KATHY RINALDI

DIRECTOR OF CONSERVATION

Kathy provides strategic leadership and support to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s conservation team in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. She brings decades of experience creating innovative ways to conserve and protect Greater Yellowstone with special expertise in collaborations, land management planning, and policy.

As a Midwesterner, Kathy dreamed of the mountains and a wild landscape. After travelling the west from Alaska to Costa Rica as an instructor and guide, she made Idaho her home nearly 30 years ago when she attended graduate school at the University of Idaho. Kathy joined GYC in 2014 after six years serving as a county commissioner. She has served on several boards and commissions in Idaho, including the Governor’s Roadless Commission and the Bureau of Land Management’s Resource Advisory Commission.

Kathy lives with her husband and their two boys in Driggs, Idaho where they enjoy skiing, running rivers, mountain biking, hunting, and foraging.

Favorite Greater Yellowstone Animal: Elk, the phantoms of the forest

Conservation Hero: Aldo Leopold

First Job: Ice cream scooper