Scott Steen is the Executive Director of Slow Food in the Tetons and has been involved in this organization for the last 12 years. He has cultivated a lifelong passion for creating a stronger and more resilient food system. Scott first moved to Jackson, WY in 1999 and lives in town with his wife and son. He is passionate about local food as both a celebration of community and culture and as a solution to larger social and environmental issues. He loves music, laughter, good friends, gardens, and dressing up like a yeti. Scott has a BA in Environmental Science and Spanish from Willamette University and is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Sustainable Practices Program. Scott is a certified Zero Waste Business Associate through the US Zero Waste Business Council.
Mari Allan has a background in biology, education, and urban planning. As a former outreach coordinator for Teton County’s Road to Zero Waste initiative, she worked in partnership with Slow Food on efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost and is very proud of the contribution this organization has made to minimizing waste in Jackson Hole. She sees the transition from being an outside partner to a Slow Food team member, in 2020, as a welcome step toward her sustainability goals. Mari Allan believes that the benefits of a local, sustainable food system are fundamental to the wellbeing of our community and our planet and is thrilled to be working to inform and engage others in this endeavor. She moved to Jackson with her husband and two sons in 2014, loves hiking and cross country skiing, and is slowly learning how to garden in the mountains.
Gretchen moved to Jackson full-time in 2001 after spending summers working for Grand Teton National Park while in college at the University of Georgia. A long-time volunteer and then contract employee of Slow Food in the Tetons, Gretchen came on as the full-time Director of Programs and Partnerships in 2020. Outside of work, Gretchen spends most of her time outdoors with friends, trying out new recipes, finding the best food this valley has to offer, and baking treats for her family and friends.
Shannon was born and raised on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State where she grew up hiking and backpacking in the Olympics. Summers were spent in the Sierra Nevadas learning how to ride bikes, fly fishing, and sleeping under the stars. Shannon attended Whitman College where she studied Studio Arts. Her first college summer was spent working at Yellowstone National Park and enjoyed camping at Shadow Mountain on her weekends, gazing at the Tetons and dreaming about returning one day. College graduation led to a career in the arts in New York, but eventually she was ready to exchange the city for mountains and fresh air and returned to Washington State. She ultimately chose a career in EMS and healthcare and worked in a rural Emergency Department during the pandemic which led to a lot of pondering of our healthcare system, how food plays a role in our health, and food as medicine. In September of 2022, she realized her dream of returning to Jackson, WY. Her first weekend in Jackson she volunteered at Slow Food’s Farm to Fork Festival and has been volunteering/working with them ever since. Shannon loves learning about farming and horseback riding, enjoys traveling, eating out, making new recipes at home, biking, hiking, running, and reading.
Charlotte grew up in Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire where from a young age her aspirations were to work with good food. In 2016 she graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelors of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics. She worked as a Clinical Dietitian in York, Maine and during that time branched out to create her own community nutrition programs such as after school cooking classes, farm to table camps and wellness workshops. She found that her passion was teaching individuals and groups of all backgrounds about where food comes from and how to create healthful and tasteful meals from simple, clean ingredients.
Charlotte moved to Jackson in 2020 and often finds that this magical place reminds her of home. You can find her playing outdoors, shopping around at the People’s Market and cooking up special dinners for good friends.
Phoebe grew up gardening in her mom’s vegetable garden in Wilson, Wyoming. With a background in local government, natural resource conservation, and communications, Phoebe traded an office for a shovel and started a native plant and pollinator habitat gardening business in 2023. Currently part of the 2024 University of Idaho Master Gardener cohort, Phoebe looks forward to learning from all the Slow Food in the Tetons’ community gardeners. She holds degrees in International Studies and Geography from the University of Denver and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado, where her capstone work focused on project evaluation and community outreach. Phoebe serves on the board of Teton Raptor Center and loves hiking, cross country skiing, and learning about plants of all kinds.
Brent moved to Wilson in 2007 where he has worked as a bagel baker, whitewater kayak instructor, lumberjack and ranch hand. In 2015, after years of hobby gardening, he went pro and started a small-scale organic vegetable farm on his wife’s family’s horse ranch. Since then he has been on a mission to show that food can be grown in this valley and to help grow the local food movement here. Brent holds a degree in Physics from Northern Arizona University, loves to cook and bake and eat, and when he’s not too tired from farming, likes to paddle, bike and ski.
Ali grew up in North Carolina and cultivated her love of food at an early age. Her dad was a traveling salesman, and several times a year he would turn his business trips into family trips, traveling around the country together in a conversion van, sampling the local (strange) cuisines of the lower 48 states. Ali still loves to travel and her first stop on a trip is always the local farmer’s market or grocer.
Ali graduated from the University of Georgia in 2003, and her best college friend convinced her to move to Jackson for one winter – she has lived and worked in Jackson ever since. She owns a pet care business, Chasing Tails.
Ali enjoys playing outdoors with her husband, two young boys, and her tiny dog. One of her favorite summer activities is attending the Wednesday People’s Market.
Lizzie moved to Jackson from Cleveland, Ohio, in 2016. She quickly extended her love of her Midwest hometown’s local and regional food systems onto the bustling mountain town she hardly knew a thing about. Lizzie started volunteering for Slow Foods at People’s Markets and donor events shortly after her move, and eventually helped with marketing and communications as a part-time employee. While she now spends her days working in private wealth at Wind River Capital Management, her spare time is filled with fly fishing, mountain biking, and enjoying plant-based cooking.
Pam is from the Midwest having grown up in Iowa right along the Mississippi River. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. With a professional background in education, travel and sales she has enjoyed a variety of occupations. More recently she has worked for the past 18 years at the Jackson Hole Land Trust in fundraising. She is currently working for Dancers’ Workshop and is looking forward to serving on the Board of Slow Food in the Tetons. She has always loved to cook and entertain and has always been a fan of the Peoples Market, the Farm Stand and is thrilled to be a part of a group that she has always admired. In her free time she likes to travel and explore as much of the world as possible.
Lina moved to the valley from San Juan, Puerto Rico in May 2013. She made the move to work with the JH Wildlife Film Festival (now Jackson Wild) and Dr. Jane Goodall, who was the featured guest of the 2013 festival and one of Lina’s idols. While living in Puerto Rico, Lina cultivated a passion and her family always encouraged her to start her own garden and growing food. Once in Jackson, she immediately connected with high-altitude gardening experts, and signed up for a Blair Community Garden plot. Today, she and her husband work on their garden plot every year, and are always looking for ways to connect our whole community with accessible and healthy foods, specially the Latinx population. She currently works at Teton Literacy Center as the Director of Outreach, and enjoys spending her free time on walks with her dog and husband, relaxing in a hammock or being out in nature.
Ariel is a Jackson native who is a certified yoga instructor, yoga therapist and fitness instructor. She teaches private and group classes both online and at various locations in Jackson. Off the mat, Ariel has had a life-long interest in good food and cooking which began in elementary school when she took 4-H cooking classes. Bringing people together and creating community through good food has always been a source of immense joy. So much so, that during her college years, she started a side business cooking and hosting dinner parties for friends. Returning to Jackson after college, that then morphed into a successful private chef and catering business here for over a decade. When not doing yoga or trying new recipes, Ariel and her dog, Oatsie, a therapy dog, can also be found volunteering for Teton County Pet Partners.
Leif Routman is a passionate local food systems advocate, connector and forager. He makes his living in the Teton region primarily as a musician-bandleader and composer; alongside moonlighting in vegetable farming and professional cooking. Leif enjoys traveling through the mountains on both foot and ski, and loves spending time recreating and foraging amidst wild public lands near and far. In his cooking for both community and clients, he works and studies to understand and integrate timeless culinary techniques from his travels around the globe with the terroir and richness of both the cultivated and wild ingredients of the Greater Yellowstone region.
Katie moved to Jackson full-time in 2020 after visiting here for nearly a decade. Passionate about community, connection, and access to a sustainable food system, Katie quickly got involved in Slow Foods upon moving to town, volunteering with the Farm to Fork Festival, the People’s Market and the Community Gardens. Working locally for a private non-profit, affordable housing developer, Katie brings 20 years of marketing and communication experience at multinational tech companies and large advertising agencies to the valley. Outside of work, Katie is an endurance athlete that has successfully completed a total of eight triathlons, loves to ski, hike, bike, and rip around with her trusty four-legged friend, Thom Yorke. Katie is also a voluntary member of Jackson Hole Fire/EMS and is pursuing an EMT certification. She is thrilled to be part of the Slow Foods board and to help support the amazing work staff delivers to the community.
