South Sound Leadership Conference Presenters

South Sound Leadership Conference Presenters

Read about the presenters at the Leadership Conference at the Tacoma Program Center on March 22, 2025. Information will be updated and added as presenters are confirmed. Please check back often for additional information.

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” published by The Mountaineers, and owner of leadership development company Leading Valiantly. 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.

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Photo Courtesy of Jeannette Stawski

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
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Photo Courtesy of Tom Unger

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 Association’s Together We Are A Force Award and lives on Yakama land.

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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.

IMG_4368.JPGPhoto Courtesy of Katja Hurt

Dr. Dennis Eller

Dr. Dennis Eller has been a member of the Mountaineers since 2017, an educator in FWPS, a veteran, an AMGA certified guide, and a Rescue Technician with Tacoma Mountain Rescue. Dr. Eller shares a deep passion for nature and a commitment to share its wonders with others, which has created a lifelong pursuit of environmental education and advocacy in addition to promoting safe access through risk management.

Dennis has served in numerous high-risk environments as a Special Operations Team leader, Firefighter/EMT, and Rescue Support Specialist with TMRU. He has led and participated on multiple missions throughout the Pacific Northwest with many being on Mt Rainier NPS.

One of Dennis's most remarkable contributions has been his dedication to making outdoor spaces more accessible to Native American communities and creating standardized training for Mountain Rescue Units.  This has allowed him to actively promote diversity and inclusion within outdoor organizations and the broader outdoor industry. He has advocated for recruiting and training Native American guides, leaders, and educators, ensuring that there are role models and mentors for future generations through his work with public education organizations, volunteer organizations, and Mountain rescue organizations.

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Photo by Angie Arms, Courtesy of Dr. Dennis Eller


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.

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Photo Courtesy of Angie Marie

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.

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Photo Courtesy of Steve Smith