Get to know the folks behind the Taos Ski Valley Chamber who work to help grow your businesses year-round. Our talented team is dedicated to promoting and strengthening the economic well-being of TSV and Town of Taos businesses and Chamber members through destination marketing. The diverse backgrounds and experience our staff brings to the table power a high-impact team of marketers and creatives, dedicated to helping you and your business. Learn a little more about us below…
Dan brings diverse executive management experience coupled with a technology & content marketing background to his role with the Chamber. Having spent 15+ years in the Action and Endurance Sports media industry has uniquely prepared him for his new role at the Chamber of Commerce. Born and raised a Buckeye, he’s journeyed from NYC to San Diego with stops in Jackson Hole and Denver in between. “My wife and I fell in love with Taos during the pandemic, and we decided to relocate here when this opportunity at the Chamber came my way. Having lived all over, I can testify this community’s culture is unlike any other we’ve experienced,” he says. Now living in Ranchos de Taos, you can find Dan on the mountain, on the golf course or on his bike in his spare time – and occasionally sipping a margarita on his back porch while ‘relocating’ tarantulas. https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielvaughan1
Nicole has a soft spot for helping small businesses – after owning and operating the #1 outdoor activity in Austin TX for 8 years, she relocated to Taos after visiting multiple times with her husband to detox from city life in Texas. Here, Nicole saw an opportunity to use her experience to help area businesses thrive.
Before entrepreneurship, Nicole had over 25 years of marketing and brand building experience in high tech, taking her across the United States and the around the globe. Her adult life pre-New Mexico was spent in California and Texas, but growing up as an expat in Saudi Arabia, her family traveled as often as possible. Visiting cities around the wold gave Nicole an appreciation for wild open spaces and planted the seed of living with less impact on the planet itself.
Since childhood, Nicole has been an avid rockhound and ad-hoc artist. She enjoys hiking and rambling anywhere outdoors with her husband and dog, visiting with her parents who live in Taos, taking photos, sketching, painting, and enjoying living in real seasons for the first time in her life. Nicole can hear the infamous “Taos hum” and is known to text rainbow alerts when there is a sky show going on.
No guts no story! Jackie grew up in dynamic and diverse Miami, Florida and has been excited by the beauty of the natural world ever since, seeking ways to connect, learn and create through language and travel. In her 20+ years of marketing and advertising experience from New York City to Boulder, CO, she’s ridden the NASCAR corporate sponsorship PR machine, toured the White House edible garden and wrangled the volatility and exquisite ephemera of the upper echelons of the culinary world — brand managing a James Beard Award-winning chef, leading the development of two cookbooks and opening no less than 10 restaurants, from concept creation to public relations.
Curiosity of both the unknown and discovering newness in something seemingly familiar are what drive her. Growing up in a restaurant family, Jackie learned the ropes of the hospitality industry before she could even see over the kitchen counter and always feels at home when cooking. Wine and food culture along borders are particularly delicious and interesting to her, especially the Alps.
An english major with newswriting pedigree, Jackie relishes the eye-opening interplay consummate in interviews with good subjects and an edit in flow state, while videography and photography keep her on her toes and painting never satisfied. She loves condiments especially fresh wasabi and Sichuan chili oil, a perfectly crunchy falafel tender on the inside with green herbs and won’t shy from a juicy bacon cheeseburger. If you can’t find her, she’s probably out for a run or hanging out with the birds. She absolutely can’t get enough of living and working in the special place that is Taos Ski Valley.
Kerrie hails from Colorado, but Taos and the mountains have been home for 18 years. A decade of that time was spent in Taos Ski Valley. Kerrie made a career of graphic design, working for small companies to corporations, while always maintaining a freelance business. Her work ethic was instilled at an early age growing up in the family’s motorcycle dealership, pushing a broom, to selling and buying parts and accessories. Kerrie enjoyed working in hospitality and earning a commercial driver’s license for the Breckenridge Ski Corporation Transportation Dept.
Since residing in NM, Kerrie added MTB event promotion, trail design and management to her portfolio. For the Chamber, Kerrie manages the summer Visitor Chalet and focuses on the Member and Event content of the website and answers visitor inquiries year-round. Two wheels are her passion, and is a third-generation motorcyclist. Kerrie has competed nationally and internationally in MotoTrials and represented the US at the Trial des Nations for several years. She raced the Colorado enduro circuit for about 15 years (against the men). Kerrie rides her motos every chance she gets, both on and off the dirt, and pedals the local trails as much as possible. In her view, just about any outside activity away from a computer is a win!
Sydney has been living in New Mexico for the last 17 years. She was originally drawn to the winter in Taos, NM because of her passion for snowboarding. After living here year-round, she discovered that the warmer months are just as beautiful as the winter months, so she decided to make Taos her permanent home. In addition to bookkeeping, Sydney is the head Snowboard coach for Taos Winter Sports Team, a rafting guide for Far Flung Adventures, and building a home with her Fiancé in Arroyo Seco.
Sydney has always loved the excitement of finance after studying economics and accounting at the University of New Mexico. Coupled with her passion for the outdoors, working for the TSV Chamber as their bookkeeper is a great fit.
Born and raised just outside of Austin, TX, Liz was instilled with a love for the Mountain West with many memories as a child on summer road trips driving up through Santa Fe, Taos and up to Colorado. When she was old enough to leave the nest, Liz flew off to Santa Fe and studied Film at the [former] College of Santa Fe. Through the years she worked her way through the southwest – New Mexico to Arizona to California and eventually up to Oregon, where she settled and enjoyed a career in video and feature film post-production.
Liz always seemed to find herself working on productions that were pushing the envelope in optical technology. As a video editor working at the first 360-degree video production studio she worked on commercial productions for Nike, Mercedes, Armani and Red Bull to name a few (yes, we did the original Google StreetView!). From there she went on to work on feature films, helping create now classic stop-motion animated films, pushing the boundaries of 3D printing and 3D projection. During this time she earned editorial credits on three Academy Award Nominated films (“ParaNorman”, “The Boxtrolls”, “Kubo and the Two Strings”).
Once those life checkboxes were checked, Liz realized the city life had run its course and she yearned for open spaces and a simpler, more self-sufficient life. A late in life discovery of fiber arts sent Liz down a rabbit hole that eventually ended back in New Mexico with an apprenticeship in natural dyeing from a master dyer in Abiquiu – and a job in Taos Ski Valley. Liz loves getting into the details, problem-solving and discovering ways to make emerging technology work for unique situations. When she isn’t at her computer keeping taosskivalley.com humming, she can be found growing food in her garden, making clothes from string and making color from plants.