Jill Dreves

Background

About Jill Dreves

Jill Dreves has dedicated her professional career to developing and strategically building community as a nonprofit leader, fundraiser, and educator. In 1995, Jill founded a nonprofit organization, Wild Bear Nature Center, and over the last 30 years, under her leadership, Wild Bear partnered with Boulder County and Town of Nederland to preserve almost acres, cleaned up over 30 tons of trash from the land, developed and delivered nature programs to hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and now is building a net-positive nature center. Jill is an educator, a storyteller, and a team player. Jill is a strong writer, as exhibited by her excellent success in writing grant proposals, press releases, nature education curricula, strategic plan development, professional presentations, and other professional resources. Jill has grown Wild Bear to be a renowned and impactful environmental nonprofit organization, annually serving thousands of people of all ages. With Jill's leadership, Wild Bear has raised over $10M to build the new nature center through 137 individuals and 15 foundations. For more information, see these two websites, and gowild.wildbear.org. Jill is a master at building coalitions and partnerships to achieve common goals. Through partnering with Boulder County and the Town of Nederland, Wild Bear secured 5 acres to create the nature center on what is now almost acres. Jill has generated a broad vision through focus groups, including stakeholders who provided key input to formalizing the vision of the nature center at Mud Lake. As a community leader, Jill has served on the Town of Nederland's Envision 2020 and 2030 committees to develop goals and initiatives for the Town of Nederland. Jill holds a BS degree in Adolescent Development, an elementary teaching license, and an MBS in Museum and Field Studies. Her professional career has included eight years as an Elementary School teacher and the last 30 years as Executive Director/Chief Vision Officer of Wild Bear Nature Center. Jill grew up in the mountains of northern Colorado, which informed her personal and professional life decisions. Her hobbies include traveling, the theatre, hiking on Rocky Mountain trails, creating high-altitude pollinator gardens, spending time with her two sons, and simply being in nature. She lives with her husband and two dogs in Nederland, Colorado.