News from the Peak

Fat Bear Week returns to Katmai National Park Sept. 22-29, 2026, giving bear fans around the world another chance to decide which of Katmai’s brown bears has done the best job packing on the pounds for winter. Vote for the fattest and most winter-ready bear at fatbearweek.org. But here on News from the Peak, we have our somewhat inside track with one of our most popular guests - Artist and Bear expert Carl Ramm. Carl talks to Maureen and David about his life since leaving his role as a Bear Management Professional in Alaska and relocating to Southern Virginia. We talk to him about Fat Bear Week of course... and even do some math!

At Grays Peak Strategies, we are always drawn to stories that challenge, uplift, and expand how we see the world. In our latest episode of News from the Peak, we had the honor of sitting down with Tailyr Irvine — a photographer, storyteller, and changemaker whose work is reshaping how Indigenous life is seen and understood.
Born and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Tailyr grew up with a deep love for photography and a powerful awareness of the narratives surrounding Indigenous communities. From an early age, she felt called to document real life, the celebration, the grief, the joy, the complexity. She describes much of her work as a “love letter” to her community.
Tailyr is a co-founder of Indigenous Photograph, a database created to uplift and connect Indigenous visual storytellers across the nation. She is also a National Geographic Society Young Explorer, and her work has been featured in major publications and platforms, including PBS.
Her powerful project Reservation Mathematics, part of the We, Woman series, explores what it means to navigate love, identity, and expectation in America as an Indigenous woman. Through striking imagery and honest storytelling, she challenges stereotypes and re-writes the narratives that have long misrepresented Native communities.

On today’s episode, we explore Business Process Optimization, which we will call BPO. We look at what BPO really is, what it isn’t, and why it has become one of the most powerful tools for strengthening human services programs.
BPO is often misunderstood as a technical or automation exercise. Too often it’s thought of as a “nice to have” extra rather than a critical part of any modernization effort or part of any new implementation of policy or legislation.  BPO is about rethinking how work gets done, from the moment a family interacts with a system - and continuing through the life of their case. When done well, BPO improves efficiency and the experience, benefiting staff, partners, and families alike.
Today Maureen Leif welcomes two guests with experience from different perspectives. 
Kristie Gordy is a Senior Administrator in the Economic Security Division for the State of Wyoming. She comes from the perspective of putting BPO to work as a program administrator, and leader. 
Leo Ribas is a BPO practitioner from Human Services Group, and will share his perspective of how effective process optimization can benefit programs and allow them to keep pace with the changing needs of their customers.

For the past two years, Grays Peak has hosted a leadership retreat for women that brings together a small group of 15 - 18 people to share some amazing experiences and learn from each other. Our most recent event was held in Ireland, and was led by the hosts of today’s show, Maureen Leif, Liz Bullard and Gemma Hilario. 
The idea behind these events is not only to grow in their leadership skills, but also, and maybe more importantly, to build a community of support among leaders at various points in their careers and lives. We try to bring together a diverse group of people, and provide them with experiences they may not otherwise have had. 
On this episode, we welcome some of the participants from that retreat, who will share their experiences, what the event meant to them, and some updates on what’s happening now. We’re pleased to welcome Terry Hardy, Kate Cooper Richardson, Erin Frisch, Connie Chesnik, Jamie Murray and Ellen Rutledge.

In this powerful episode of the Grays Peak Strategies podcast, we sit down with Dr. Jeneile Luebke, RN, PhD, Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Grays Peak Strategies Consultant, and enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.
Dr. Luebke has partnered with Grays Peak through the SAVES grant with the Lac Courte Oreilles Child Support Program, an OCSE 1115 Grant focused on helping families access child support services safely when they are experiencing family violence. Her work centers on understanding the lived experiences of gender-based violence through storytelling and advancing survivor-led, trauma-informed, and culturally safe screening methods, particularly for Indigenous survivors.
In this conversation, Dr. Luebke shares how her personal and professional journey that led her to this work. We explore the intersections of domestic violence, systems involvement, and cultural safety, The conversation centers around what it truly means to design services that protect rather than retraumatize.