Eileen first began the journey into systems thinking and interconnectedness when she studied human ecology in the late 1990s, identifying the critical need for water in the Rio Grande for humans along with natural and built systems. From there, she went on to get an MS in Wildlife Science from NMSU, applying that knowledge to several years as a field biologist across New Mexico. During this time, she began seeing that land, wildlife, and water conservation are all dependent on people and made the switch to working with youth and adults through outdoor and environmental learning two decades ago.

Since then, she has worked in and adjacent to New Mexico’s education system, having brought over 25,000 New Mexico kids from over 100 schools outdoors through multi-day, standards-aligned programming. For over two decades, Eileen has worked in support of outdoor learning for all students and providing equitable access to the outdoors for all New Mexicans.

Today, Eileen works in facilitating and consulting transformational leadership, embodied social justice, practicing shared leadership and understanding power dynamics, and shifting from destructive to generative conflict. She can be found as the Board Chair of TOTAL (Teaching Outdoors to All Learners) NM (which she co-founded with Allison Martin in 2023), Chief Transformation Officer for Prospera Partners, and working with those in behavioral health in New Mexico. Her musings and thoughts can be found at The Cynical Environmentalist on substack: “We can save the planet and have justice and liberation for all, but will we? I’m here to question the effectiveness of the environmental movement as a whole and hopefully become a little less cynical.”

Previously, Eileen served as executive director where she built one of the largest capacity outdoor learning networks in the country serving over 150 organizations that support 285,000 New Mexican youth annually. During the six years in this role, Eileen tripled the operating budget, increased staff capacity fourfold, advanced state level policy in outdoor learning (and has a 100% success rate bill passage on the first year of introduction of 6 bills at the New Mexico Legislature), and created a variety of new programs including the first fellowship program of its kind supporting interconnected interests like environmental justice, conservation, outdoor recreation, and outdoor learning and education in many forms.

Eileen is an ongoing student and teacher of embodied social justice and somatics, and has worked for over 15 years in collaboration with others to change systems for education, the outdoors, and conservation to be more authentically inclusive, equitable, and just for all. 

In her free time, she can be found outdoors or trying out new practices in shared leadership as Board Chair at TOTAL (Teaching Outdoors to All Learners) NM. She also serves at the request of the Governor on New Mexico’s State Park Advisory Board and is a co-founder of the Queer Environmental Educators Network.