At 15, Sittenfeld joined a group for a monthlong backpacking trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. It was her first visit to the Mountain West, and its beauty astonished her. But she was devastated as she drove out of the woods and saw a denuded, clear-cut forest.
“I found my calling,” she recalls. Back home in Cincinnati, she started an environmental club at her high school and “wrote my first postcard to my member of Congress to protect the Arctic Refuge.” She continued her activism at Dartmouth and credits her time there and the College’s environmental studies program as galvanizing forces.
Since then, Sittenfeld has fought an inside game to protect the outdoors. She regularly visits Capitol Hill to meet with elected officials. She has overseen lawsuits and waged numerous political and bureaucratic battles to preserve wild spaces. In March, she took the helm as CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, which was founded in 1919. “Tiernan is a proven, passionate, and personable advocate for our national parks and the broader environment,” says Tom Kiernan ’81, president and CEO of American Rivers. “She will build on the unparalleled tradition of Dartmouth alums who are leaders in the environmental and conservation movement.”
Sittenfeld recognizes that the conservation movement is on defense under the current administration. “But I’m an eternal optimist,” she says. “We have to simultaneously plan for better days ahead and envision the parks that we want for the future.”
