KEA hires new leader, focuses on lake, other issues

After years of searching, the Kootenai Environmental Alliance has found its new executive director: Shelley Austin, and she has hit the ground running. 

Austin, who accepted the offer on Feb. 8, may have relocated from Ashland, Ore., but she already has ties to the Kootenai County area. For years Austin had visited her family, who moved to Coeur d'Alene when she was a junior in high school.

Then in 2008, she organized the Coeur d'Alene Film Festival with The Coeur d'Alene Resort. She is now focusing her sights on the Wild and Scenic Film Festival — an annual fundraiser for KEA hosted in conjunction with North Idaho College — set to be held virtually May 13 through May 18. 

"It's a big fundraiser for us, but it also really helps positively spread our message," Austin said. "They are so inspirational, beautifully shot, totally professional. You leave with this feeling of where is my stake in the ground? How am I going to make a difference?"

Before then, KEA is preparing for Earth Week in the middle of April, which will feature several virtual and outdoor activities. 

Bringing with her a background in leadership positions like the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Yahoo!, Austin served as executive director for four different southern Oregon nonprofits, as a nonprofit consultant, served on several directory boards, and spent six years as a background first responder with the Crater Lake Ski Patrol. 

Her mission in her new role is to focus on KEA's three main goals: conservation, protection, and restoration. Notably, one of the areas she is keen on diving into is the National Academies of Sciences study on Lake Coeur d'Alene's water quality. Since joining the organization last month, Austin has begun meeting with individuals on water quality advisory boards, natural resource committees, and local specialists. 

"I have a feeling that all of this data around the study is going to afford us new opportunities to put our mission into effect," Austin said. "The whole work is more aware of environmental issues, the actual effects of climate change, and specifically what climate change is doing to the lake." 

Before her hire, KEA had been without an executive director since the departure of former ED Sharon Bosely in 2018. In December, the organization briefly announced Jordan Richmond as the new head of KEA until The Press discovered Richmond was under investigation in 2016 after teachers and students expressed concerns regarding his relationship with a 16-year-old student. Following the Dec. 31 article by The Press, KEA rescinded his employment offer. 

"They all feel embarrassed and duped a little bit," Austin said about Richmond's brief hire. "They said we really wish he had been more honest in the beginning. They feel terrible, but at least they dodged that bullet because we have so many programs that take place with schools or families. That would have been a phenomenal disaster."

Austin was one of the 47 other applicants who tried for KEA's executive director position as part of the organization's national search that began last October. At that time, she went through five interviews, which she admitted was an abnormally large amount. When she heard the position had reopened, she reached out and had to undergo two more interviews before being offered the role. 

"The board and Kootenai Environmental Alliance has really gone through the fire in terms of not only the search but figuring out exactly who they wanted and how they wanted this group to work," Austin said. "They are dedicated. They have been tested and tried."

Still, as the organization gears up for reaching its 50th anniversary in 2022, she believes they have never been more equipped to get to work. 

"We have a ton of history, support, lots of people that are willing to step up and help out, and I think that with the new board and its dedication to the mission, this is only going to end up being a little bump in this organization," Austin said. "This is a new phase, and we are very well positioned to address issues and continue our mission."