​We’re celebrating Abby’s 10-year work Anniversary this month!

And as one who has been lucky enough to work with Abby this whole time, I offer some reflections on just what a wonderful leader and colleague she is.

When we started Climate Smart almost 11 years ago, it was just me and one very part-time assistant. I knew we needed another person with smarts, heart, dedication to climate action, and a willingness to jump in the deep end.

When I met Abby, she was just finishing her master’s degree from UM’s EVST program where she focused on climate solutions. Immediately impressed, I cajoled her into at least spending the summer with us. I’m sure she didn’t know if we were the real deal or what she was getting into. (This was truly a mission-driven, wing and a prayer startup, so I didn’t either). Yet together we doggedly grew this nascent organization into a solid and impactful one.

During Abby’s first 10 years and thanks to her we:  made it through Covid, completed and passed the Climate Ready Missoula resilience plan, lead Missoula’s 100% Clean electricity effort, spent years organizing monthly meetups, showed up to just about every community event, hosted seven ClimateFESTs, talked to a zillion people about what it meant to show up for climate action. Abby welcomes and mentors new staff and interns and shows us all what effective leadership looks like. She’s been an incredible colleague, helping to figure out how to weather the unfathomable vagaries of federal climate policy and crazy state that is Montana.

During this decade Abby also managed to birth and is raising two fantastic children, the youngest a rising kindergartner. She’s taught them empathy and how to find their way in a chaotic world. They are lucky to have such a mom.

Abby is one of the most thoughtful, compassionate, and dedicated individuals I’ve ever been lucky enough to work with. Open-hearted and kind, she’s taught me and others how to stay on the “we’re all in this together and we act because we love our home planet and people” path. The only path worth being on.
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We’re all celebrating and congratulating Abby on 10 years, with more to come!

With deep gratitude -- Amy Cilimburg

We have an abundance of love for this wonderful planet we call home!

Though the ecosystems we depend on are in danger due to human-caused climate change, humans also have the power to turn dystopian projections into livable, happy endings. 

If we put our collective capacity behind the numerous solutions we have to reduce pollution and clean up our air, water and soil, we can have a future where we're in a healthy, symbiotic relationship with Earth, reciprocating her care and protection.

So this month, in honor of love and Valentine's Day, we're excited to champion some of our favorite climate solutions in our mini rom-com series!

What are your favorite climate solutions? Drop us a comment and let us know! You just might inspire Season 2.

Much love to all the climate champions out there - from the bikers to the bakers,

Climate Smart Missoula

What skills / perspectives are you proud to bring to the board?
I have spent the past 25+ years working on land and wildlife conservation efforts and in private law practice focused on real estate, easements, conservation real estate, environmental litigation, and property law. I am hopeful I can put my technical expertise to work on Climate Smart Missoula’s efforts to solve interconnected challenges around climate and renewable energy development in Montana.

What are you most looking forward to about serving? And / or what program at Climate Smart Missoula gets you most excited?
A focus of my current private law practice is land use and real estate and I look forward to bringing those technical skills to bear to help promote more climate resilient communities and employ creative land use solutions that protect our country’s vast natural resources while also promoting health and climate solutions. I am particularly excited to help plan for and advocate for greater renewable energy development in Montana and the west.

What is your hope for our community, related to your goals and our work at Climate Smart Missoula?
I hope to continue moving from vision to implementation of climate solutions in everything from our built environments to our local, state, and national policies. The more we can make small, consistent changes to the status quo, the easier it will be to implement larger policy shifts.

Karen is a recently retired nonprofit Executive Director, with a 31-year career at the Clark Fork Coalition.  She is a founding member of the Climate Smart Missoula board, which officially gained 501 c 3 status in 2019.

How would you like to introduce yourself to folks, when it comes to serving on the Climate Smart Missoula board?
I served from 2007 to 2024 as the Executive Director of the Missoula-based Clark Fork Coalition, a river conservation group working to protect and restore the historically hard-working Clark Fork watershed. Early in my stint as E.D., my organization became concerned about an emerging new threat – namely, the fundamental shift in Montana’s climate and its intensifying impacts on the health of the watershed. Our response included launching a stream restoration program, doubling-down on state water policy reform, and sparking dialogue in Missoula about what climate change means for our hometown rivers and the communities they sustain. We were pleased that the conversation not only struck a chord in the community, but that it expanded far beyond water, and helped bring about the solutions-oriented work of Climate Smart Missoula. It’s been deeply satisfying to be a part of this vital effort since the start!

What skills / perspectives are you proud to bring to the board? 
Given my career in the world of water, I bring perspectives on how climate change impacts community water supplies and waterways, which is one of the most profound and tangible ways western Montanans experience a warming West. As a former nonprofit E.D., I also have skills in calibrating organizations for innovation and impact through strategic planning, governance, and outreach. I have a “swing for the fences” mindset and am wired to be proactive and positive.

What is your favorite part about serving? And / or what program at Climate Smart Missoula gets you most excited? 
It’s deeply satisfying to serve on the board of Climate Smart Missoula. The work of the organization is important, meaningful, and based on giving back, and the team is energetic and action-oriented, with moonshot aspirations. Between the mission, the people, and the collaborative approaches, Climate Smart Missoula has created a space that is exciting and rewarding to be a part of.

What is your hope for our community, related to your goals and our work at Climate Smart Missoula?
My hope is that we keep thinking beyond yesterday’s toolbox and work together to infuse climate resilience and climate equity into everything we do as a community.

For the last 15 years, Pat taught at the Wild Rockies Field Institute and University of Montana in the Philosophy Department, the Davidson Honors College and the Restoration Ecology Program.  He is now retired and has served on the Climate Smart Missoula board since 2023.
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Why did you decide to serve on the Climate Smart Missoula board?
I decided to serve on the board because of my desire to do something effective and pragmatic locally regarding the climate crisis. I have taught many classes on the climate crisis over the last 15 years. However, that sometime seems too theoretical and lacks the feeling of local, real-world effects.

What skills / perspectives are you proud to bring to the board?
I bring to the board a broad understanding of the climate crisis and what large-scale global and individual changes are needed. However, Climate Smart Missoula offers the possibility of doing something at the community level for the city that I love. I, also, have an extensive background in the development and management of environmental organizations.
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What is your favorite part about serving? And / or what program at Climate Smart Missoula gets you most excited?
I find Electrify Missoula, the Footprint Fund, Trees for Missoula - and the tours of Missoula demonstration projects - to be the most interesting.

What is your hope for our community, related to your goals and our work at Climate Smart Missoula?
My hope is that we can gain even more momentum toward achieving our goals of electrification, having renewable power available to the entire community, and a healthy and greatly expanded urban forest.​

Christine served as the science director for the Clark Fork Coalition for 16 years. She is now retired and has served on our board since 2020.

How would you like to introduce yourself to folks, when it comes to serving on the Climate Smart Missoula board?
My interest in and concern with the warming of our planet began in the mid 1990’s when I took, and later taught, a class in global climate change at the University of Montana while working on my Ph.D.  It really opened my eyes.

What skills / perspectives are you proud to bring to the board?
I bring a scientific understanding of climate change. Although my time at the Clark Fork Coalition focused mainly on cleanup of water pollution and the removal of Milltown Dam, I also co-authored a primer on local effects of climate change called Low Flows, Hot Trout. We presented heat-related trends in western Montana along with perspectives from affected stakeholders. Also, through partnership contracts with the Lolo National Forest, I designed and coordinated a new year-round continuous stream temperature monitoring network and co-authored a Forest-wide climate vulnerability assessment.

Why did you decide to serve?
I was involved in a few of [now Executive Director] Amy Cilimburg’s community visioning sessions (pre-Climate Smart Missoula) and when Climate Smart Missoula became an official nonprofit, I knew I wanted to be involved. Climate change is overwhelming, yet there are real and positive steps toward mitigation and adaptation that can be accomplished locally.  I appreciate the local perspective of Climate Smart Missoula.   

What is your favorite part about serving? And / or what program at Climate Smart Missoula gets you most excited?
I love all the work that Climate Smart Missoula does, and I love the energy and commitment that staff bring. If I have to pick a favorite program it is the Footprint Fund (missoulafootprintfund.org).  This is a carbon offset program for businesses or individuals with offset donations, realized as local energy-saving improvements in affordable housing that would not otherwise occur. You can estimate your carbon footprint with an online calculator and donate accordingly, or simply donate to the Fund, knowing that your donation will be used in the greater Missoula area. The Human Resource Council helps us find deserving projects. It’s such a great intersection of environmental justice and carbon mitigation. I also love that Climate Smart Missoula donates fans, HEPA filters, and air purifiers to help folks cope with our increasingly smoky summers. 

What is your hope for our community, related to your goals and our work at Climate Smart Missoula?
My hope is that more and more Missoulians will recognize the good work that Climate Smart Missoula is doing toward climate mitigation and adaptation, and that more people in Montana and beyond recognize the potential for similar work in their communities. I think the adage to “think globally and act locally” applies. 

Paul is the Vice President of Sustainability at Clearwater Credit Union and has served on the Climate Smart Missoula board since we gained nonprofit status in 2019.
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How would you like to introduce yourself to folks, when it comes to serving on the Climate Smart Missoula board?
I’m a long-time climate nerd and lover of wild places, excited to do work I care about in a place I love. 

Why did you decide to serve?
A strong community is important to me personally, and responding to climate change is important to me professionally. Climate Smart Missoula sits right at the intersection of the two. 

What skills / perspectives are you proud to bring to the board?
Climate Smart Missoula’s staff and board are an extraordinary group of people with a really diverse set of skills and perspectives. To the extent that I can offer something additional, I think it is my background in climate science and bent for quantitative analysis. 
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What is your favorite part about serving? And / or what program at Climate Smart Missoula gets you most excited?
I enjoy the chance to have a direct impact on the community I live in, on an issue I care deeply about. Climate change mitigation and adaptation, affordable housing, and strong communities all overlap, and I’m excited to work on programs that touch all three, like Climate Smart Missoula’s Footprint Fund. 

What is your hope for our community, related to your goals and our work at Climate Smart Missoula?
My hope is that the work Climate Smart Missoula is doing will have a direct, material benefit on the lives of people in our community, and that we can demonstrate how to do this to others around the country. 

Why did you decide to serve? 
My children, and those generations yet to come, are the most compelling reasons to work on solutions for the climate crisis.

What skills / perspectives are you proud to bring to the board?
As an Indigenous woman, I am proud to offer perspectives from that lens, and also as a person born and raised in my beloved hometown of Missoula.  

What is your favorite part about serving? And / or what program at Climate Smart Missoula gets you most excited?
I appreciate the coalition of people that Climate Smart Missoula brings together.  I feel more hopeful when I reflect on the meaningful relationships in my life and hope that our organization has also been able to act as a catalyst and bridge for bringing together people from all walks of our community and region.

What is your hope for our community, related to your goals and our work at Climate Smart Missoula?
That we continue to collaborate with, and support, each other during difficult times ahead.

Beth is the Chief Environmental Stewardship Officer for Providence and was a founding member of the Climate Smart Missoula board, which officially gained 501 c 3 status in 2019 (though she was involved with our work well before that!). Her job keeps her extremely busy, but she made time to answer a few questions about her service:

How would you like to introduce yourself to folks, when it comes to serving on the Climate Smart Missoula board?
I have been concerned about the natural world since childhood. In my career as a nurse, I learned about the many ways pollution harms health, and how planetary health, including the functions of Earth’s systems, is crucial for human health and that of other species. I’ve been chipping away at trying to improve this for 3 decades.

Why did you decide to serve?
When Climate Smart Missoula was forming, it was clear that it was a vibrant, evidence-based, action-oriented approach to knitting together community partners to help ensure a healthy Missoula in the face of climate change.  I wanted to be a part of that.

What skills / perspectives are you proud to bring to the board?
Content knowledge, organizational experience, leadership skills, strong work ethic.

What is your favorite part about serving? And / or what program at Climate Smart Missoula gets you most excited?
I like supporting the fabulous staff, and helping make sure the organizational pieces are in order. I like all of the programs – the staff respond to what is needed in the community, often setting the tone and pace for Missoula’s progress. I’m excited about the effectiveness of Climate Smart Missoula.

What is your hope for our community, related to your goals and our work?
That as a community, we continue to anticipate solutions that address health and safety related to climate change, and insight on equity and justice. Climate Smart Missoula has demonstrated its commitment to this progress again and again. We will need to keep going in this direction for decades to come as the impacts of climate change proceed. I hope that Missoula continues to be a creative, vibrant community of solutions, support, and safety in the face of climate change.