Carla Williams
Cover star Carla Williams is the president of the nonprofit Keep Sedona Beautiful (KSB). Since 1972, Keep Sedona Beautiful and its volunteers have worked “to protect and sustain the scenic beauty and natural environment of Sedona and the Verde Valley.” Specifically, the group has programs like its KSB Litter Lifter Program, where more than 75 people have helped to clean up litter strewn across more than 50 miles of local roadway. KSB also works to help protect and maintain Oak Creek and preserve Sedona’s dark stars. When Carla Williams and her husband, Don Williams, first visited Sedona about 20 years ago, they were so enchanted by the city’s gorgeous trails that they purchased a home in town on their second day visiting. “I never get tired of the red rocks because they change almost daily with the weather and seasons,” she says. Given her deep love of Sedona’s wilderness, her role with KSB was a natural fit.
Carla Williams. Photo by Larry Lindahl.
“As president, I am responsible for ensuring KSB is healthy legally and financially. I encourage our volunteer board to contribute their passions and skills towards programs, initiatives, events or projects and give each working member an opportunity to realize their volunteer dream, whether a litter lifter or a committee chair. Other responsibilities include managing staff, keeping to our mission, encouraging a friendly, cohesive atmosphere and ensuring KSB is around another 52 years,” she says. Carla spent many years in corporate America, and says she enjoys working on projects that help the community. “I receive personal satisfaction working on projects that are important to the community and are fun. I spent many years in corporate America and didn’t always work on meaningful projects. Working for a nonprofit like KSB with a long history of professional, competent volunteers makes my life easy. I use everything I learned throughout my career just like other KSB volunteers. It’s amazing what people can accomplish when they are happy and excited about the work,” she says. Carla has worked in a variety of fields and has a diverse, fascinating background. “I’ve worked as an elementary school teacher, waiter, housekeeper, retail clerk and bookkeeper, which were traditional female jobs, but I have also worked as a comptroller, control systems engineer, quality director, certified quality auditor and certified project manager, which were traditional male jobs,” she says.
“I spent years climbing the ladder in the male-dominated oil industry. The University of Alaska published my book in 2019 called “Wildcat Women” about women breaking barriers in a male-dominated industry. There are several of us in Sedona who spent their careers in oil and gas and now embrace a more environmental approach in our retired life. For the last nine years, I’ve been a hiking guide at Enchantment Resort’s Trail House.” Keep Sedona Beautiful is one of the city’s longest-running groups that works to help Sedona thrive. Many think the name is a slogan when it’s actually the group’s mission. “KSB is often mistaken for a local slogan instead of an organization working to keep the area beautiful. People think when visitors come to Sedona they don’t litter, paint on the rocks or drive over fragile cryptobiotic soil, but the sad truth is people don’t treat Sedona like a respected sanctuary. At KSB, our team of over 77 litter lifters are up early in the morning picking up tons of road litter each year on over 50 miles of highway. We advocate for more responsible access to fragile forest land by off-road vehicles and provide businesses and residents information to comply with local and DarkSky International standards,” she says. “KSB headquarters is a registered historical building on Brewer Road called the Eco-Hub, which includes an expansive, rock-tiered pathway garden showcasing native and drought resistant plants. Interpretive signs offer education on Indigenous plants, pollinators, xeriscaping, Firewise landscaping and rainwater capture. KSB also advocates against egregious developments and provides monthly speakers on a variety of environmental topics. Our new Preserving the Wonder website (preservingthewonder.org) gives tourists tips on hiking and biking and how to treat the land, along with other valuable information.”
Amaryth Gass. Photo by Elise Giordano.
Amaryth Gass
Amaryth Gass knows just how empowering and enjoyable it can be to master a new skill like mountain biking. As the co-founder and co-owner of Sedona Mountain Bike Academy (SMBA), she teaches others how to bike on Sedona’s rugged outdoor trails. “I find it very rewarding to help facilitate experiences of joy for others. Riding a bike is one of the first experiences of childlike joy and independence for most. Curating a supportive place for them to reengage with this sentimental experience, especially among such stunning red rock views, is deeply rewarding,” she says. “Additionally, seeing people succeed in ways they once thought impossible is profoundly rewarding. If they experience this unanticipated transformation on the mountain bike, it can translate to other parts of their life, creating a metaphor for empowerment.” Her days vary widely and are a mix of administrative tasks coupled with teaching jobs. “I spend a large portion of time offering direct instruction through private lessons and clinics. Additionally, I allot my energy toward administrative tasks, supporting staff, marketing, networking with fellow organizations and curating community events,” she says. She’s also involved in a bike-centric nonprofit. “I am also a lead coach for Wheel Fun, an Arizona-wide nonprofit that offers free after school bike clubs for youth. This program is tightly aligned with SMBA. My husband and business partner is Wheel Fun’s executive director. Since 2018, we have grown this program to impact over 1,400 youth across the state. Wheel Fun offers all programming and necessarily gear and bikes at no cost to participants, as well as builds bike parks at public schools to increase trail access for its riders.” Although mountain biking is an intense physical activity, Amaryth believes that many challenges on the bike are actually mental, not physical. She uses her unique set of skills to help her customers truly thrive.
“I have a master’s degree in social work and outdoor education, providing me a unique viewpoint in my approach to mountain bike instruction. Incorporating this knowledge is critical to doing my job effectively, as many times the barriers to success on the bike are mentally or emotionally rooted, not physical,” she says. “Unlike most mountain bike coaches without this background, I take an empathetic, collaborative approach that acknowledges the mental and emotional aspects of progression.” Although men dominate mountain biking, Amaryth has found a strong, supportive community amongst other female riders. “Women’s specific opportunities in the mountain biking industry have been the foundation of my trajectory as a rider and instructor,” she says. “Due to it being a male-dominated sport, femme identifying riders that are passionate about the sport are fiercely driven to support each other. I have become an active member in women’s-specific events, with organizations such as the Flagstaff Lady Shredders. My community is rooted within these opportunities, and I have found these connections to be absolutely invaluable.”
Amaryth Gass. Photo by Elise Giordano.
For a mountain biker, Sedona can be a dream destination. For Amaryth, the city is where she feels at home. “I feel at peace and at home here in Sedona. The weather, the views and technicality of the terrain. Sedona is unique in many ways. Beyond the stunning scenery and year-round riding, two things stand out: trail accessibility and community collaboration. From my home in West Sedona, I can access a wide range of trailheads after a 10-minute pedal on pavement. Compared to other mountain bike destinations across the world, this is an immense convenience to any mountain biker,” she says. Secondarily, Sedona has a very active community of trail users. Whether it be through Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition or volunteer trail work days with the Red Rock Trail Crew, I am grateful to see such a dedicated community where community members and those in power are collectively creating a future where the red rocks are protected and accessible.”
Jennifer Chilton. Photo by Christopherr Ames.
Jennifer Chilton
Jennifer Chilton loves language, poetry and literary analysis and turned her passion into a job when she became an educator. She earned her first degree from Indiana University in English Literature. She found that she enjoyed working with teenagers and furthered her skills as a teacher at Marist High School in Eugene, Oregon. After she moved to Arizona, she decided to venture into educational leadership. She’s been in that role ever since. Today, Jennifer serves as both the assistant superintendent at Sedona-Oak Creek Unified School District (SOCUSD) and the director of online instruction who manages the District’s Red Rock Academy. She’s worked at SOCUSD for eight years. “My role at SOCUSD is catchall. It’s why I so highly value serving this district. My days are varied. A recent important responsibility was leading the District’s six-year accreditation renewal,” she says. “Among my ongoing responsibilities, a favorite is managing the Sedona Performing Arts Center. I have a lot of interaction with the community and beyond as a result of managing public use of school facilities.”
Jennifer Chilton. Photo by Christopherr Ames.
“For many years I served as the director of operations and communications, so I still have many of those initial responsibilities,” she says. “Additionally, I mentor, support professional development planning, serve as the district’s Title IX coordinator and emergency preparedness coordinator, support custodial needs, and last week, I enjoyed painting the stage. It’s the gamut that makes me love my work so much.” What makes her work so rewarding are the students “Educators’ rewards are person-to-person, daily, seldom seen by others, faithfully assumed in children’s futures. I remember the rejoicing ‘yes!’ of my dyslexic, language learning student passing his AIMS writing exam after months of arduous practice. That will fuel a teacher for years. The rewards are different now as a district level administrator. However, I have the best of both roles by virtue of working from the Sedona Red Rock main office,” she says. What helps her relate to the students she serves is the fact that she really enjoyed her school years. “I loved high school more than anyone I know – flag-twirling and float building and cruising in small-town Midwest. So, I stayed in high school forever. I’ve been to SO many proms. My appreciation for this, for my gentle family, for my first year of high school being the first year of MTV, feeds my optimism and sense of humor. Goofiness may be an educator superpower,” she says. “I’m a fairly quiet person on the outside, but in my Whitmanesque imagination, ‘I contain multitudes’ through which I can conceive, distill, construct and relate with others.” Although education is a field that contains many different challenges, Jennifer tells us that those many challenges are what fuels her desire to work in education. “It is the challenges that motivate education workers every day,” she says. “Despite low school funding, families’ struggles and uncertainty, children bravely face their ‘age of anxiety.’ Thank goodness teachers are creative and resilient. We are animated by the needs, demands and humor of the kids we’re blessed to spend our days with.”
Despite her long career in education, she keeps a level headed approach to her long-term career goals. “My professional goals are pretty consistent regardless of the place or time in my long career in education. They are not grandiose. I’ve aimed to be a good grown-up in the lives of kids, to help teachers however I can to be the same, to be a builder-up, to keep truckin’ on toward the positive for myself and the learners that have filled my life – all learners, every day, young and old,” she says. Although the educational workforce is roughly three quarters female, just over one-quarter of superintendents are women, according to “Education Week.” Jennifer sees herself as a role model for other women in her same position. “Female leaders, my wise women, have been visible to me and generous in their fostering leadership potential in the next generation throughout my years in education. That’s my responsibility now,” she says. “My dissertation research was on women in the superintendency. Female superintendents statistically arrive later and are more place-bound. It’s vital to push beyond barriers to ensure that leadership and access is modeled for all students. I’ve always been a working woman, very much including the years I stayed home with my firstborn. All three of my children have prospered and suffered in a hard-working family. It’s been important to me to model work ethic and service.”
Judy Poe. Photo by Kelsey Erin Skye.
Judy Poe
Libraries can be pillars of a community and have plenty to offer besides books, movies and music that can be checked out for free. The Community Library Sedona is no exception. Throughout this month alone, the West Sedona location of the library is slated to host a youth chess club, an advanced Spanish conservation group and an indoor wildflower display. Judy Poe, the executive director of the Community Library Sedona, is someone who knows all about the magic of libraries. Judy held many different jobs in various fields, but what she totally fell for was working in the library system. “I’ve had several careers through the years, but none ever really stuck for very long,” she says. “I started to volunteer at a library in North Carolina, and when a paid position became available, I jumped at the chance. Since then, I’ve held practically every position there is in a library, because there is always something new to learn and do. I’ve always been curious, and it’s my firm belief that curiosity is the most important qualification for a librarian.”
What matters most to her in her line of work? The people. “Meeting people, helping people, connecting people – for me, it’s always about the people,” she says. “It’s about working with them to make good things happen. I believe that a library is defined by its community, so it’s vital to know that community. What works in Phoenix or Flagstaff or Denver isn’t necessarily what will work in Sedona. I love finding out what people and their organizations want and finding a way to make it a reality. And I love breaking down the stereotype of what a library and a librarian are.” When she first became director, the library conducted a community needs analysis to see what people were searching for. She’s always striving to improve the library’s place in the community. “So many people talked about how much they miss Java Love. If you know, you know,” she says. “It’s my goal to see the library become a true community space with something for everyone, a hub of activity for kids, families, singles, couples – for all! Community Library Sedona is here for each of us. And all of us. If I can be a part of making that happen, I will be very happy.”
Judy Poe. Photo by Kelsey Erin Skye.
Some of the challenges of her job include fundraising – although the local library receives some funding from the city and counties, it isn’t enough to cover its yearly operating expenses, and the older building is in need of renovations – and changing the public’s ideas about what a library can be. First of all, Judy doesn’t believe that libraries should be quiet. “First, I’m not quiet, and I don’t believe in quiet libraries,” she says. “My favorite quote is, ‘Bad libraries build collections. Good libraries build services. Great libraries build community.’ I firmly believe that our community is our collection; it’s always about the people. And I believe that libraries can change the world, one person at a time. We will always have books and materials on our shelves, but the most important function of a library is finding out what our community wants and needs and finding a way to fill that need. I love to see people meeting, talking and connecting.” Like many who reside in Sedona, she’s amazed by the city’s stunning scenery and engaged citizens. “I have met so many amazing people in Sedona and the Village with such diverse backgrounds. I am continually amazed when I learn what people did before moving to Sedona,” says Judy. “The talent and knowledge base here is unreal. I love the volunteer spirit here, and of course, I love the weather, the trails and the views. Blue skies and star-filled nights are divine.”
