BIG
SKY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Yellowstone National
Park Superintendent Cameron Sholly will deliver the keynote speech at the 22nd
annual Big Sky Chamber Black Diamond Business Awards Dinner and Members’
Meeting. The June 25th event highlights the organization’s work to “Elevate
Big Sky” during a transformative
time for both Big Sky and Yellowstone. The park recently announced its key
priorities—from improving workforce housing to expanding cell and Wi-Fi service
to partnering with surrounding gateway communities.
At a gathering last
month in Cody, Wyoming, Sholly said it’s imperative that the park’s future
plans include better digital connectivity. That will become increasingly
important in the coming decades, he said, not only for visitors who want to
share their discoveries on social media, but to help recruit employees.
However, those upgrades aren’t to come at the expense of the landscape. Like
the Big Sky chamber, the park plans to study the existing telecommunications
infrastructure as a way to deliver a quality visitor experience and support the
region’s tourism economy.
“As a Gateway Community
to Yellowstone, we are honored to host Superintendent Sholly in Big Sky to hear
more about his vision for dealing with the park’s future opportunities and
challenges,” said Candace Carr Strauss, CEO of the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce.
“Yellowstone is clearly an important partner contributing to the growth of Big
Sky’s local economy in the future we’re all striving to build.”
Before arriving in
Yellowstone, Sholly served as the regional director for the National Park Service
Midwest Region, overseeing a team of 2,000 employees, an annual budget
exceeding $250 million, and the operations of 61 NPS units. During his tenure
as Regional Director, the region completed one of the largest public/private
partnership projects in NPS history—a $380 million renovation of the St. Louis
Arch grounds and visitor center.
Sholly is a Gardiner
High School graduate and veteran of the U.S. Army who deployed to
Operation Desert Storm in 1991. He holds a master’s degree in
Environmental Management from Duke University, a bachelor’s in Management from
St. Mary’s College of California and is a graduate of Harvard University’s
Senior Executive Fellows Program. In 2015, Sholly was awarded the Department of
Interior’s Meritorious Service Award for his executive leadership actions.
