board of directors
Sarah McCloskey -President - (She/Her/Hers)
Sarah grew up at White Pass, Washington, a small Pacific Northwest ski area. After graduating from the University of Puget Sound, she moved to Alta for more terrain and better snow in January 1996. Sarah started her Alta career in the dining room at the Alta Lodge where she still works part-time. She has been a full-time dispatcher for the Alta Marshal's Office since April 1997. She also works part-time for the Alta Ski Patrol mostly doing early morning avalanche work. Sarah's favorite pastimes are skiing, trail running, cycling, and attending the multitude of events that ACE has to offer! She has been a member of the ACE board since the late 90's.
Cathy Tansimore - Vice President
Maren Askins - Treasurer (She/ Her/ Hers)
Maren moved to Alta during the ’12-13 season where she started as a deskie at the Alta Lodge. After a deep season and endless pow days Maren went home to Bangor, Maine for the summer where she quickly realized Alta is where she belongs. Ever since then she’s been working year-round at the Alta Lodge as a deskie, wedding coordinator, and since 2018 the General Manager. “I’m honored to have the Levitt family’s trust, and it’s something I take to heart each day.”
Sarah Snedaker - Secretary (She/Her/Hers)
Sarah was born and raised in Salt Lake City and grew up skiing at a different Utah resort, which shall remain nameless. Once she was required to buy her own season pass during her freshman year at the University of Utah, she made her way to LCC. While at the U, she double majored in Environmental Studies and Political Science. After graduating, she spent some time living and working in Alta, both at the Alta Lodge and eventually for ACE as the Director of Programs and Marketing.
During her time in Alta, when she wasn’t out searching for fresh turns, she was discovering her artistic abilities and starting her jewelry company, Sticks and Stones Design. She also found her true calling of becoming a therapist, thanks to ACE’s Mental Health Awareness events. She is currently in her final year of graduate school through Westminster’s Mental Health Counseling program. She is honored to return to ACE as a member and secretary of the ACE board.
Eliza Allen
Eliza was born and raised in Durango, CO, and her parents inspired a love for the outdoors and new experiences through their travel adventures. Her BA in Earth & Environmental Science put Eliza on a wandering path into the world of guiding, environmental restoration and body work.
Eliza was a PSIA ski instructor for 5 years at Crystal Mountain, bordering Mount Rainier National Park, during which time she also went to massage school in Seattle. She moved to Bend, Oregon and started ski patrolling at Mt Bachelor in the winters and working on a small cruise ship in SE Alaska in the summer teaching yoga, giving massages and taking guests sea kayaking and hiking. After a few years there, Eliza decided she wanted to see what other ski patrol opportunities were out there and she landed at Snowbird in 2013.
Eliza has found amazing opportunities and connections here in Little Cottonwood Canyon; fellow wandering spirits, good friends, private Grand Canyon trips, a ski patrol exchange to Grand Montets in Chamonix, teaching yoga for ACE and an introduction to the ski guiding world, which is where she is now working for Snowbird. She is passionate about growing her garden and can't wait to have more time to craft and create again. Eliza is also excited to give back to this community in a new way through the ACE board and new challenges ahead.
Molly Austin (She/ Her/ Hers)
Molly grew up in California and attended UC Santa Cruz, where she majored in Sociology. She moved to Alta in November of 2011 and started as a Sous Chef at the GMD, and have since also worked at Alta Lodge, Snowpine Lodge (old and new), Alta Ski Lifts, and started her current job working for the Town of Alta in May of 2022. She loves that LCC provides the space for newcomers to grow and flourish. She arrived thinking she would barely make it through one ski season, and left that spring knowing that she could make a life for herself here.
Hannah Follender (She/Her/Hers)
Hannah was raised as a ski racer in the burly mountains of New Jersey and Vermont. As a formality, she attended college at St. Lawrence University and double majored in conservation biology and political science. Upon graduation in 2011, she packed up her Subaru and drove west to Utah, and stayed for fear of ever having to drive back across Nebraska.
After working her way through ski shop and resort restaurant jobs in order to maximize her time on snow, she decided to attend law school at the S.J. Quinney School of Law at the University of Utah. Hannah is now a practicing intellectual property law attorney at Workman Nydegger in Salt Lake City. She intends to strike a balance between professional and “ski bum” life by using her diverse skills and interests as a valued member of the ACE board.
Siri Wieringa
Growing up, Siri lived up at Alta in the winter months, and up in Montana in the summer months. The Little Cottonwood community has been her home, and has loved attending ACE events since she was young.
She ski raced for Westminster University, and received a bachelor's degree in Social Science and English, and a Masters of Arts and Teaching. She was a classroom teacher for a few years, but fell in love with teaching kids outside and was a full time ski coach for 12 years. Now she has her own business in Salt Lake, Intention By Design, supporting clients as an Energy Healing Practitioner and Human Design Reader. Thanks to being the recipient of ACE's Well Being Grant, she is now also a certified Breathwork Facilitator.
In her free time you'll find her immersed in the mountains either skiing, biking, hiking or rafting, or playing with art and color.
Mike Squires
Mike is from Murray City, and grew up skiing along the Wasatch Front. From a young age, he was obsessed with politics and that has led him to work in Washington D.C., and then back to Utah where he started his own political and fundraising consulting company. Mike is presently the Government Affairs Director for a nonprofit energy association with members throughout the Intermountain West.
Mike received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law with a graduate certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. If you want to get Mike excited just ask him about the Clean Air Act or talk to him in French.
Advisory Board
Ellza Coyle O'Reilly | connie marshall | Paul Lippert | jim williams
staff
Sara Gibbs - Executive Director (She/Her/Hers)
Sara moved to Utah in 1996 for the deep powder snow. Prior to that she was born and raised in upstate New York. A graduate of State University of New York at Plattsburgh, with a bachelor's degree in Studio Arts. She became involved with ACE by attending events and then was asked to join the Board of Directors. In 2004 she accepted a job with ACE as the Programming and Marketing Director. In July of 2006, she was appointed the job as Executive Director.
Megan Oliver - Events Director (She/Her/Hers)
Megan grew up in a small town in Wisconsin and graduated from Luther College, a liberal arts college in Iowa, with a degree in French and Elementary Education. During those formative years, she spent time on farms in Togo and France and teaching in a rural village in Alaska. Her wanderlust and sense of adventure grew, and she moved to Utah in 2019 for love, a teaching job, and the mountains. While not an avid skier, she is a fervent backpacker and has long distanced hiked the Tahoe Rim Trail and Oregon Coast Trail. She appreciates the easy access to the Wasatch mountains for flower, hiking, birding opportunities, and tranquil moments in nature.
After 3 years of teaching 5th grade, she has taken the leap to pursue her silversmithing business, Crooked Trails Silver. In the Events Director role, she hopes to use her connections within the Utah art community and her education background to bring people together. She believes that everyone is an artist and how a supportive community is an essential component to a happy life. Megan is looking forward to using her artist perspective and becoming more involved in the Alta community.