Catie Boucher

Email: coordinator@visiteasternoregon.com
Title: Special Projects Coordinator
Organization: Eastern Oregon Visitors Association
Community: Pendleton
Population: 16,685
Counties Served: 11 counties–Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa and Wheeler

Meet Catie Boucher (she/her):

Catie is a huge dog lover–trailing off mid-sentence because she sees a cute dog is a common occurrence for her (and she’s not sorry)! She’s also recently started doing book swaps with friends, which is really just a fun excuse to talk to them about her favorite books.

She’s a recent graduate from Oregon State University, with a B.S. in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. During her degree, she fell in love with the connections between tourism, conservation, equity, and community development. She had the opportunity to explore this in Borneo, Malaysia this past summer, helping rural villages play with the idea of what tourism could look like in their communities. She’s most excited to get to explore a new part of Oregon–and with a different lens!

Community and Organization:

Eastern Oregon is a beautiful, diverse region with rich cultural and environmental context. It is the largest region (almost half the state!), but only a fraction of the state’s total population because it is largely rural.

Pendleton will serve as Catie’s home community! Although Pendleton is known for the iconic Round-Up, the rolling hills and downtown riverside walking path have become central to Catie’s own image of the area.

Eastern Oregon Visitors Association is a small but mighty team–almost entirely RARE alumna! EOVA serves all 11 counties and two tribes in the Eastern Oregon region. EOVA focuses on three marketing and development pillars: agritourism, outdoor recreation, and culture & heritage. As a Regional Destination Management Organization, it is often the key link between Travel Oregon and the local communities. EOVA interfaces regularly with Destination Management Organizations, Main Streets, Chambers of Commerce, and other partners to make sure their needs and priorities are recognized when it comes to state-wide funding opportunities. They use their regional perspective to identify opportunities for collaboration, acting as a conduit that brings partners together.

Project:

Catie is stoked to be some added capacity for EOVA. Her work is focused on building out EOVA’s third marketing and development pillar–culture & heritage–through an inventory of tourism assets and stakeholder interviews. She also supports EOVA’s agritourism task force as they identify new projects of interest, building on their farm trails network. Keeping with the theme of outreach and engagement, Catie is expanding EOVA’s collaboration with their economic recovery partners to facilitate more impactful tourism development.