TEAM
We are part of a community united by love for this land, invested in our environment, and inspired to act on behalf of our planet.
Staff
The Sundance Nature Alliance staff - from left to right - Emily Moench, Julie Mack, Sara Jo Dickens, Megan Ah You, and Stephanee Harris.
Emily Moench
Acting Director
Emily brings decades of strategic leadership and communications expertise to Sundance Nature Alliance. With a passion for conservation and sustainability that has defined her career, she has served on the boards of several conservation-focused nonprofits and provided high-stakes counsel and strategic direction to prominent organizations including Snowbird, the Governor's Office of Economic Development, and the Olympic Games. Her expertise has been instrumental in addressing complex challenges facing the outdoor recreation and conservation sectors, including sustainability, overcrowding, and crisis communications.
As Acting Director, Emily oversees SNA's fundraising strategy, team operations, and key partnerships while serving as the organization's primary public representative. She works closely with strategic allies including Sundance Mountain Resort and homeowner communities to advance SNA's conservation mission.
Emily holds a J.D. from the University of Utah, where she focused on mass communication law. She brings this comprehensive expertise to amplify SNA's conservation impact and inspire community action.
Megan Ah You
Program Director
Megan Ah You is the Creative Director for Sundance Nature Alliance. Her prior experience includes management of the Sundance Mountain Resort Art Studio as well as the development of local nonprofit art programs. She is an artist with a great love for the outdoors and for the North Fork of the Provo Canyon in particular. Megan's role with SNA as Creative Director relates to overseeing creative development and establishment of the Art in Nature Programs for the enjoyment of visitors and neighbors of the Sundance community.
Sara Jo Dickens
Ecology Consultant
Sara Jo Dickens is the in-house ecology consultant for Sundance Nature Alliance and Principal Ecologist and Owner of Ecology Bridge consulting. With over 15 years of experience in ecology, she specializes in plant biology, plant ecology, restoration ecology, weed ecology, and plant-soil interactions.
Her diverse career has included roles as an academic researcher, outreach coordinator and educator, field biologist, plant ecologist, and land management consultant. Having lived and researched in multiple states, SaraJo brings extensive experience from several ecosystems including coastal sage scrub, annual and perennial grassland, chaparral, oak savannas, Great Basin sage scrub and oak woodlands, desert, boreal/deciduous forests, and wetlands. She has also published several articles in scientific journals.
Stephanee Harris
Executive Assistant
Stephanee grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia on a small farm, where she learned the value of hard work, resourcefulness, and community. With nearly a decade of experience in administrative support and logistics, she brings a calm, organized presence to her role as Executive Assistant at Sundance Nature Alliance.
Before joining SNA, Stephanee served as Director of Logistics in the events industry, where she coordinated complex timelines, managed vendor relationships, and ensured seamless experiences for clients and teams. Her transition into the nonprofit space was motivated by a desire to support mission-driven work and expand her understanding of environmental initiatives.
Now based in Utah, she enjoys exploring the Wasatch Mountains with her family and learning more about the natural spaces SNA works to protect. As she continues to deepen her connection to conservation, she’s proud to contribute to the organization’s mission and support its leadership and board through thoughtful coordination and behind-the-scenes support.
Julie Mack
Emeritus Executive Director
Julie brings decades of experience in a variety of roles to engage communities and protect and celebrate the environment. Accepting a position as Environmental Director for Sundance in 1987, Julie worked closely with Robert Redford as his environmental issue’s coordinator. In 1998, she established a non-profit land conservation and environmental education organization focused on the ecosystem in North Fork Canyon of the Provo River. In addition to providing environmental education and programming for the Sundance Resort and North Fork community, she worked with Utah Open Lands to place 1,200 acres of land owned by Sundance and the Redford Family into and a conservation easement and placed another 1546 acres into restrictive covenants.
Board of Directors
Joni Minton, Steve Candland, Julie Mack (Emeritus E.D.), Paul Stewart, Kelly Fisher, Amy Redford. Not pictured: Robert Redford (in memorium), Jenny Maritz, Doug Horne, Shauna Redford
Robert Redford
Honorary Chair
Robert Redford is acclaimed as an actor, producer, director, and champion of independent film. He won an Academy Award, a DGA Award, and a Golden Globe Award for his feature directing debut, Ordinary People (1980), and was nominated for an Academy Award for directing Quiz Show (1994). As an actor, he earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in The Sting (1973). He has starred in dozens of films in a career spanning over 50 years. His latest, The Old Man and the Gun was released in October 2018.
As the founder of Sundance Institute, Redford has nurtured generations of innovative voices in independent culture through the Institute and Film Festival.
A noted environmentalist, Redford has been an advocate for climate change awareness and clean energy for over 40 years. In 2016 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. He has served as a trustee for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and is the co-founder of The Redford Center with his late son James.
Wendy Fisher
Chair
Wendy Fisher, forged her commitment to land conservation in part from the days spent riding her horse through the foothills of the grandeur of Mt Timpanogos. As the Executive Director of Utah Open Lands since 1990 the organization has been at the forefront of community conservation efforts and statewide has protected landscapes that are integral to the preservation of Utah's unique heritage, beauty and recreational opportunity. Wendy has been engaged in preservation efforts in the Northfork Canyon since the mid 1990s. When not saving land, Wendy can be found out riding her horse, hiking, mtn biking or river running with her family.
Douglas Horne
Co-Chair
Douglas R. Horne has over forty years of experience in planning, land conservation and historic preservation, real estate asset management, and development. He founded D. R. Horne & Company in 1982, which gained a national reputation for the firm's extraordinary standards of design, financial performance, client dedication, and its steadfast commitment to sustainability. In 2019, Douglas formed The Working Group (New York, NY) a real estate practice that provides exceptional expertise as design manager, developer, sponsor, and general partner on projects that require specialized attention in execution. He is Managing Director of that firm. Since 2002, he has advised the Redford Family on land use and conservation matters at Sundance.
Douglas is a former Trustee of The Adirondack Conservancy and Land Trust, Demeter Fund, Rosedale Conservancy, and Chairman of Woodstock Resort Corporation. He currently serves as a Trustee of Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund, Jackson Hole Preserve Inc., and Woodstock Foundation.
Jennifer Maritz
Jenny Maritz is originally from Allentown, PA. She attended the University of Virginia and after receiving a BS in Finance, she moved to San Francisco where she worked for many years in banking and real estate finance.
She is married to Flip (Philip) Maritz and they have three children.
Jenny now splits her time between Avon, CO and Carmel, CA.
She has served on the boards of the Walking Mountains Science Center, TNC New York, NYC Audubon, and she currently serves on the board of the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, CO, in addition to The Sundance Nature Alliance.
Spending time outdoors in nature has always been Jenny’s passion. She loves to hike and bird watch-weather in the forests of Pennsylvania, Colorado, CA and Utah, the beaches of New Jersey, the Caribbean and California, Central Park in NYC, or anywhere else she travels!
Amy Redford
Amy Redford lives and works as a director and producer in Salt Lake City, Utah. Growing up, Amy split her time between the Wasatch mountains and the streets of New York. Everything she knows that's of any use, she learned in the mountains. Her protective reflex over this canyon, [The Sundance Canyon] extends from fundamental family values of conservation which she hopes to extend to her own children.
Shauna Redford
Shauna Redford has worked for a variety of Sundance entities for over 20 years and is now a full-time painter who lives with her husband in Carmel California. Her time spent in the Wasatch Mountains as a child and over the years with her own family has helped develop her dedication and commitment to conservation.
Joni Minton
Joni has enjoyed living on Sundance Mountain for 36 years. She was immediately attracted to the wilderness and uniqueness of Sundance Resort, knowing that the Robert Redford family preserved it and held it for all of us to enjoy. Her children have enjoyed its beauty and benefited from living on this beautiful mountain.
Joni’s deep understanding of the mountain's ecosystem took root through a once-in-a-lifetime experience years ago: participating in a one-room schoolhouse program sanctioned by the Redford family, where participants conducted wildlife studies, set up grids with scat and tracks, and found it to be diverse and plentiful.
Before making Sundance her home, Joni had a distinguished career in healthcare as a respiratory therapist. She established multiple hospital departments, including respiratory care, blood gas, pulmonary function, and cardiac rehabilitation programs. Her work in shock trauma included participating in groundbreaking ECMO research, and she served as secretary for the Utah State Society of Respiratory Care.
Joni got married and started a family on the beautiful Sundance Mountain. She was involved in her community and served on the board of her children’s private school, where she was actively involved every year in each individual grade. She created and developed science fairs for grades K through 12, and in doing so developed science methods for each fair, finding qualified judges, science themes and appropriate awards.
She loves this precious Sundance Mountain and feels very blessed to live in such a sacred place. Joni is committed to preserving this land so that future generations can experience its beauty and significance, just as we have today.
Stephen Candland
Stephen Candland and his family have been in the Sundance community for over 30 years. Their journey began with the purchase of a hand-built log cabin, initially used as a summer retreat. The cabin has since grown into a full-sized home while preserving the charm and authenticity of the original cabin. Deeply connected to the mountains, Stephen enjoys all the outdoor activities Sundance has to offer and is passionate about contributing to preserving its natural beauty.
Stephen is committed to supporting the mission of the Sundance Nature Alliance, an organization dedicated to enhancing the canyon's ecological health. He brings his energy, expertise, and enthusiasm to further SNA’s advisory efforts, focusing on improving and maintaining the natural environment he deeply cares for.
Professionally, Stephen is the Managing Principal and founder of Private Staff Group, an executive search firm. When he’s not in Sundance, he resides in Greenwich, Connecticut. Stephen also actively participates in his local Sundance neighborhood association, SCAPO, and is eager to continue supporting the values and practical initiatives of SNA for the benefit of the community and future generations.
Paul Stewart
A lifelong naturalist and environmentalist, Paul has had a passion for both the mountains and the oceans but spent his career as an oceanographer working for the Navy, NOAA and NASA. Constantly concerned about western state water usage and rights, he works to educate and change policy. Paul is also a lifelong bird enthusiast working with our local wildlife rescue non-profit by rehabilitating and releasing raptors into the Sundance Canyon and beyond.
Paul holds a B.S. in mathematics, an M.S. in Oceanography and Meteorology and also an M.S. in National Security and Strategy.
Paul and his partner of 36 years, Sunny, nurtured four sons into adulthood on the trails of North Fork Canyon living just below Stewart Falls on the Sundance Nature Trail. They also enjoy spending time at their organic farm in Northern Utah.
Paul sits on several philanthropic and science boards including Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.