Estes Park – The Rocky Mountain Conservancy’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Esther “Estee” Rivera Murdock as its new Executive Director. She replaces Charles “Charley” Money who has retired.
Estee Rivera Murdock hails from Washington, D.C., where she worked for the National Park Service (NPS) for more than eight years, most recently as a program manager for “Every Kid in a Park,” a federal land and water management agencies outreach program. Simultaneously, she served for six months as the Acting NPS Program Manager where she co-developed the NPS Teacher Corps in partnership with the National Park Learning Alliance.
Ms. Murdock also has worked as a Partnerships Specialist in the NPS Centennial Office, developing new and existing partnerships with non-governmental conservation and recreation organizations, assisting with the coordination of philanthropic and corporate sponsorships, implementing new diversity and youth engagement initiatives, and improving internal and external communications, including bilingual programming and new media.
Ms. Murdock also served for over six years as the Community Engagement Coordinator at Saguaro National Park in Arizona, where she developed and implemented new strategies to engage and connect the residents of gateway communities with public lands. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Arizona.
“We are excited to have Estee joining us,” Board President Don Cheley stated. “Her experience aligns perfectly with the Conservancy’s on-going commitment to find new ways to engage the next generation of the park visitors and make them supporters and stewards. At the same time, we owe Charley Money a tremendous debt of gratitude for his years of service to the Conservancy. Thanks to Charley and his staff, in its 86-year history, the Conservancy has never been stronger.”