For the past 30 years, Lise has served the outdoors and the outdoor industry, whether she has worked to protect lands and wildlife habitat, to build parks and trails, to connect communities to outdoor infrastructure or to grow and ensure the vitality of the outdoor gear and apparel industry. She currently serves as the executive director of Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), the trade group that represents 1,000 retailers, manufacturers, suppliers and other businesses in the outdoor recreation industry. OIA does work on behalf of its member companies in the areas of policy and programming that supports thriving businesses, people thriving outside, and a thriving planet. Prior to her leadership of OIA, Lise served as the executive director of the Outdoor Foundation, OIA’s charitable arm that works to inspire the outdoor habit through community investments and research.
Lise previously served as the National Park Foundation’s Executive Vice President. She played a primary role in managing the organization and in helping the foundation in its initiatives to ensure the strongest second century possible for America’s national parks, including fundraising toward the $350 million Centennial Campaign for America’s National Parks.
In the 1990s, Lise helped establish the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Trust Fund– a constitutionally chartered public fund–and later served as the executive director, shepherding more than $600 million in investments for the protection of 1 million acres of land for people and wildlife, transforming school playgrounds into natural play spaces, constructing community parks, protecting 1000 miles of river corridor, and building 900 miles of trails. Under Lise’s leadership, GOCO launched a first-of-its-kind collective impact model for engaging youth and community organizations in making the outdoors come alive for children — from their backyards to the backcountry.
Lise began her career in natural resources as a field biologist in the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and held positions with the Colorado Conservation Trust, California Department of Fish and Game, and the U.S. Department of the Interior as a presidential management fellow. She earned her master’s degree from the Yale School of the Environmental and her bachelor’s from St. Lawrence University. Lise is a board member of the Resources Legacy Fund, Land Trust Alliance and Global Dental Relief and serves on the advisory committee for the Salazar Center for North American Conservation. She also serves annually as a trip leader for Global Dental Relief to its clinic site in Kenya.