Director of Climate Action

Ali Dunford grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and graduated with a degree in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado. She moved to Jackson in 2012, planning to stay one season before heading to medical school – instead, she founded Hole Food Rescue, which she ran until 2021. She went on to co-found Walking Softer and the Institute for Planetary Thinking, organizations working on ecological and social wellbeing at national and global scale. Through that work, Ali became versed in systems thinking, ecological limits, and complex risk assessment – experience that sharpened a core conviction: the most powerful lever for change isn't national policy or big institutions, but the local relationships and systems that hold a community together. Today, Ali brings that lens to Teton Resilience Network, where she works part-time, alongside part-time work as a biodynamic farmer at Cosmic Apple Gardens – learning the skills and hard lessons of what local resilience really requires.