As Operations Manager, Ariana creates the structural foundation for an effective organization. Ariana assists in human resources, internal systems, bookkeeping, and financial management and planning. She works to center equity and environmental justice in both policy and practice at Wisconsin Conservation Voters. Ariana started as the Southeast Organizer in 2019.
My brothers and I were raised on a colorful hobby farm right outside the city limits of Ripon. I spent my childhood building tree forts on the bike path behind my home, bringing in the eggs, and long winters of shoveling out a very long gravel driveway.
When I was 11, my parents restored our back thirteen acres to native Wisconsin prairie. We planted seven hundred oak hickory trees. It was one the first examples of the power that comes from actively living out one’s intentions. My parents had asked themselves “what can we do to make our home better for a future we may never see?”
I carry that question into my work and life now. After graduating from Macalester College where I was involved with student government, off campus youth development projects, and reflection circles – I spent a year in Morocco as a youth development specialist with the Peace Corps, where I continually reflected upon what is means to live deeply and purposefully in the communities I am part of.
Background
- Co-Chair/Board Member, New Leaders Council Institute
- Peace Corps Volunteer, Morocco, 2018-19
- Reporter, The Green Laker, 2018
- Macalester College, English Literature and International Studies
- Vice President of Student Government at Macalester College
- Presidential Leadership Award 2018 Macalester College
Interests
Biking, rollerblading, baking, jumping on the trampoline with my brothers, talking to my host sisters in Morocco, studying Arabic, faith-based organizing, all things rural, visual and oral storytelling, poetry, yoga, and spending time with my best friends.
I'm a conservation voter because I believe the world is a sacred and holy place. We must be active protectors and stewards of our natural lands because we are borrowing this space and time from the generations to come.
Favorite place in Wisconsin: the Mascoutin Valley State Trail that runs from Ripon to Berlin and behind my childhood home.