Education and Outreach Coordinator, Southwest Program
[email protected] (they/he)
(505) 490-4910 ext. 717

Tanner is the Education and Outreach Coordinator at IAE Southwest. They manage all education programs in the Southwest including Forest Bound and Conservation in Prisons, as well as being in charge of outreach efforts for the region. Tanner received their Bachelor’s in Environmental Sociology from the University of Oregon in 2013, and a Master’s in Environmental Education from Western Washington University in 2019. Tanner’s Master’s capstone project focused on the connective power of food and eating as a tool for education, and the ways in which food has been historically used as a means of both subjugation and liberation.

Tanner grew up in the forests and tidelands of the Pacific Northwest and spent most of their early years stumbling through nettles and scraping their knees on the rocky shores of the Oregon Coast. They worked with food in various capacities for many years, as a cook, server, farmer, and garden educator before deciding to go back to school. At Western Washington University, Tanner took part in a residency-based M.Ed program in North Cascades National Park, where they also earned certificates in Northwest Natural History and Nonprofit Administration and Management. Tanner spends their free time undertaking big kitchen projects, making brooms, listening to records, birding, hiking, gardening, and poking around in riparian areas and the wild expanses of the New Mexico high desert.