In every issue of our print magazine, we feature a handful of people making waves in the outdoor industry whose voices we think deserve recognition and amplification. From the pages of our Summer 2021 issue, we’re proud to present the latest round of “fresh voices”—individuals doing important work and making the business of outdoor better for all of us.

Stephanie Maez (@steph_sheree)

In 2015, my 18-year-old son was wrongfully accused of murder. He was incarcerated for ten excruciating months before the charges were dropped, and to this day, we live with the PTSD, anxiety, and depression that injustice caused. To keep from self-medicating with alcohol, I took up trail running, climbing, and hiking.

Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my only exposure to those activities was via visits to my grandparents’ cabin in the San Juan Mountains. Our few urban parks were often unsafe, and spending money on outdoor excursions wasn’t an option for my hardworking single mom. As an adult, getting into nature was what saved me—and I want others to experience that, too.

I began leading the Outdoor Foundation in October 2020, motivated by a desire to make nature more accessible for all. I bring a systems change lens to the job, zeroing in on the root cause of issues to eliminate barriers. With a focus on equity, inclusion, and justice, I’m leveraging the foundation’s power to address systemic issues, helping more families to heal.

Amirio Freeman (@beinggreenwhileblack)

Also pictured in header portrait above

During childhood trips to South Carolina, I’d watch my Granddaddy William tend to his garden. He taught me that food offers nutrition and a portal to better understanding ourselves. He also taught me Black folks have always cultivated kinship with soil, water, and the rest of the more-than-human world.

Through my environmental podcast Loam Listen, I host conversations with guests about how we might re-understand the outdoors beyond recreation and reimagine ourselves—fighting climate disaster and other injustices in the process. As the founder of @beinggreenwhileblack, I visually archive the lives of Black farmers, climate advocates, and other trailblazers. And as an advocacy specialist for Feeding America, I’m helping create a food system that works for people and planet.

Buoyed by granddaddy’s wisdom, I work to uplift the place of Blackness within a whitewashed history of land, agriculture, and food. My work is a love letter to all those who are looking back in order to move forward, collaborating in order to recenter the Earth.

Zara Vargues (@zara_mswheelchair2010co)

I’m a wheelchair user with Athetoid cerebral palsy, a movement disorder, but that hasn’t stopped me from being active. At first, because of how I speak and how much help I need, I was hesitant to try new things. But I kept after it, and by the time I was named Ms. Wheelchair Colorado in 2010, I’d found both community and confidence.

In 2019, I told Jeff Lockwood, founder of The Lockwood Foundation, that I wanted to go on a real hike. His nonprofit helps people with disabilities experience nature and last year, the foundation and some 90 volunteers assisted my climb of 14,439-foot Mt. Elbert. Using an adaptive TrailRider device, I became the first wheelchair user to summit a 14er.

I’m now on the foundation’s board, where my responsibilities include fundraising, crafting social media posts, and vetting the foundation’s ideas. Every day, I get to help others with disabilities rethink what’s possible. Eventually, I’d like to see wheelchair users getting outdoors and hiking just as much as non-wheelchair users, confident in doing things their own way.

Sunn Kim (@sunn.kim)

In high school, I bombed my first photography class—it wasn’t until I started shooting sports for the yearbook that I found my passion. On skiing, mountain biking, and camping trips with friends, I’d always have my camera. As a digital content specialist for Backcountry, I now film world-class athletes, explore the natural world, and work on initiatives like Breaking Trail, a new advocate sponsorship program.

Despite my outwardly glamorous job, I still struggle with my identity. Growing up in Hawai’i, and later Utah, my family didn’t have much. My parents, Korean immigrants, juggled multiple jobs while going to school and learning English. Still, they somehow found the time to take me on countless road trips to national parks across the country.

There are few industry people who look like me and sometimes I feel like an imposter. Despite helping to elevate the voices of other underrepresented groups, I’m just now speaking publicly about my own race. Through my work, I hope future generations will be able to see themselves represented in the outdoors.

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In 2019, Outdoor Foundation (OF), the philanthropic arm of Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), announced a new initiative called Thrive ���ϳԹ���. The executive director of OF at the time, Lise Aangeenbrug (who has since shifted over to lead OIA), explained the “why” of the program as such: “We didn’t become an indoor species overnight, and the decline of outdoor activity in the United States is a problem that requires collaboration, funding, and scale.”

OF’s solution to that decline was to fund four programs across the U.S.—in Atlanta, Georgia; Grand Rapids, Michigan; San Diego, California; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma—all aimed at getting more young people outside more often. In other words, to instill the outdoor habit into communities that face barriers to access. 

Since then, Thrive ���ϳԹ��� has facilitated outdoor connections with 16,000 kids from diverse communities through activities like hiking, paddling, climbing, and fishing. And while the pandemic presented the obvious challenges, Thrive ���ϳԹ��� adapted and is poised for growth. 

According to Stephanie Maez, OF’s managing director since October 2020, “the Thrive ���ϳԹ��� initiative is working to create a more inclusive and accessible outdoor experience for all.”  

This week, OF announced the expansion of the Thrive ���ϳԹ��� program and its second cohort in the following areas: St.Louis, Missouri; the Twin Cities region, Minnesota; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the state of Maine.  

“We are thrilled to expand our grants and programming into four additional communities this year and inspire kids and families to experience the powerful transformative benefits of connecting with nature on a regular basis, particularly among youth in diverse communities,” said Maez.

The four new communities were chosen by the Outdoor Foundation board of directors, based on written applications, virtual site visits, in-person interviews, and third-party consultant research. Each Thrive ���ϳԹ��� grant requires the recipient community to provide a 1-to-1 funding match in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the network. One backbone organization in each community will manage the grant and facilitate the work of the network partners. In total, this cohort will receive more than $1.6 million in grant money.

And Outdoor Foundation has no intention of stopping there. Its next goal: to expand the program to include 32 cities over the next ten years.

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In this edition of Straight Talk, OBJ editorial director Kristin Hostetter sits down for a powerful conversation with Stephanie Maez, the managing director of Outdoor Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Outdoor Industry Association. This is Maez’s first interview since taking the job in October 2020.

Maez shares the powerful personal story that brought her to this work at Outdoor Foundation, which aims to inspire the outdoor habit in children and families. In 2015, when Maez was serving as a state legislator in Albuquerque, New Mexico, her teenage son was wrongfully accused of murder and imprisoned. During that traumatic time, Maez said “I truly almost lost myself,” but nature and getting outside was the one thing that calmed and soothed Maez.

Ever since she was a little girl, growing up in a poor, urban neighborhood, nature had been a balm for her. She sought nature where she could find it—at a nearby duck pond and local parks, and a few times a year at her grandparents cabin in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado.

It’s hard to imagine someone better suited to leading Outdoor Foundation today. Maez brings her lived experience with her everyday to the job as she works to introduce kids in underserved communities to outdoor experiences through OF’s Thrive ���ϳԹ��� program. For her, this is a personal, passionate mission.

Other key topics include:

• The Thrive ���ϳԹ��� program and how it hopes to grow to 16 cities within three years and 32 cities within five to seven years
• Why we cannot have a “competitive scarcity mindset” when it comes to funding good works
• The state of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the outdoor industry
• Why we need to foster assertiveness in young girls

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