Moderators

Kim Cross is a New York Times best-selling author and journalist known for meticulously reported narrative nonfiction. A full-time freelance writer, she has bylines in the New York Times, Outside, Bicycling, Garden & Gun, and other publications. Her work has been recognized in “Best of” lists by the the New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Sunday Longread, and Best American Sports Writing. She teaches Feature Writing for Harvard Extension School.

Dr. Vanessa Crossgrove Fry is Interim Director at the Idaho Policy Institute (IPI) where she leads students, staff, and faculty in providing innovative and objective research to help public, private, and nonprofit leaders overcome challenges and navigate change.  She serves as Associate Research Professor in the School of Public Service where she teaches the MPA Capstone and co-teaches the Vertically Integrated Project Housing Opportunities for All. Dr. Fry has focused both her work and education on utilizing multi-sector, evidenced-based solutions to address persistent social, environmental, and economic issues and meet the current and critical needs in communities across Idaho and beyond.

Dr. Fry is also an Adjunct Faculty Member at Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco where she received her MBA in Sustainable Management. Vanessa also holds a BA in Biology and Fine Art from Wittenberg University in Ohio and a PhD in Public Policy and Administration from Boise State. In addition, Vanessa serves on the board of the Red Cross of Greater Idaho. When she’s not commuting with her family back and forth between Boise and Custer County you can find her on Twitter @IdahoVanessa. LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Kirk Siegler is a national correspondent for NPR News. As a roving reporter, he covers the western U.S. with an emphasis on rural issues, water and the effects of climate change on smaller communities and former natural resource dependent towns. Recent assignments have taken him to the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona where indigenous groups are protesting mines proposed on ancestral lands that are also seen as key to the Biden administration’s goals of transforming the U.S. transportation grid to electricity. After the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, Siegler spent months chronicling the diaspora of residents from Paradise, exploring the continuing questions over how – or whether – the town should rebuild in an era of worsening climate-driven wildfires. Siegler is also frequently deployed to national and international breaking news events. He grew up in Missoula, Montana and apart from a brief stint as a waiter in Australia, has spent most of his adult life living and working in the American West, including in Denver, Los Angeles and Boise.

Scott is Administrator of Chattanooga’s Parks & Outdoors which includes the city’s award winning 20-year-old Outdoor Chattanooga Program. Chattanooga is the only city to be awarded Outside Magazine’s “Best Town Ever” award twice. Previously, he was the founding Director of River Heritage Conservancy, Inc, served as Parks Director for 21 st Century Parks, Inc., creators of the $180M 4,000-acre Parklands of Floyds Fork in Louisville (KY), and led the Franklin County, Virginia parks system. He began his career with the Boise Parks & Recreation Department including being part of the 2001 Foothills Serial Levy movement. As North American Chair for World Urban Parks, he has delivered talks in Australia, Canada, Europe, and Mexico with projects featured in the Australasia Parks and Leisure Journal, Landscape Architecture Magazine, City Lab, Next City, the National Association of Olmsted Parks, National Geographic, and ICLEI. Scott is a National Association of Parks Foundations faculty member and an elected Fellow in the American Academy for Parks’ Recreation Administration. Scott holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Boise State University (Go Broncos!) He and his wife, Jennifer with their marginally well-behaved Dalmatian get outdoors as much as possible to enjoy birding, hiking, and warm southern Appalachian water whitewater.