Future Leaders

By Emma Athena

At the “When We Lead” Panel, held on Day 3 of Outdoor + Snow Show, Jen Gureki, CEO of Coalition Snow, announced a name change for the recurring panel: “When We Lead” replaced “When Womxn Lead” in another evolutionary step away from the original name “When Women Lead.” It’s a necessary change, she said, “so that anyone who does not identify as a woman feels welcome in this space.”

Gureki has hosted this panel at every Summer and Winter Market since 2017. For the first time, attendees received a “Trans 101” pocket guide written by Lila Leatherman, an educator based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The guide explained human-identity vocabulary and recommended further educational resources around transgender allyship and possible biases.

As Gureki introduced the Snow Show panelists—writer and speaker Kriste Peoples, filmmaker Shandi Kano, podcaster Sarah Shimazaki, and climbing-gym owner Abby Dione—she laid the framework for the panel’s topic: “We are told to be bold and fierce and unapologetic, but we want to talk about what happens when you do that in real life.”

Each of the panelists shared anecdotes about navigating systems (such as capitalism, mainstream society, the outdoor industry) that are easy to shirk and diminish the ideas, reactions, and opinions of nonmale and nonwhite people. Shimazaki, who produces the Outside Voices podcast, spoke about ethical storytelling and the power imbalances that exist between story-sharers and story-tellers. Wary of tokenizing and the toll of retelling a traumatizing story, she encouraged more diversity behind the scenes. Despite her podcast’s success, she has struggled with the industry’s funding framework that pits independent creatives against one another. “We shouldn’t be competing against each other if we have the same goal,” she said.

As a filmmaker, Kano said advocating for her voice amid more privileged people has been a nuanced, years-long practice. While standing up for herself has made others uncomfortable and advocating for change is tough, she said, “It’s just us getting up and doing what we do…What’s unfortunate about this industry is that cool is a currency.”

Peoples explained that—despite universal self-doubt—everyone is capable of inciting change. Friction and resistance are guaranteed along the way. “Honor the validity of what you’re saying, even if your voice gets shaky,” she said