Meet the team.


  • Co-Founder, Co-Director

    A passionate and progressive educator with over fifteen years of curriculum and program design experience, Ashley seeks to help youth develop a strong sense of self worth and belonging through mentorship, outdoor adventure, connection to wild places, and authentic leadership opportunities.

    Ashley received her B.A. in English and Education from Dartmouth College, after which point she worked for the International Rescue Committee, coached soccer and alpine ski racing,  and started a project-based learning school-within-a-school in Basalt, Colorado. After earning her Master’s in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at Stanford University in 2011, Ashley moved to Durango to teach at Animas High School. She has since developed a deep sense of place and community rooted in the jagged ridgelines and steep scree fields of the San Juan Mountains, the silt-laden waters of the San Juan River, the yawning labyrinth of canyons of the Colorado Plateau, the intrepid urban deer, skittish alpine coyotes, and big-hearted Durangotang bipeds. Ashley’s work as an educator, community leader and mentor has been enriched by her connection to the human and natural worlds in and around the San Juan Mountains.  She aims to share her respect for these communities with her students, while also helping them to develop a sense of place and belonging that encourages environmental stewardship and community resilience.


  • Co-Director, Field Instructor

    Kayla was born and raised in the low valleys of the Sonoran Desert in the mesmerizing company of saguaros and ocotillos. She spent her childhood fascinated with the annual migration of monarch butterflies and celebrating the torrential monsoon rains. Informed by her own transformative experiences of healing and self actualization, Kayla believes that connecting with the land through play, challenge, and community can fundamentally shift the way we view ourselves and our relationships. She believes the outdoors are for every body, every gender, and every age, and is passionate about cultivating spaces that feel welcoming and empowering for a diverse group of people.​

    Kayla has been an outdoor educator for nearly 6 years; she’s worked with young people to grow food organically in urban spaces, has led countless classrooms on hikes along the Arizona Trail, and has explored canyons with teens by both water and foot. Kayla is honored and thrilled to continue her journey of outdoor education with SOLES!

    You can contact Kayla at:

    kayla@sanjuanmountainsoles.org

  • Co-Director, Field Instructor

    Lacey grew up in Durango, Colorado with her family exploring the San Juans with her fly rod and dirt bike. She was later exposed to mountain biking through Durango DEVO and found a passion that follows her today. Lacey attended Fort Lewis College where she was a full-time student athlete racing mountain bikes and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Biology. She has spent her summers working as a biology consultant, horseback guide, and deckhand sport fishing in Alaska.

    After earning her degree, she pursued further professional education in the Snow Science and Medical Field where she now works as an EMT Ski Patroller working on the Avalanche Explosives team. She has also assisted in tail guiding and teaching several avalanche courses with San Juan Expeditions.

    She believes strongly in making the outdoors more financially accessible and more diverse through cultivating an authentic and supportive community for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ members. Lacey grew up with many passionate and technically skilled female mentors to whom she accredits much of her success and competency in the mountains and workspace. Just as her mentors did, her goal is to teach younger women technical and leadership skills to show up capable, confident, and authentically in the outdoors and in their personal lives.

    You can contact Lacey at:

    lacey@sanjuanmountainsoles.org


  • Marketing & Communications

    Growing up in Durango, Hanna’s passion for the San Juan region and the people living in it runs deep. From an early age, she learned to love exploring the big mountains and desert canyons of her backyard and found a sense of self connected to these wild places. Though she has lived in and traveled to far reaching corners of the world, the San Juans have continued to pull her back to her roots.

    Hanna attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR and graduated with a degree in Rhetoric and Media Studies in 2018. Since then, she has started her own media and design business, working for local non-profits and government agencies doing contract media marketing, design and public relations. SOLES is near and dear to her heart, as she was part of a pilot program in her senior year of high school, helped lead the inaugural backpacking trip in 2015, and has continued her involvement through developing the program’s marketing and communications.

    Through SOLES’ mission, her goal is to help provide an opportunity to the next generations of San Juan youth to explore their intrinsic connection with the land around them as she was able to in her formative years.