Staff: Jamie McConnell

Jamie is Friends of the Children’s development director. She is a seasoned non-profit professional with expertise in fundraising, operations, organizational development, and program development and implementation. She loves to raise money for causes she feels passionate about, like providing quality mentors to positively shape young lives and she is dedicated to giving back to her community.

Jamie’s roots in the Montana community run deep. She is a third generation Montanan, whose great-grandparents homesteaded land outside of Ulm in 1912. Jamie was born in Helena. Though her family moved to Southern California when she was young, she always felt a calling to return to Montana. After graduating from UCLA Jamie became a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park.

Jamie attended the University of Montana in Missoula, completing a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies in 2007. After graduate school Jamie stayed in Missoula to begin a career with the non-profit Women’s Voices for the Earth, where she advocated for environmental health and justice for 17 years before joining Friends of the Children Western Montana.

Jamie believes whole-heartedly in creating organizational cultures rooted in equity, gratitude, transparency and inclusivity. She has a professional certificate in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from the University of Montana, and brings the principles of DEI into all of the spaces where she works and volunteers. She is the President of the Board of Mountain Home Montana, a steering committee member of the Missoula Women’s Giving Circle, and a weekly volunteer at the Missoula Community Food Bank.

In her free time, Jamie likes to hike, ski, camp, cook and spend time with her two young children and many friends in the Missoula community.