Our Team
Kristin York: Thank You for Your Board Service
Kristin York, originally from San Francisco, is a longtime local leader who loves skiing, biking, backpacking, and more. She is the Vice President of Economic Empowerment for the Sierra Business Council. Upon completing her tenure on our Board of Directors, Kristin sat down to reflect upon her time with Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, philanthropy’s role in addressing community challenges, and where she is focusing her attention to make an impact. Read her full interview.
What do you love most about this place?
The amazing sense of community, stunning natural beauty, seasons, hearty people, the trails and proximity to all the things I love to do.
Can you share a moment or project with TTCF that felt especially meaningful to you or of which you are most proud?
It’s hard to pick just one, but working side-by-side with TTCF staff to organize and deploy emergency funds during COVID was a major highlight for me. As a nonprofit, we could move super fast to get funding out into the community where it was needed most.
What role can philanthropy play in addressing local challenges?
Philanthropy can play a major role in solving intractable problems in any community. TTCF has taken a leading role in the housing crisis and wildfire safety, and essentially created a model for other communities to follow. As a community, banding behind these ongoing efforts to amplify the impact is really important.
Where are you focusing your attention these days?
Market-based solutions must be available to improve forest health. This is part of the Forest Futures strategy, but it has been challenging to get traction on the investment side. These funds provide catalytic and patient capital that can invest in market solutions like advanced wood products, processing, ecosystem services, etc, that will address forest and watershed health while pulling through the biomass residuals into a viable product. Investors are expecting tech-specific 10x+ returns, but this is something entirely different. A forest health market-based solution has so many co-benefits that are not valued appropriately, like community safety, forest resilience, job creation, local economic impact, GHG reduction, and more.
To learn more about our community impact and how you can partner with us to make a difference, contact Stacy Caldwell at stacy@ttcf.net.