Ruthi Solari | Chair

Ruthi is an experienced visionary nonprofit leader and social entrepreneur. She is passionate about addressing complex social challenges through innovation, community organizing and collective action. Born in Helena with grandparents living in Big Sky, Ruthi learned to ski on Lone Mountain shortly after she learned to walk. With a deep love of this land and all outdoor activities, she currently lives in the meadow with her husband and two young children. Ruthi is the Director of Community Partnerships at the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation. She serves on the Board of Directors for Shakti Rising, a feminist social change organization, and is a founding member of the Gallatin Valley chapter of SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice).

Ania Bulis | Vice Chair

Ania has called Montana home for over two decades. Prior to establishing herself in real estate, she held positions in public relations, marketing, and journalism. Her expertise focuses on resort and recreation-minded properties, placing equal emphasis on the creation of product and lifestyle. In her free time, Ania returns to the activities that originally brought her to Montana. She can often be found with her family and friends enjoying Big Sky’s downhill slopes, cross-country ski trails, and unparalleled opportunities for hiking. Ania also enjoys fundraising and development for several local non-profit causes, specifically those impacting children, arts and education and she adores traveling the world with her own two children, Olivia and Tate. Ania is a broker at Big Sky Real Estate Company.

Patrick Miller | Treasurer

Patrick is a mostly retired executive and international consultant in the energy production, transmission and distribution field with a keen interest in reducing our carbon footprint at a local level in a well-planned and sustainable way. Patrick and Jeanne spent most of their working life in Michigan and first visited Big Sky shortly after it was purchased by Boyne. They moved to Big Sky as permanent residents in 2002, first for the skiing but soon found that summer fishing and hiking made Big Sky a perfect year-round home. Patrick has worked with Big Sky SNO through the process of nonprofit incorporation and envisioning the role of SNO in caring for our surroundings while dealing with the changing climate. Patrick works as an energy consultant.

Emily O’Connor | Secretary

Emily has a broad range of experience in the environmental sector including green building, natural resource management, and recreation planning. In her current role as Conservation Director, Emily leads ecological restoration and water conservation efforts throughout the Upper Gallatin watershed. Emily is a Syracuse, NY native and graduate from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Emily and her husband Joe moved to Montana in 2012 to explore the mountains and wide-open landscapes. Emily’s passion for protecting the natural environment began at a young age and will continue to be a source of inspiration and motivation in her personal life and career. Emily is the Conservation Director of Gallatin River Task Force.

Christina Calabrese | Board Member

Over the past 10 years, Christina has worked at the interface of growing the Big Sky community while preserving and enhancing its exceptional natural environment. In her role as Vice President of Design at Lone Mountain Land Company, she has strived to build a roster of award-winning design teams that are at the forefront of sustainable design, and most recently, achieving onsite net zero energy in our Montana climate. Christina actively participates in Big Sky’s non-profit and community-oriented initiatives, having contributed her design and planning expertise as a board member of the Arts Council of Big Sky and several task forces and subcommittees of the Big Sky Community Organization; Big Sky Community Housing Trust; and most recently as a participant in the production of the Big Sky SNO Climate Action Plan. Christina holds a Masters of Urban Planning from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture, with a second major in French, from the University of Virginia.

Dylan Cressy | Board Member

Dylan’s passion for environmental awareness began in high school, where he helped start a recycling club as a sophomore in Marblehead, MA. Shortly after graduating with a degree in Economics from Boston College, Dylan moved his love for the New England outdoors to the mountains of Montana. He’s lived in Big Sky since 2018, recreating amongst the region’s natural beauty, and deepening his ambition to help protect it. Dylan hopes to bring his passion for learning to Big Sky SNO, and spread his enthusiasm for a sustainable environment with those around him. From the backcountry to the brewery, you’ll almost never find Dylan without his 1-year-old rescue dog, Bodhi. Dylan works at Lone Mountain Land Company.

Amy Fonte | Board Member

Amy is a passionate sustainability professional who has a natural affinity for systems-thinking and enjoys complex environmental, social and economic problem solving. After graduating from Furman University with a B.S. in Sustainability Science, she moved to Billings to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA on a Community-Wide Methamphetamine and Opioid Response Initiative. Following her year of service, she moved to Washington D.C. where she attended American University’s Kogod School of Business and served with United Way Worldwide as an Economic Mobility Project AmeriCorps Vista Leader. Amy earned her M.S. in Sustainability Management and returned to the beautiful state of Montana. She resumed work in the field of Substance Abuse Prevention, as Yellowstone County’s Prevention Specialist, before moving to Big Sky in 2021. Amy is the Sustainability Specialist for Big Sky Resort, where she oversees the ForeverProject, the Resort’s commitment to Net Zero and roadmap for sustainability. Amy also serves on the Montana Prevention Certification Board.

Heidi Johnson | Board Member

Heidi Johnson has called Big Sky home for three years, after visiting since 2012. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Biology and an MS in Conservation Biology. After college, she organized and managed high risk, in-country surgical missions for Operation Smile in Gaza, Romania and Venezuela. More recently, she has led large distributed product organizations for companies in the financial services, health data, and private markets spaces. Heidi is an avid runner, downhill and nordic skier who volunteers with Eagle Mount, serves on the boards of multiple community land trusts. Heidi and her husband Chris have three children and two dogs who enjoy Montana’s beautiful outdoors as much as she does. 

Max Scheder-Bieschen | Board Member

Max is passionate about coaxing as many of us as possible to be better stewards of our environment. He is optimistic we can do this without major sacrifice, by using our existing economic system and our ability to introduce new technologies and business models.  In addition to joining SNO, Max volunteers with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a national lobby focused on bipartisan solutions to climate change.

Max first visited Big Sky in 1982 and started coming to Montana regularly ten years later, after meeting his wife, Ann, whose family homesteaded in Roy. He has lived and worked in many countries as a banker, executive and entrepreneur, and considers himself fortunate to also have enjoyed the outdoors and natural environment everywhere he has been. Ensuring that his and his friends’ grandchildren can ski, sail, hike, fish and hunt - as he has been able to do - is his latest venture.

Jessie Wiese | Board Member

Jessie has lived in the Big Sky area for the last 12 years and holds a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Biology from Montana State University with an emphasis on soil science and plant ecology. She has worked in the science and non-profit conservation communities for the last 13 years, with the Big Sky Institute, as Director of the Big Sky Community Organization, and with Montana Land Reliance. In 2023, Jessie has been working with the The Mountain Journal, a nonprofit focused meaningful public-interest journalism at the intersection of people and nature in America’s most iconic ecosystem-Yellowstone. Jessie is thrilled to be a part of the SNO board and help further the mission and vision of the organization. In her free time she enjoys riding her bike around the mountains.

Lizzie Peyton | Director of Community Sustainability

While living in Big Sky, Lizzie has worked as a personal chef, whitewater raft guide and in the non-profit sector. Trained as a chef in Paris following an undergraduate degree in International Studies at Boston College, Lizzie worked and traveled abroad for most of her 20s while continually returning to Big Sky as this community became home. After immersing into many diverse cultures-including a biodynamic farming collective in Tanzania- soil health and regeneration became a favorite hobby study. Intent on expanding on sustainable sourcing as a chef, Lizzie delved into regenerative agriculture research to become a more conscientious consumer. Equipped with increasing knowledge of regional ecosystems resilience, she chose to hang up her apron and start working with SNO to support community driven solutions in the environmental and sustainability sectors.

Jerry Tinianow | CAP Implementation Consultant

Jerry Tinianow operates Western Urban Sustainability Advisors. WestUrb (westurb.com) assists local governments in creating and improving sustainability and climate action policies, plans and programs.

Jerry’s work at WestUrb reflects the successes he achieved as Denver’s first Chief Sustainability Officer (2012-19). Under his leadership Denver won Platinum-level certification in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Cities program. Denver met its ambitious 2020 goal for community greenhouse gas reduction in 2018 – two years ahead of schedule. Denver’s record in mitigating climate change won it a place on the “A List” of top-performing cities issued by the international climate action organization CDP.

Jerry previously served as a national officer of both the Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society, and directed the Center for Energy and Environment at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. As Audubon’s executive director in Ohio, he conducted the largest capital campaign in Audubon’s history and developed the nation’s most urban nature education center, the LEED-Gold “Grange Insurance Audubon Center.” The Sierra Club designated him a national “Environmental Hero” during its centennial celebration. Jerry also served on the Global Executive Committee of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, a group of over 2,500 local and regional governments that collaborate on promoting sustainable urban development.

Jerry received his undergraduate and law degrees from George Washington University. He practiced law as a commercial trial attorney for over 20 years and was a partner in two large Ohio law firms. He was the 2018 winner of the Wirth Chair Sustainability Award, given by the University of Colorado in recognition of his climate action planning work.

Lizzi Kehoe | Outreach & Program Coordinator

Lizzi is originally from New Orleans, LA, where she first gained her passion for climate change work through seeing the disproportionate effects of natural disasters like hurricanes on residents in her city. She received her undergraduate degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, where she minored in Environmental Studies and Spanish and worked at the Office of Sustainability. While pursuing her master’s degree at University of Michigan in Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development, Lizzi came to Big Sky to seek out more career experience. Before joining the SNO team, she was a counselor with Camp Big Sky and worked on sustainability initiatives at BASE Community Center. She’s particularly invested in the role of community building and youth education in the sustainability world and is excited to support the work SNO has been pioneering in the Big Sky community (and she loves working with a fellow Lizzie). Aside from loving anything outdoors, she is a devoted aunt; her niece and nephew both live in Big Sky, and she loves seeing their curiosity for the world flourish.