Kurt Repanshek, President/CEO
Kurt founded National Parks Traveler in August 2005. Since then, as its editor-in-chief, he has grown the site’s audience to more than 3 million a year, as well as its reputation and relevance.
A veteran journalist whose 30+-year career started with The Associated Press, Kurt has interviewed presidential candidates, members of Congress, and reported on such natural disasters as the 1988 wildfires that swept across Yellowstone National Park.
His work has appeared in Smithsonian, National Geographic Traveler, Forbes, Hemispheres, Snow Country, Sunset, the New York Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Denver Post, Audubon, National Wildlife, and countless other media outlets. He also is the author of several books, notably National Parks With Kids, National Parks For Dummies, and Re-Bisoning the West: Restoring An American Icon To The Landscape.
Kurt’s reporting on climate change and its impacts on national parks led to a fellowship at Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West. Kurt received the George Wright Society Communication Award in 2014 for the role National Parks Traveler has played in communicating issues surrounding the National Park System and the National Park Service to the general public, and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks recognized his work by making him an honorary member. Traveler also was awarded the George B. Hartzog, Jr., Award from the Coalition in 2017, and the Western National Parks Association in 2019 recognized his work at the Traveler for its coverage of the National Park System.
Patrick Cone, Vice President
Patrick Cone is an award-winning photographer, writer, and editor based in his native Park City, Utah. He has worked on assignment for publications such as Arizona Highways, Ski, Skiing, Smithsonian, Sunset, National Geographic World, Park City Magazine, and dozens of other regional and national publications. He specializes in portraiture, location, events, movies and television, outdoor sports, and studio photography.
Cone has worked as a photographer in Los Angeles, as a rotary-wing aerial photographer, and contract editor and writer. He is the special sections editor at The Park Record in Park City, Utah. He is the author of three children's science books (Nature in Action! Grand Canyon, Wildfire, Avalanche - Lerner Publications), and the large format book Park City. He is on the faculty in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah where he teaches visual communication.
Marcelle Shoop, Secretary
As Director of the Saline Lakes Program for the National Audubon Society, Shoop is a member of a growing Audubon Western Water Initiative team focused on advancing balanced solutions to water use in the West to ensure birds, ecosystems, people, and economies thrive. She oversees an Audubon program focused on the Saline Lakes of the Intermountain West, with an initial focus on Great Salt Lake. A Wyoming native and long-time Utah resident, Shoop brings to the position a background in environmental and natural resources law, policy development, sustainability, and stakeholder relations. She held various legal and management roles with Rio Tinto, a global minerals and metals producer, where she honed business approaches to sustainability and socially and environmentally responsible business practices. She also worked with conservation partners including BirdLife International and The Nature Conservancy in connection with Rio’s biodiversity strategy.
Rebecca Latson, Director
Rebecca Latson, a long-time contributing photographer to the Traveler who writes popular "how to" articles about photographing national parks, was born 24 miles outside of Glacier National Park in Montana. She inherited her love of photography from her father. She has photographed portraits, portfolios, weddings, and other events, and was the staff photographer for The Merchant Prince, a vendor at the Texas Renaissance Festival, for 10 years.
She has written for, and provided photographs to, the Traveler since 2012. She authors monthly Photography In The National Parks columns for the website, as well as 3-day national park itineraries, and a popular series of Armchair Photography Guides. Her work also has been featured in the Traveler's seasonal Essential Guides.
Erika Zambello, Director
Erika Zambello, an accomplished writer and photographer, is a National Geographic Young Explorer who holds a Master's Degree in Environmental Management from the Duke Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. As a Young Explorer, she completed four trips to the Maine North Woods in each of the four seasons from fall 2015 through summer 2016. Along with contributing to the Traveler, she has in the past written for The Conservation Fund, the Triangle Land Conservancy, and Sarah P. Duke Gardens. She also was hired on a contract basis to write a birding guide to Northern New England for Wilderness Adventures Press.
Among her articles for the Traveler was one that explored Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, another that chronicled the recovery of Virgin Islands National Park from devastating back-to-back hurricanes in the fall of 2017, and another that explained the return of "super colonies" of wading birds to Everglades National Park.
Davitt Woodwell, Director
Davitt Woodwell is President of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC). Working with PEC since 1991, Woodwell took a leave of absence during 2000 and 2001 to serve as Executive Director of the Riverlife Task Force that developed a master plan for Pittsburgh’s waterfronts and proposed the creation of the new “Three Rivers Park.” Woodwell’s current work at PEC focuses on issues including deep decarbonization of Pennsylvania’s electricity grid, shale gas development, and trail and riverfront development. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Woodwell is currently a member of the board of the Center for Responsible Shale Development. He also serves on the PA DCNR Natural Gas Advisory Committee, DCNR’s Ecosystem Management Advisory Committee, and DEP’s Steering Committee for the state’s Chesapeake Bay Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan. Woodwell has participated in the Department of Environmental Protection’s regulatory negotiation on the special protection waters program and served on the Pittsburgh Ozone Stakeholder Working Group. He also served on the Allegheny County Air Pollution Control Advisory Committee, the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute of Politics’ Marcellus Shale Roundtable, the Governor’s Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force, and the Governor’s Commission on Greenways. At PEC he has also served as Executive Vice President for Western Pennsylvania, Director of the Western Pennsylvania office, and Staff Attorney.
Lou Zambello, Director
Lou Zambello has more than three decades of experience successfully growing or transforming a range of businesses; from start-ups to billion-dollar enterprises, either as an operating executive (SVP LL Bean, Etoys), a board member for multiple companies, or a consultant.
Lou’s expertise includes executive management and senior level experience in corporate restructuring, strategic planning, marketing, product development, multichannel media strategies, creative, operations, and process re-engineering. He also is a diehard flyfishing expert, with several books on flyfishing in New England on his resume.
Ex Officio
Kristen Brengel Hajibrahim
As the Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, Kristen Brengel leads staff on public lands conservation, natural and cultural resource issues, and park funding. She is responsible for implementing the association’s legislative strategies and working with the administration.
Ms. Brengel has years of experience working to ensure National Park Service laws and policies are upheld and implemented to best protect all national park units. From recreation management to establishing new park units, she is passionate about land conservation and ensuring future generations can enjoy our spectacular public lands and cultural sites.
For many years, Kristen led the conservation community’s national effort to fight attempts to authorize counties, states, and private interests to carve unnecessary and environmentally damaging roads in National Parks, National Monuments, and potential wilderness areas. She also spearheaded The Wilderness Society’s national policy and legislative work on recreation management and policy issues in National Parks, Forests, Wildlife Refuges, and BLM lands.
