May 4, 2023

Recreation and Conservation Board

Craig

Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Kathleen “Kitty” Craig, a national program director for The Wilderness Society, to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Funding Board. The board awards about $200 million in grants every other year to tribes, nonprofits and government agencies to create parks, trails and other outdoor recreation opportunities. The board also awards grants to conserve the state's natural resource heritage by protecting working farms and forests and wildlife habitat, including places inhabited by plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. As director for the Urban to Wild program, Craig helps lead The Wilderness Society's efforts to advance equitable access to nature in urban communities across the country by eliminating barriers and fostering connections to the outdoors and public lands. The Wilderness Society is a national nonprofit land conservation organization founded in 1935 that works to protect America's wild places. Craig joined The Wilderness Society in 2010. She became advocacy director for urban communities in 2021, and a year later took the job as Urban to Wild director. Before joining The Wilderness Society, Craig led The Trust for Public Land's Conservation Vision program in Washington state, where she worked with communities to develop collaborative action plans that balanced community recreation, conservation and development needs. Craig has a bachelor of arts degree from Whitman College and master of arts degree in community and regional planning from the University of Oregon. She is on the boards of directors for the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and the Stewardship Partners, and serves on various advisory committees for public agency grant programs. Craig's term runs through 2025.