Our Crew
WMC Staff and Personnel
Audrey Brown, Programs Manager
Audrey joined the WMC in Summer 2025 as an Operations Intern and now serves as the Programs Manager. In this role, she plans and coordinates the WMC’s summer programming, helping ensure meaningful, well-run experiences for participants, staff, volunteers, and community members alike. She also supports the daily functioning of our off-grid McCarthy campus. In addition to programs operations, Audrey assists with external organizational communications, grant writing, as well as social media and website development.
Moving forwards, Audrey is excited to continue supporting the WMC’s long-standing programs while helping expand new offerings to reach broader audiences. She is passionate about expanding access to equitable education through hands-on learning, mentorship, and community-building initiatives rooted in connection to the natural world.
Having recently completed her undergraduate degree in Ireland—and spending a year living in Korea as part of her studies—Audrey is a world traveler who is passionate about immersing herself in and learning from different communities. In her free time you can find her reading, going for a dip in the swimming hole, and getting into the backcountry whenever possible.
Tamara Egans Harper
Administrative Assistant
Tamara joined the WMC in 2012 as coordinator of events at the Kennecott Recreation Hall, which WMC manages. She's worked for WMC since then, assisting with various administrative tasks, including maintaining the WMC’s database of donors, keeping track of all of our wonderful supporters and partners.
Tamara and her husband have lived in McCarthy since 2003 and she enjoys gardening, birdwatching, skiing, biking, hiking, cooking and welcoming guests to her tinycabin bed and breakfast during the summers.
Joey Boots-Ebenfield Program Coordinator, Field Studies Program
Joey first came to McCarthy as a WMC volunteer in 2021, and quickly realized he had found a place to take root. Returning as staff the next summer, he helped plan and run programs and worked on facilities projects while continuing to get to know McCarthy and the Wrangells.
Joey started a PhD at the University of Maine in 2022, focusing on social-ecological relationships of the circumpolar north. He is beyond excited to weave his research into the Wrangell Mountains Center Field Studies Program, where his roles as program coordinator and as an instructor will allow him to explore themes of community and place-based research, holistic systems science, and local climate adaptation while learning more about the land alongside students and other partners.
He loves wandering among the glaciers, rivers, and mountains, backcountry building projects, learning the lore of local flora and fauna, propagating mischief, and laughing with friends; all easy things to find in the Wrangells.
Kristin Link /
AIR Program Coordinator,
Field Studies Program Instructor,
Instructor for Field Sketching and Journaling Workshop and Community Group
Kristin Link is a fine artist, science illustrator, and educator who lives on the Nizina River just outside McCarthy. She works with the WMC as an instructor and facilitates the Meg Hunt Artist Residency Program. She has worked with the WMC in various capacities since 2010, including stints and Program Associate and as Executive Director. You can learn more about Kristin’s work on her website: www.KristinIllustration.com.
Ben Shaine
Field Studies Academic Coordinator
Ben has taught with the Wrangell Mountains Center’s college programs since their inception and provides a link for the Center with the academic community. His novel Alaska Dragon (Fireweed Press 1991), set in the Wrangell Mountains, explores the contemporary significance of wildness. He co-authored the Center’s Community and Copper in a Wild Land, an overview of the McCarthy area published in cooperation with the National Park Service. During congressional consideration of legislation designating Alaska parklands, Ben handled Wrangell-St. Elias issues for the Alaska Coalition. His master’s thesis evaluated management alternatives for the Wrangells and his PhD is in environmental studies. Ben and his family developed their homestead on the mountainside near Kennecott, where he lives, writes, wanders and wonders about the power of the Wrangells revealed in its details.
benshaine@gmail.com
George Wening, Field Studies Program Fellow
George first came to the Wrangells as a student with Wrangell Mountain Field Studies in 2024, and instantly fell in love with the Wrangell Mountains and its people. He’s returning for his second year working with the Wrangell Mountains Center, assisting with running the Field Studies program.
He’s a student at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota where he’s studying Geology and Physics with a focus on ice, snow, and glacier physics. He’s worked as a guide in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, all across the northern Midwest, and the Wrangells. He teaches and coaches rock climbing, and loves sharing his passion for outdoor sports with people, especially with people with limited access. He also loves learning new art forms - recently, he’s been making stained glass art, and playing guitar and fiddle.
A Peek back at WMC Staff and Friends
Video by Dave Sarbell