OIA Names Former Interior Staffer to Manage Recreation Policy Efforts

Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) has hired Jessica Wahl as recreation policy manager. In this role, Wahl will promote OIAs recreation policy goals, focusing on securing increased funding and access for the national outdoor recreation system and federal public land policies that support outdoor recreation.

Wahl, pictured at right, will work from OIAs Washington, D.C., offices, which the organization established in 2012 to advance the outdoor industrys recreation, trade and business policy agendas on Capitol Hill. She will play a key role in policy development and analysis, political engagement and grassroots organizing.

Wahl comes to OIA from the Department of the Interior (DOI), where she worked in the office of the secretary and the directors office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wahl began her career in DOIs external affairs office, working on stakeholder engagement and outreach for the secretarys office and the DOIs bureaus. In 2010, she joined DOIs newly established Office of Youth in the Great Outdoors, where she coordinated national listening sessions, strategy and implementation of the Americas Great Outdoors Youth Report to the president. In this role, Wahl also managed the first ladys Lets Move Outside! and Lets Move! In Indian Country initiatives on behalf of the DOI and other agencies.

Jessicas background is perfect for this new position, said Kirk Bailey, OIAs vice president of government affairs. She has an excellent understanding of the nuances of outdoor recreation policy and the players involved. I look forward to working with her to advance our objectives in Washington.

The outdoor industry has an opportunity to protect our natural heritage for the benefit of all Americans, said Wahl. Im excited to help transform the legislative and political landscape for the good of our industry and the health of the U.S. economy. Together, we can manage our public lands and waters so they sustain dividends for future generations.

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Wahl received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in American government and politics from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C, where she was captain of the Georgetown Dance Team. She is an avid outdoorswoman, who loves kayaking, hiking and running and is on her way to becoming an ADK 46er, an organization of hikers who have climbed all of the major peaks in the Adirondacks, in New York.

Wahl begins April 8. She can be reached at jwahl@outdoorindustry.org.