As Andrew has learned from his coursework at WVU and through his work with various organizations, leadership is a central component to the health and wealth of the organization. Leadership can take on different forms and does not always have to be the loud, steadfast, charismatic organizer. As he works as Executive Director of the Mountaineer Trail Network (MTN) to apply this concept to his everyday operations managing partners and board members within the 16 county network, Andrew cannot help but notice that leadership takes just as much listening and reflection as it does action and decision-making.

If leadership is the cultural and transformational actor or actions that create opportunities for change within organizations, management is the day-to-day operational outputs that ultimately push the organization toward its goals. Management is the structures within the organization, the operational footprint, the command structure, and the organization’s ability to mobilize and capitalize on their mission and culture.

Andrew’s position as Executive Director of the MTN focuses heavily on tasks that fall under “Management”. He spends most of his day managing projects, assets, funding, reporting, and communications toward the accomplishment of the MTN’s mission. Andrew uses the trust and discretion that he has earned from his fellow project partners to work semi-autonomously within the world of public administration in 5 key outdoor recreation communities around the state (Tucker (Cheat/Camp 70), Wood (Mountwood Park), Preston (Cheat/Big Bear Lake), and Pocahontas (Snowshoe Mountain) Counties). The management skills learned in Andrew’s MPA coursework and day-to-day operations have given him the ability to build successful structures, communication standards, feedback loops, effective policies and procedures, and a sense of purpose for the MTN and abroad.

During Andrew’s time at the MTN the importance of systems and how to properly communicate within an organization heightened his ability to efficiently and effectively participate in, and contribute to, the policy making process. During his time he focused specifically on how to write effective communications, how to structure policy documents, and how to create meaningful structure within organizations. When Andrew was working to create the Morgantown Area Mountain Bike Alliance’s (MAMBA) mission statement, by-laws, articles of incorporation, and financial structures the lessons learned allowed him to participate and contribute to meaningful and purposeful policies that became the backbone of this organization.  

In addition to MAMBA, his time working with Adventure WV had also been based around creating and implementing meaningful policy by which student staff and the professional staff at Adventure WV operate within. Knowing how to create stakeholder engagement and the different approaches that administrators can use to accomplish this mission was vital to Andrew’s ability to act quickly and maximize the most from the time he has with his students. Understanding the different traditions within administrative governance has given Andrew a better understanding of how to contribute to the policy process and more importantly how to bring others in to participate in the policy.  

While working for Adventure WV, Andrew has had the opportunity to work directly on a series of highly intricate logistical frameworks. Program Support Staff and Rental Operations currently coordinates all food, vehicles, and equipment for the whole of the Adventure WV department. That includes not only the upkeep of a vast programming and rental equipment fleet but also the facilitation of feeding over 1,000 incoming students while they participate in Adventure WV’s First Year Trip summer programs. Andrew’s ability to be flexible and to have an established understanding of his team’s strengths and weaknesses have helped him navigate the complex environment that comes with operating logistics for the nation’s largest and most successful outdoor orientation program while simultaneously coordinating the Outdoor Recreation Center’s outdoor equipment rental program within the same space and resources. Examples of these systems and skills can be found within the links listed below.

When the founding board members first wanted to create the Morgantown Area Mountain Bike Alliance (MAMBA), there was a growing concern that the need for better designed and protected mountain bike trails was paramount to the citizens of Morgantown. With several large organizations descending on Morgantown with hopes of building and implementing a new shared usage trail network, it was important that mountain bikers and other citizens had a voice to engage in the process.  

Through the strategies and techniques learned in the MPA program Andrew was able to effectively articulate, apply, and advance a public service perspective to the two largest organizations working on this future; the city of Morgantown and West Virginia University.  He was able to articulate different perspectives throughout the process of gathering stakeholder engagement and gathered feedback for use determining upcoming policies and historical trends. Andrew was able to utilize these trends and stakeholder information to formalize an approach to apply these perspectives and needs to the policy process. As a leader within MAMBA, Andrew was able to advance these stakeholder perspectives to make sure that they were included in the organization’s forward focusing policies and action plans. His interaction within the MPA program gave him the civic engagement tools needed to bring people together to hear their thoughts and concerns and it allowed Andrew to categorize their feedback in a way that was highly applicable moving forward with regards to MAMBA’s overall mission and goals.

In Andrew’s previous daily operations with Adventure WV, he often thought about how he could incorporate the practices and knowledge learned in his MPA Administrative Ethics coursework. He had the amazing opportunity to lead and manage a team of 10 student staff members and 1 Graduate Assistant within the Program Support Staff and Rental Operations (PSSRO) group within Adventure WV. This leadership and management opportunity allowed Andrew constant chances for reflection with regards to his and the organization’s ethical behavior and how PSSRO are accomplishing the mission of responsibly operating within a diverse and changing workforce.  

When managing at Pathfinder of West Virginia, Andrew’s perspectives were very different and his overall conceptualization of the questions of “who is not at the table” and “how can we facilitate a more diverse group of employees and customers in the future” were not things that he found himself contemplating. When designing programs for his staff or for outside groups of students with Adventure WV, Andrew currently challenges himself to always be thinking about those two questions. When viewing the world of outdoor recreation and outdoor retail it has long been an area of male influence. Andrew often noticed while working at Pathfinder of WV that the general overarching thought process was that most people who worked at outdoor stores and participated in outdoor recreation were male. It wasn’t until he left Pathfinder and came to Adventure WV that Andrew not only understood that industry thought to be an incorrect assumption but more importantly he began working towards creating more inclusive environments so that PSSRO could continue to attract and retain more diverse workers on staff. The question of “who isn’t at the table” had nothing to do with a person’s ability to work in an outdoor recreation background and had almost everything to do with creating inclusive opportunities that sought to involve all genders more in the culture of the organization.