Staff
Heidi MacDonald
Executive Director
Born and raised in Missoula, Heidi MacDonald has always known that she would call Montana home forever. From an early age, the outdoors have shaped her life and passions. She spent winters of her youth on Mountains throughout the west as a ski racer, and summers at her family’s cabin on Flathead lake. Heidi’s love for the outdoors has continued throughout her life and career. After college, she worked as a teen outdoor leadership educator, and spent many summers guiding rafting trips on rivers through Idaho and Western Montana. Alongside her passion for outdoor recreation, Heidi has been deeply committed to youth development. For many years she was the Executive Director for Missoula Strikers Soccer Club. She also was a Missoula Park Board member, and spent years with fellow dreamers, planning, organizing and finally building Fort Missoula Regional Park. She has spent the past three decades happily married to Randy Scott, and are proud parents to four great children. Their family has continued to grow and now includes wonderful partners of their children and recently, their first grandchild. Today, Heidi continues to spend most of her time outdoors with her family skiing, hiking, fly-fishing and rafting.
At eight-years old, Heidi first attended Camp Paxson (Camp Watanopa) as a Campfire girl. She would go back for many summers. Her father was also a Camp Paxson alum, as a Boy Scout during WWII.Heidi joined Camp Paxson board of directors in 2023, where after two years as a board member she then became the Executive Director. Heidi is thrilled to be apart of a place that meant so much to her growing up.Working to restore Camp Paxson and bring more kids back to this incredible place is Heidi’s future goal.
Calida Davis
Curriculum Director
Calida (she/her) is originally from the rolling farmlands of Pennsylvania, but since moving to Montana in 2012, has fallen in love with the mountains and rivers of the west. She obtained degrees in Psychology and English, and a master’s in Leadership for Sustainability, spent time touring with Missoula Children’s Theatre and working in outdoor-based schools as a teacher, head of facilities and executive director. Calida is grateful to be learning and growing alongside the students of Larch Outdoor Education since first dreaming about the program in 2018 and launching it in 2021. She ardently believes in the importance of connecting students to the natural world, embracing multiple ways of knowing and learning from nature. When not teaching about beavers or lichen, Calida can be found searching for mushrooms or scat with her son, reading, or hiking with their two dogs and her family.
Anne Des Rosier Grant
Indigenous Education Director
Anne Grant is an enrolled member of the Amskaapipikani (Southern Band of Blackfeet) and a descendant of A’aninin, also known as People of the White Clay located at Fort Belknap. She earned an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana in 2015. Her interdisciplinary thesis focused on the resilient social-ecological systems stemming from Traditional Ecological Knowledge and cross-cultural communication of environmental science through art. Anne has collaborated with a number of diverse organizations, including the Piegan Institute, Big Sky Documentary Native Filmmaker Initiative Film Club, the Native Science Field Center at Blackfeet Community College, Nizi Puh Wah Sin Blackfeet Language Immersion program, Montana’s Office of Public Instruction (OPI), and Hopa Mountain. Prior to working with the University of Montana Willow Alliance for Graduate Education, Anne was an Elouise Cobell Fellow for the UM College of Humanities and Sciences. She has been a classroom teacher for every age group from Pre-K to 50+. She enjoys beading and berry-picking with her granddaughter and spending time in the summer in and around Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation where she grew up. Anne is passionate about place-based outdoor education and an advocate for the implementation of Indian Education For All in all subjects.
Board
Christy Bain
Board President
Christy Bain Smith moved to Missoula the summer she turned ten and was immediately packed off to Camp Paxson for a week of Camp Fire Girl Camp. Camp Paxson has been a familiar and magical spot for Bain family gatherings and momentous events ever since. Christy spent 25 years working for the Seattle Repertory Theatre where her production and artistic work included collaborating with universities in conjunction with the Professional Arts Training Program, Company Managing National Tours, and co-producing Regional Theatre partnerships at Arena Stage, LaJolla Playhouse, Baltimore Centerstage, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Alley Theatre, ACT San Francisco, The Old Globe, The McCarter Theatre, The Public Theatre, The Mark Taper Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Hedgebrook Writers Retreat. Her Seattle theatre credits also span Fifth Avenue Theatre, ACT Theatre, Empty Space Theatre and Seattle Children’s Theatre. Christy has worked with many of Seattle’s major event organizations. Favorites include co-producing events for Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project, Peter Gabriel’s World Music Festival, Seattle Folklife Festival, Seattle International Children’s Festival, Bumbershoot, World Trade Organization Events, MLB All-Star Game, and Summer Nights on the Pier. Christy and her husband returned to Missoula several years ago after 30 years in Washington state. They have four kids and a grandson. The Rattlesnake Wilderness has always been the family stomping grounds and the move back to Montana found her living smack-dab across the road from the Rattlesnake Trailhead where she takes advantage of the majesty of the glorious Big Sky and counts her lucky stars.
Don Collins
Board Secretary/Treasurer
Missoula Native Don Collins is probably best known in the state as the Co-Founder (with Jim Caron) of the Missoula Children’s Theatre (MCT). Don lives in Seattle where he works as a professional singer and actor, arts development specialist, and entrepreneur businessman. He is currently working on a new meal planning and cooking website and app to help tired or novice cooks plan and cook daily healthful meals.
From his childhood, Don remembers watching his older brother go through his boy scout paces in the summers at Camp Paxson. He was reintroduced to Camp Paxson through his development activities with MCT during the time they were managing the camp previous to the formation of CPPP. During that time Don led numerous educational outreach programs including an outdoor education partnership in conjunction with the US Forest Service. He has become a firm believer in the power of experiential education and feels strongly that outdoor education accomplishes profound results by taking kids out of the classroom to learn through the outdoor experience while developing an understanding of their “place” on this planet they call home.
Brayden Byrne
Board of Directors
Brayden Byrne is an employee benefits consultant specializing in proactive enterprise risk and health strategies that help employers support their workforce while controlling costs. After graduating from the University of Portland, Brayden worked as a nurse at Providence St. Vincent before returning to Missoula to serve as the school nurse at Hellgate Elementary. His decision to come home was driven by a passion for working with youth and a lifelong love of the outdoors—an interest shaped by mentors and role models who opened opportunities for him. The outdoors have enhanced his quality of life, forged lasting friendships, and inspired him to give back. Drawing on both clinical experience and community work with Montana youth, Brayden is proud to serve Camp Paxson and to expand meaningful outdoor experiences for the next generation.
Andrew Koenig
Board of Directors, Past President
Andrew is an attorney with a solo practice focusing on the representation of disability claimants in appeals before the Social Security Administration, both at the administrative level and in federal court. After graduating from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1991, where he met his future wife, Missoula-native Gwen Jones, Andrew worked as a legal aid attorney in Ventura County, California, from 1992-1996, after which he opened his own law practice. In 2004, he and Gwen moved to Missoula to raise their three children and enjoy the outdoors and beauty that Missoula and Montana have to offer. Now that all three children are grown and in college and beyond, Andrew is excited to put his time and energy into helping Camp Paxson provide outstanding outdoor educational opportunities to school children all over our beautiful state.
Shawna Rudio
Board of Directors
After roughly forty years of living the Alaska dream in Kodiak, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, retired middle and high school English teacher Shawna Rudio returned to her hometown ofMissoula in 2020, as originally planned. Prior to teaching, Shawna worked seasonally as a Fish and Wildlife technician for the Alaska
Department of Fish and Game at various remote sites on Kodiak Island monitoring the herring sac roe fishery and working at fish weirs and egg take sites. As both an educator and someone who has spent a great deal of time working and living out in the field, Shawna knows how effective place-based education can be and looks forward to helping support Camp Paxson’s mission of building connection and learning through outdoor education. As a kid growing up in Missoula, attending Camp Paxson (then Camp Watanopa) was truly the highlight of the summer and the goal is o provide that same magical camp experience for future generations of Montana kids.
Steen Shober
Board of Directors
Steen and his wife Maddy moved to Missoula two years ago, just a few miles from where he grew up. He received his bachelors in environmental studies from Fort Lewis in Durango, CO in 2019. After that he moved to Bozeman to explore a new part of Montana. For the past six years he has been working for Wildfire Defense Systems, a wildfire consulting and risk intervention company based out of Bozeman. Outside of work you can find him coaching soccer, floating the river, or looking for deer and elk in the woods. His favorite place is just downstream of Camp Paxon where his family is part of a partnership that owns the old Camp Imlu on Elbow Lake. One of his favorite jobs was working on a trail crew for MCC where he was able to spend the entire summer outdoors.
A firm believer in the benefits of being outdoors and recreating, he is looking forward to helping further Camp Paxon’s mission.
Thomas Webster
Board of Directors
Tom Webster is currently a consultant in the entertainment business, where he started as a roadie in 1979. In the ensuing years Tom helped form the Missoula Blues and Jazz Society, worked for various promotion organizations, and ran his own promotion company. From 1994-2021 he worked as a promoter/producer and venue manager at the University of Montana. Additionally, during this time, he was a professor of entertainment management for the College of Business. From 2023-2025 he was the Director of the Mother Lode Theatre in Butte, Montana and considered this a grand adventure helping right a struggling enterprise. Tom is also on boards of the Montana Performing Arts Consortium and Traveler’s Rest Connection.
Tom and his wife Lori are happy their children Cooper and Emma are very independent and living in Missoula.