Morgan Murray
Meet Morgan Murray:
Morgan was raised out in the woods of the North Country in Upstate New York. Her mom, a long time coach and environmental educator, raised Morgan and her siblings with a deep love and curiosity for wild things. Morgan earned degrees in Therapeutic Recreation and English from SUNY Brockport before beginning her journey west. She was grateful for the time she spent living and working in Warrenton as a first year RARE and was absolutely stoked to be based in Selma for her second. She was excited to see snow again while running the SnowSchool program for SFI.
Community and Organization:
The Siskiyou Field Institute (SFI) is a nonprofit situated on 850 acres of woods, streams, and rare serpentine geology. It is located in a global hotspot of plant and animal biodiversity, making it an incredible wild place to provide environmental education to students of all ages. The organization is located in a rural area struggling with some of the highest child poverty rates in Oregon. Their mission is to provide immersive ecology and science learning, community networking, and social-emotional skills to connect students to this wild place and in turn, help them form strong bonds with the land and their community.
Project:
Morgan filled the role of the Youth Education Programs Director (YEP Director), helping to create program stability in the most unstable times. This included developing and implementing a marketing strategy, shooting instructor orientation videos, stewarding relationships with schools, designing SFI’s high school mentorship program, and managing day to day operations of the youth programs. Highlights of the position included bellysliding down Mt. Ashland during the national SnowSchool program, stomping through the creeks, and storytelling while making s’mores.