Alley, Causby join Glacier team

Glacier National Park recently brought two new additions to their Leadership Team.

Lauren Alley became Glacier’s Management Assistant and Public Affairs Specialist in October.

Alley grew up in Eugene, Oregon, and attended Wellesley College in Boston, Massachusetts, where she received her bachelor’s degree in psychology.

After college, Alley moved to New Mexico, where she taught elementary school on the Navajo Reservation. She then moved to Seattle and continued to teach.

She attained her master’s degree in Public Affairs from University of Texas at Austin. It was during her time in Texas that she turned her attention to the National Park Service, after attending a presentation by the service about internships. The program took MBA and Public Policy grad students and gave them the opportunity to write business plans. This led her to Death Valley National Park in 2008, where she worked as concessions management specialist.

“That was it for me,” she said in a recent interview. “I knew I needed to find a way to work for the National Park service.”

Alley then earned that opportunity through the Presidential Management Fellows program, which is a federal fellowship. Under this fellowship, she worked as Public Affairs Specialist for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Her move to Montana was one of homecoming.

“This is my first time back to the Northwest since I left Seattle,” she said. “It’s not Oregon, but it feels like home.”

Alley spent the past year working for the Park as a writer in the planning department. Prior to her work in the Park, Alley was Director of Communications for the Glacier National Conservancy.

“Moving to Glacier was a dream come true,” Alley said in a press release. “The park has been an important place for my family for generations, and the opportunity to call it home is a tremendous privilege.”

Alley is an avid runner and participates in local races. She also enjoys spending time with her family and volunteering with education groups in the community. She is also trying her hand at raising chickens for the first time.

In her new role as Management Assistant/ Public Affairs Specialist, Alley will manage the lands program portfolio and serve as the park liaison for media inquiries and other community partners.

“It’s such a privilege to be able to connect people in the community with what’s going on in the park,” Alley Said. “It’s fun to come to work every day and share it.”

Also new to Glacier is Rita Causby. Causby recently became Safety Manager for Glacier National Park.

Causby began her career with the National Park Service 14 years ago, working at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in 2002. She spent some years in Glacier, working as an administrative clerk form 2004-2005 and as a safety specialist from 2006-2010.

Causby has served as the Zone 8 Safety Manager for ten parks in northern New Mexico since 2010. She returned back to Glacier from Santa Fe, NM earlier this year.

“My ultimate goal was always to return to Glacier National Park and dedicate myself to making the park’s safety program the best across the National Park Service,” Causby said in a press release last week.