods, where we learned to identify nettles, salmonberries, and banana slugs. We explored the Lava Beds, where, led by “Captain Jack” Kintpuash, the Modoc used their knowledge of the tricky terrain to resist their white oppressors. We watched reel-to-reel footage of Mount St. Helens’ massive eruption while our teachers reminded us that we’d been born among its ashes, and as we learned about lahars, pumice, and obsidian in the shadows of Crater Lake, our young imaginations contemplated what must have been the terrible magnitude of Mt. Mazama’s eruption nearly 8,000 years prior.

These sorts of lessons were also received at home. As a family of six, we camped, hiked, and fished everywhere from Harris Beach to Yellowstone, often spending seemingly endless hours waiting for my dad—an avid nature photographer—to catch up with the rest of the family after stopping to carefully capture the perfect waterfall, tiger lily, or sunset on film. Needless to say, most summer weekends were spent chasing a view, hiking switchback after switchback, exploring wildernesses from Castle Crags all the way up to the North Cascades. The training, discipline, and teamwork I’ve found among the mountains—and as a member of the Mazamas myself—is a powerful reminder that we are all interconnected, and that nature is the ultimate teacher.

As you are all aware, the extensive history of the Mazamas has endowed the organization with considerable influence in the present-day field of responsible recreation. I applaud the membership for taking the important step of revising the bylaws to maintain our standing as leaders while positioning the organization for critical growth. Big change often comes with the discomfort of uncertainty, but so, too, does it come with opportunities for learning; as your Executive Director, I am deeply committed to staying curious and working together to meet the challenges of the future.

Perhaps what excites me most is how our mission to inspire everyone to love and protect the mountains provides so much room for creativity. In making a difference for generations to come, we have many strengths to leverage: our legacy as advocates and stewards; our distinguished role as expert outdoor educators; and, of course, our members, who, with their vast and varied skills, knowledge, and passions, form a mighty corps of ambassadors for the wild lands and spaces we celebrate.

For nearly 130 years, the Mazamas have flourished by staying true to values of inclusivity, collaboration, and sustainability. But we know that America’s outdoor spaces have been shaped by systemic racism, economic inequality, and the erasure of Indigenous history. The Route Ahead depends on forging spaces of belonging in which all of us feel meaningfully represented. Now more than ever our parks, peaks, and public lands are calling on us to dismantle barriers, create positive experiences for others, and bridge cultural, economic, and political divides. The work is exciting, but let’s be clear—it will be work. Lucky for us, the work of a Mazama comes with plenty of play.

Drop me a line anytime—and let’s get out there together!