Welcome Maura Olivos to the Guild’s staff
Written by Maura Olivos, Pacific Northwest Region Coordinator
What interests you most about working for the Guild?
The Guild has a variety of fantastic efforts, all of which interest me, and a vision that speaks to my personal and professional goals. Yet, I think within my role for the Pacific Northwest I’m most looking forward to meeting and hopefully connecting with Guild members. The PNW has a long history of forestry, forestry professionals and research, and I really enjoy learning and hearing people’s stories. In addition, I’m very excited for the Foresters for the Birds and Women Owning Woodlands programs. These programs will be a great way to both connect with my fellow west coasters and hang out in the woods.
What do you feel you can contribute to the Guild?
It has a been a fun and challenging course of work that has brought me to the Forest Stewards Guild. My early work was very much science or people, then as my experience progressed, the work started blending and including interpretation, collaboration, and a lot more learning. With the Guild I’m looking forward to using both my science and public relations background to 1) share and support the Guild’s principles, which are guided by science and 2) work with members and partners to continue to improve and progress the conservation of our forests.
What are you hoping to gain from this opportunity with the Guild, either on a personal or professional level?
With the help of Guild members and partners I’m looking forward to gaining a greater familiarity and understanding of Northwest forests. There is also a very good likelihood I will gain more from this opportunity than I can foresee, and though I don’t know exactly what that may be, I’m sure it will be good.
From Zander Evans: We are excited to welcome Maura to the Guild’s staff. It was clear from our first conversations that Maura fit in at the Guild. Her grounding in the science of ecology paired with her passion for stewardship align perfectly with Guild principles. As a forest landowner herself, she has a direct connection to the day-to-day challenges of stewardship. Her enthusiasm for connecting people and forests is contagious. She is already helping the team organizing the Innovative Forestry Summit, which will be a great way for members to meet her and vice versa. As the pandemic retreats, she’ll be organizing the kinds of field events we all miss.
The vision for the Guild is to make ecologically, economically, and socially responsible forestry as the standard for professional forest management, from coast to coast. Maura is ideally suited to this role and I am really excited to watch how the Guild can grow in the region with Maura’s help.