Home:

Tracy lives in Missoula. She moved here to do her masters at EVST from just outside Washington, DC in Maryland where she grew up.

Present Position:

Associate Vice President for Public Lands for the National Wildlife Federation.

Her Passion:

“What drives my passion,” says Tracy, “is people’s connection to place—that incredible yearning we have to pass along a place better than we found it—leaving it for future generations.” Tracy is also passionate about restoration, like the work she did on restoring the Clark Fork River and securing long-term protection via Congressional action.

Accomplishments:

While Tracy’s accomplishments are many, the removal of the Milltown Dam at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers and the restoration of the watershed stands out as one she is particularly proud of. “It’s really how we made an environmental issue, became a community issue—that is what made the project successful,” says Tracy. “I am also proud that we were able to re-elect Governor Steve Bullock, in part on his stance on public lands. That helped re-define politics here and across the West.” As his Chief of Staff from 2014 to 2017, Tracy was both a confidant and a strategist to the governor, and part of a team that helped him see how his commitment to public lands and conservation could become an asset. (She originally joined his cabinet as his Director of the Department of Environmental Quality.) “Now the challenge continues,” says Tracy, “to ensure that electeds across the West do the right thing.” Tracy is also grateful to have been part of the campaign, when she was the Executive Director of the Clark Fork Coalition, to uphold the state’s ban on cyanide heap-leach mining in Montana that, despite being seriously outspent by the mining industry, won with 57% of the vote.

What Others Are Saying:

Author Rick Bass says, "With Tracy and her rich soul, there is always very much the wonderful feeling of getting two-for-one. Passionate, she’s also wildly pragmatic. A dreamer—Restore the Clark Fork!—she’s also a do-er: Restore the Clark Fork! She’s inevitably the smartest person in the room and almost always also the most patient. This combination is a definition of wisdom."

What Tracy Says About EVST:

“It’s not an understatement to say that EVST, and my choice to come out west, set the course of my life both personally and professionally,” says Tracy. “EVST was my gateway. One of my two best decisions in life.” The other decision, to marry author, Dick Manning, was connected to her decision to come to EVST. Tracy met Dick when he spoke at her environmental journalism class and she asked him to be a judge for the International Wildlife Film Festival, which at the time was housed in EVST.