Matt Baker-White

Executive Director

Matt joined WRFI in 2022 after spending a decade leading field programs and administrating outdoor education nonprofits. Matt grew up in Texas and Massachusetts, exploring the desert scrublands of the southwest and the boreal forests of the northeast with his family as a child. Matt holds a B.A. in Sociology with a concentration of studies in Studio Art from Bates and a M.Ed. in Special Education from Northeastern University. His background in environmental education started at Bates, where he was a field instructor and President of a student-led Outing Club, and continued in the Southwest where he was a rock climbing instructor, a field group leader, and eventually a Program Director at Cottonwood Gulch Expeditions. Matt says that his career highlights include showing a middle schooler the stars for the first time, developing multi-day curriculum for countless partner programs, presenting testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Public Lands, and turning a torrential downpour into the most fun game of soccer ever. After moving to Montana in 2021 he rapidly took to the fly fishing, skiing, backpacking, climbing, and mountain biking that Missoula has to offer.  In addition to his work at WRFI, Matt is a mixed media landscape artist, an instructor for Aerie Backcountry Medicine; he loves to adventure with his wife, Tori, and his two sons, Sage and Parker.