John Gans Email and Phone Number

I believe wilderness is the best classroom. It’s where we learn by experience our own capabilities, the value of wild places, and lifelong leadership skills. This is why I have spent so much of my life with NOLS. NOLS teaches wilderness skills, leadership, life-saving first aid, and environmental studies in outdoor and indoor classrooms across the globe. I came to NOLS in 1981 as an instructor and became the director of NOLS Alaska in 1984. I then moved into other roles at NOLS’ headquarters as the director of admission and marketing and then director of operations. Under my leadership NOLS has grown, educating more than 25,000 students each year, and reaches an increasingly diverse and global student population. In 1999 we bought the Wilderness Medicine Institute, now NOLS Wilderness Medicine, enabling us to train students in life-saving wilderness first aid skills. We created NOLS Professional Training, now NOLS Custom Education, which tailors our curriculum to professional groups, including NASA astronauts and federal land managers. We have grown our financial aid program by more than 400 percent and established the school’s endowment, which has grown to $39 million. In my time at NOLS, Outside magazine and The Nonprofit Times recognized us as one of the country’s best employers. We’ve also received the Torch Award for Ethics from the Better Business Bureau as well as awards from Backpacker Magazine and the Outdoor Industry Association for contributions to the outdoor community. In 2012, President Obama recognized me as a White House Champion of Change for my commitment to youth, wilderness, and leadership. Outside of NOLS, I have helped start three other nonprofit organizations and been involved in other areas, from serving on the board of the High Mountain Institute to coaching baseball. These roles provide opportunities to give youth like my three children a thriving planet and arm them with the leadership skills to do the same for their children.