The Mountain Mamas team is made up of… Mamas. Whether by nature or nurture, we are all women who feel called to be the caretakers of our places and our people.
Mountain Mamas protect our air, water, climate and public lands for future generations.
Mamas envision a future with clean air and water for our families, climate justice for all communities, and protected public lands that allow our children to enjoy our outdoor quality of life for generations to come.
Everyday we get closer to making that vision a reality by organizing Mamas across the Rocky Mountains and ensuring we are at the table where decisions are being made.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commitment
Mamas include trans women, non-binary people, cis women, and any other person who finds themselves identifying in some way with the incredible label of “mom”. Everyone belongs in our work – that means we strive to increase our justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and center these values in our work.
We believe all children deserve to breathe clean air, drink clean water, enjoy public lands and have a bright future. We recognize that this vision is not true today and that Black, Latino/a/e and Indigenous families have borne, and still bear, the worst impacts of environmental degradation. Every community should have a voice that is heard as decisions are made that impact their community.
Mountain Mamas commit to working both within our organization and our communities to honor and support marginalized individuals.
STAFF
Becky Edwards
Executive Director
Becky is mama to Addy, Myla, and Kaia, and calls southwest Montana home. Her motto is “never, ever, ever give up”, which has served her well climbing mountains around the globe, starting conservation non-profits, and negotiating bedtimes. What inspires and drives Becky most in her work with the Mountain Mamas is witnessing and sharing the “mama-bear instincts” women of all stripes have for their children, and channeling that fierceness into advocacy for the next generation.
Becky has worked in communications for nearly two decades, and for the past ten years has worked to advance federal legislation which ensures our kids and grandkids have fresh air, clean water, and plenty of access to public lands.
Sara Kuntzler
Colorado State Director
Sara grew up in Colorado and loves seeing her two children discover all the things this beautiful state has to offer. She comes to us with over 15 years of experience in the labor movement, working to elect pro-worker lawmakers and advance legislation through grassroots advocacy at the local, state and federal levels. Her passion has always been to lift all boats, working to ensure everyone has equal opportunities to provide for their families and live a dignified life. Sara is excited to bring that same passion to ensuring our kids have access to clean air and clean water, along with a brighter future that all of our kids deserve.
Erin Benedict
Montana State Director
Erin’s fondest childhood memories are of playing in the woods, going on family nature walks, riding her bike to a friend’s house and packing up an old wagon to pretend she was on the Oregon Trail. Which, she realizes now, is probably what inspired her to pack up her car in 2008 and drive west with no determined destination. That drive landed her in Montana. Once she started climbing mountains, rafting the rivers and exploring with her rescue dog, Maya, she never looked back. Protecting these wild places and resources for the next generation became an even more important part of her life after her son was born.
Erin has dedicated her time to work that is important to her, including serving as a former Mountain Mamas board member. She has spent the last 20 years working in journalism, branding and marketing, and nonprofit communications. Her happy place is sitting in the sunshine atop a mountain with no reason to hurry back down.
Selina Barajas
Arizona Program Manager
Selina Barajas is a fourth-generation Tucsonan and a proud graduate of the University of Arizona and UCLA’s Department of Urban Planning master’s program. She is deeply committed to environmental justice, working to ensure that historically disadvantaged groups have equitable access to healthy environments and green spaces.
Selina is the founder of Reinas Who Hike, a collective based in Southern Arizona that promotes outdoor activities, particularly hiking, among women of color. This group focuses on creating safe, inclusive spaces for women to re:connect with nature, enhance their physical and mental well-being, and foster empowerment through outdoor adventures. Through organized hikes and free events, Reinas Who Hike encourages participants to reclaim their relationship with nature and challenge the historical underrepresentation of people of color in outdoor recreation.
When she’s not working or building community, Selina loves spending time with her husband Abraham and their two young daughters, Sofia Luna and Mia Sol, marveling at the vibrant desert sunsets and monsoon rains that the Sonoran Desert offers.
Kayla Mosher
Mamas Rural Organizer – Sanders County, Montana
The daughter of a Special Olympics coach, Kayla saw how her dad showed people how to have fun outdoors, despite physical challenges. She saw the powerful effect that the outdoors has on people’s physical, mental, and emotional wellness. She knew from a young age that she wanted to help people to discover the benefits of spending time outdoors, not only in sports, but in all areas.
At the University of Montana, she augmented her double-major in Parks Tourism and Recreation Management and Resource Conservation with a minor in Wilderness Studies. She interned with Challenge Aspen, a nonprofit in Colorado that teaches disabled persons to alpine ski. She also worked for the USFS on a trail crew in Thompson Falls.
When Kayla isn’t leading our Mamas Rural organizing efforts for Sanders County from her home in Thompson Falls, she is spending time with her husband, two small children, and three dogs in the wilds and the waters of Montana.
Sadie Lingelbach-Pierce
Digital Systems Coordinator
Sadie grew up in New Hampshire alpine skiing, running, and hiking, and recently graduated from St. Lawrence University. Sadie joined our team as an intern, and we are SO lucky to have her on board long-term as our Digital Systems Coordinator, making everything happen behind the scenes of the Mountain Mamas! Sadie is passionate about access to the outdoors and her extensive experience in nannying has solidified her enthusiasm for getting kids outside and keeping them active.
BOARD
Alison James
Alison grew up near Helena and is deeply grateful that her parents chose to plant her in Montana. “I believe that everyone, new and old, should work together to care for each other and our extra-special places, and that’s why I’m a part of the Mountain Mamas.” Alison has worked in education and for nonprofits supporting reproductive choice, health care, public lands, and other human rights. She loves traveling with her husband Jason, and she especially loves coming home.
Paola Ramirez
Paola, a proud native of Laguna Hills, CA now living in Denver, CO, began her educational career with Teach for America, teaching for a variety of bilingual schools. While taking time off to raise her two children, she has served on several boards including the Teach for America Alumni Board, Denver Discovery School, and most recently the Colorado Soccer Federation. Paola and her family are often found exploring the mountains of Colorado and rainforests of Guatemala, and she is committed to advocating for and creating environments that are supportive of Black, Latinx and Indigenouse children and families.
Shauna Stephenson
Shauna parlayed her “nerdy” letters to the nearby coal-fired power plant to “please pollute less,” to her grown-up job as a national communications director. “Being a Mountain Mama means understanding, valuing, and cultivating that connection to the outdoors whether it is through children or friends or neighbors. It might be the best gift we can give. But like mamas from all species, the nurturing of that connection comes with the responsibility of protecting it.”
Maggie Doherty
Maggie Neal Doherty was raised on the Inland Seas of the Great Lakes and lives in the Interior Mountain West of northwest Montana with her two kids and her husband. She is a freelance writer and opinion columnist who sparks conversation about the value of the environment and how it connects to our entire ecosystems of community, politics, and culture. As the bookish ski bum and river rat, she brings over a decade of experience serving on nonprofit boards and civic engagement advocacy to the Mountain Mamas alongside her active commitment to public land access and a clean and healthy environment. She loves to raise her kids under Montana’s big skies, wild mountain ranges, and free-flowing rivers.
Ciara Faber
Ciara was born and raised in Taos, NM, spending most of her time outdoors splashing in the Rio Grande, hiking in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, and skiing in the winter. She appreciated how the Taos Pueblo indigenous people care for the environment and treat it as sacred. Now, she lives in Denver, Colorado, seeking nature at every opportunity. Needless to say, she has kept the mountains close to her heart and home. She is a public interest attorney with a focus on helping marginalized communities, and has proudly worked for the Native American Rights Fund and a global human rights project through the University of Denver. She has two young children, and hopes to instill in them a love and reverence for nature and a commitment to protecting it.
ADVISORY BOARD
Nici Holt Cline
Nici is a fourth-generation Montana Mountain Mama raising a fifth. As the founder and owner of Dig This Chick, her work is to inspire connection, adventure, and experience. She uses her voice to advocate for environmental education and women’s rights. “Everything my family does for fun depends on access to public lands. It’s a big reason we made the choice to raise a family in Montana. Advocacy begins with a person caring. And it’s impossible to be in nature and not care about it.”
Jenn Doherty
Jenn is a river seeker, hunter, hiker, gardener, Mama, and leads the permanent land protection program for a leading national nonprofit. While a love of our shared wild places guides her work, a passion for family adventures and river time guide her soul. Her philosophy of “Do one thing every day that scares you,” is just the kind of passion the Mountain Mamas value.
Sara Busse
More than two decades ago the mountains of Montana called Sara home from the Midwest. A love of people, words, and nature have guided her work, while the call of family, rivers, and mountains have guided her soul. A recent trip to Washington, D.C. on behalf of the Land & Water Conservation Fund sealed her passion for raising her voice for the issues that matter most to her and her family – clean water to fish and raft, public lands for exploring and hunting, and a climate crisis that requires our best fight. Sharing the diversity of stories of Mountain Mamas is inspirational and aspirational. And leaves her thinking she needs to become an ultra runner and run for president…or just stay home and take a bath and read a book.
EN 
SP