Cottonwood Institute is more than excited to welcome Vicki Whisenhunt to join our team as our new Administrative & Logistics Coordinator!  This role has been a long time in the making and is much needed to support our growing programming needs.  In addition to helping with administrative demands, she will work alongside our Program Manager, Taryn Longberry, to make sure our field programs are executed smoothly as well as join in our event planning efforts.  Vicki brings a lot of energy and new perspective; we can’t wait to get her on board and up to speed starting in January 2017!

She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but spent most of her childhood in the Durham/Chapel Hill area of North Carolina.  After seventeen years in the South, Vicki and her husband set out for a new adventure, moving to the great state of Colorado! She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Spanish.  Shortly after college is when she realized she didn’t want to spend her career teaching within the walls of a classroom. She found her niche teaching outdoors and has spent the last three years working outdoors with students of all ages as a field trip leader and summer camp director.  Through working with youth in the outdoors, they have opened her eyes to the natural world she realized she had been missing a good part of her life.  She’s excited to be part of an organization who gives the experience of the outdoors to students at a young age, something she wishes she could have experienced earlier in life.  When she isn’t working with students, she enjoys hiking with her husband, spending time with her dogs, yoga, and performing with her aerial company, Iluminar Aerial.  Welcome aboard Vicki, we are glad to have you!