MEET THE TEAM

SNO LEADERSHIP

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Heidi Johnson | Chair

  • Heidi Johnson has called Big Sky home for three years, after visiting since 2012. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Biology and an MS in Conservation Biology. After college, she organized and managed high risk, in-country surgical missions for Operation Smile in Gaza, Romania and Venezuela. More recently, she has led large distributed product organizations for companies in the financial services, health data, and private markets spaces. Heidi is an avid runner, downhill and nordic skier who volunteers with Eagle Mount, serves on the boards of multiple community land trusts. Heidi and her husband Chris have three children and two dogs who enjoy Montana’s beautiful outdoors as much as she does. 

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Patrick Miller | Treasurer

  • Patrick is a mostly retired executive and international consultant in the energy production, transmission and distribution field with a keen interest in reducing our carbon footprint at a local level in a well-planned and sustainable way. Patrick and Jeanne spent most of their working life in Michigan and first visited Big Sky shortly after it was purchased by Boyne. They moved to Big Sky as permanent residents in 2002, first for the skiing but soon found that summer fishing and hiking made Big Sky a perfect year-round home. Patrick has worked with Big Sky SNO through the process of nonprofit incorporation and envisioning the role of SNO in caring for our surroundings while dealing with the changing climate. Patrick works as an energy consultant.

Christina Calabrese | Board Member

  • Over the past 10 years, Christina has worked at the interface of growing the Big Sky community while preserving and enhancing its exceptional natural environment. In her role as Vice President of Design at Lone Mountain Land Company, she has strived to build a roster of award-winning design teams that are at the forefront of sustainable design, and most recently, achieving onsite net zero energy in our Montana climate. Christina actively participates in Big Sky’s non-profit and community-oriented initiatives, having contributed her design and planning expertise as a board member of the Arts Council of Big Sky and several task forces and subcommittees of the Big Sky Community Organization; Big Sky Community Housing Trust; and most recently as a participant in the production of the Big Sky SNO Climate Action Plan. Christina holds a Masters of Urban Planning from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture, with a second major in French, from the University of Virginia.

Amy Fonte | Board Member

  • Amy is a passionate sustainability professional who has a natural affinity for systems-thinking and enjoys complex environmental, social and economic problem solving. After graduating from Furman University with a B.S. in Sustainability Science, she moved to Billings to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA on a Community-Wide Methamphetamine and Opioid Response Initiative. Following her year of service, she moved to Washington D.C. where she attended American University’s Kogod School of Business and served with United Way Worldwide as an Economic Mobility Project AmeriCorps Vista Leader. Amy earned her M.S. in Sustainability Management and returned to the beautiful state of Montana. She resumed work in the field of Substance Abuse Prevention, as Yellowstone County’s Prevention Specialist, before moving to Big Sky in 2021. Amy is the Sustainability Specialist for Big Sky Resort, where she oversees the ForeverProject, the Resort’s commitment to Net Zero and roadmap for sustainability. Amy also serves on the Montana Prevention Certification Board.

Max Scheder-Bieschin | Vice Chair

  • Max is passionate about coaxing as many of us as possible to be better stewards of our environment. He is optimistic we can do this without major sacrifice, by using our existing economic system and our ability to introduce new technologies and business models.  In addition to joining SNO, Max volunteers with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a national lobby focused on bipartisan solutions to climate change. Max first visited Big Sky in 1982 and started coming to Montana regularly ten years later, after meeting his wife, Ann, whose family homesteaded in Roy. He has lived and worked in many countries as a banker, executive and entrepreneur, and considers himself fortunate to also have enjoyed the outdoors and natural environment everywhere he has been. Ensuring that his and his friends’ grandchildren can ski, sail, hike, fish and hunt - as he has been able to do - is his latest venture.

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Emily O’Connor | Secretary

  • Emily has a broad range of experience in the environmental sector including green building, natural resource management, and recreation planning. In her current role as Conservation Director, Emily leads ecological restoration and water conservation efforts throughout the Upper Gallatin watershed. Emily is a Syracuse, NY native and graduate from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Emily and her husband Joe moved to Montana in 2012 to explore the mountains and wide-open landscapes. Emily’s passion for protecting the natural environment began at a young age and will continue to be a source of inspiration and motivation in her personal life and career. Emily is the Conservation Director of Gallatin River Task Force.

Elizabeth Kraus | Board Member

  • Elizabeth Kraus earned her B.A. in Marketing from the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business, and has been founding, working for, and investing in startups for over 20 years. Elizabeth started her career at the rapidly growing startup Exclusive Resorts and co-founded her own startup, myUsearch.com, at the age of 25. After building that business, Elizabeth was an active angel investor. She made 22 personal angel investments, and founded and grew the Impact Angel Group before negotiating a successful merger with Investors’ Circle, the largest and most active impact angel investing organization in the U.S.

    In 2014, Elizabeth co-founded MergeLane, which invests in early-stage startups and venture capital funds led by at least one female leader. MergeLane has invested in 54 companies and recruited a network of over 300 mentors and 600 investors to support this portfolio, which is now valued at 2.5x its investment. The MergeLane investments made in the early days, which have had the most time to mature, are valued at 8.2x its investment. Idaciti, one of its portfolio companies, was acquired by FactSet (NYSE: FDS | NASDAQ: FDS), yielding a 4.3x DPI (distributions to paid capital) for MergeLane’s first fund. 

    Elizabeth became a full-time Montana resident after MergeLane made its last investment in 2023. After a serious health scare and a perfect storm of related and unrelated events (including her move to Montana), Elizabeth co-founded Imperfectly Honest to share the lessons she learned and is still learning from this transformative life experience. Through her podcast, blog, and upcoming book, she shares her successful and not-so-successful attempts to be the person she wants to be. 

STAFF, CONTRACTORS & INTERNS

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Lizzie Peyton |
Dir. of Community Sustainability

  • While living in Big Sky, Lizzie has worked as a personal chef, whitewater raft guide and in the non-profit sector. Trained as a chef in Paris following an undergraduate degree in International Studies at Boston College, Lizzie worked and traveled abroad for most of her 20s while continually returning to Big Sky as this community became home. After immersing into many diverse cultures-including a biodynamic farming collective in Tanzania- soil health and regeneration became a favorite hobby study. Intent on expanding on sustainable sourcing as a chef, Lizzie delved into regenerative agriculture research to become a more conscientious consumer. Equipped with increasing knowledge of regional ecosystems resilience, she chose to hang up her apron and start working with SNO to support community driven solutions in the environmental and sustainability sectors.

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