Orion Hatch
Executive Director
Orion Hatch joined the Snake River Fund team in 2020. As Program Director, he channeled his love of the river and enthusiasm as a naturalist into thoughtful community engagement culminating in 2022 with Jackson Hole’s inaugural Snake River Fest.
As Executive Director, Hatch works to foster partnerships, cultivate support, influence policy, and engage the public all in the name of stewardship of and public access to the Snake River and its headwater tributaries.
Hatch has a degree in Hydrogeology from the University of Massachusetts and takes a keen interest in the geologic and fluvial forces that have helped shape the landscape. His science-based stewardship, love of recreation, and his attachment to the global river community continue to serve him well in his position as Executive Director. You can catch him running his Shredder down the Gros Ventre, dropping a line in the Greys, or swimming after his surfboard in Lunch Counter.
Jennifer Houston-Hovland
Development Director
Jennifer has 25 yrs. experience across nonprofits, philanthropy, and academia. For the last 7+ years she has worked as an independent consultant serving organizations across the nation principally in fundraising development, leadership coaching and DEI initiatives Her professional career has focused on uplifting marginalized communities to create a more equitable and just world, having held leadership roles at various nonprofits and foundations.
She also spent over 2 yrs. working overseas with the Volunteer Missionary Movement teaching post-secondary education and training women’s cooperatives in post-civil war El Salvador and spent a year in an AmeriCorps Jesuit organization at Boys Hope Girls Hope in New York City. Her love of the outdoors and nature began when she attended YMCA Camp St. Croix as a camper, and where she worked during summers as a counselor and Trail Director throughout college leading canoe trips down the St. Croix, Namekogen and Chippewa rivers.
She has held various Board roles at MN Asian American Health Coalition, Our Justice, PFund Foundation, and presently at TaikoArts Midwest.
She received her BA in psychology and women’s studies from the University of Minnesota, twin cities and her MPA in nonprofit management at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Jennifer lives with her spouse in Grand Teton National Park where they enjoy recreating in the beautiful outdoors. She has a daughter and two cats. She volunteers at the local Teton Raptor Center and enjoys seeing these beautiful birds get rehabilitated and released back into the wild.
Joe Smith
Programs and Events Director
Joe Smith is an enthusiastic naturalist, educator, and river guide who has lived in and around Jackson Hole since 2011. Having grown up along the banks of a historically polluted river in Central Massachusetts, Joe has an immense appreciation for the relatively pristine Snake River Headwaters.
Joe earned his bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Studies at the University of Massachusetts while focusing his studies on watershed science and management. At the same time, he began working as a whitewater guide. While he was pretty terrible back then, he’d argue that he is now the best raft guide ever.
In addition to sharing his passion for river recreation, Smith is also a community organizer, taco enthusiast, and aspiring angler.
Boots Allen
Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator
Boots is a third generation guide on numerous waters in the Greater Yellowstone Area including Wyoming’s Snake and Green rivers and Idaho’s South Fork. His 30-plus years of experience in the fly fishing industry go beyond rowing a drift boat. Boots is also a well-established writer and speaker with four books, scores of articles, and dozens of presentations to his name. Much of his work revolves around issues of climate change, invasive species, congestion, and multi-use access that most western rivers face today. Boots is excited to bring his passion for stewardship and access to the Snake River Fund.