Cameron Conklin
Operations Manager
Cameron (they/them) currently serves as the Operations Manager of OAEC. They came to OAEC as a Program Admin Intern in 2022, served as the Office Manager in 2023, and moved into their current role in 2024. Cameron brings a systems thinking and communication focused approach to their work, designing and implementing processes that nurture inter-relationship and build a stronger mycelial network within the ego-system of the organization.
In a prior life, Cameron was a founding employee of a start-up beverage company called Iconic Protein, specializing in operations and supply chain management. After 5 years of being embedded in the world of globalized packaged goods, they sought a more localized relationship with their food and a deeper knowledge of alternative food systems. A year long apprenticeship at Rancho Mastatal in 2021 was their first deep dive into the world of permaculture and land based living and ultimately led them to OAEC through a dear friend and collaborator, Abbey Cmiel.
On Staff Since: 2023 Email > Phone: x103
In Their Own Words
My work at OAEC:
On the day to day, I could be doing anything from facilitating performance review processes, onboarding new hires, working on policy, or conducting reviews of our governance documents. I also serve as the manager of our Residential Intern Program, supporting the 6 folks who come to live and work at OAEC each year.
My background:
My early years were spent with a bent towards exploration, both by circumstance and constitution. I was born in Baltimore, MD, but grew up living coast to coast throughout childhood. I landed in New Orleans, receiving my undergraduate degree in International Political Economy, Communication and Architecture from Tulane University in 2014. I have lived in or visited almost all U.S. states and over 30 countries, from places as remote as Pom Pom Island, Malaysia, as a Divemaster working on coral reef restoration with the Tropical Research and Conservation Center, to traveling for a year around the U.S. in my van.
I am grateful for the adaptability and perspective my background has brought me and excited to have transitioned from this stage of exploration into a phase of cultivation. I have recently moved back on-site at OAEC and am relishing the opportunity to deepen my relationship with community and ecosystem in place.
My passions:
In 2021 I co-founded an organization called Integra Collective – an organization that hosts events and educational programs to help folks deepen their skills in connecting to the Earth and each other. I love to build containers and create spaces for individuals to share their talents and passions in community. You can find me teaching acro yoga, studying NVC, going to a concert in the city, or planning a scuba diving trip! My personal studies center around interpersonal communication, facilitation, queer and kink expression, and dance all as liberatory frameworks for building more aligned and just ways of inter-relating!
Why my work matters:
My work helps to maintain the scaffolding of our organizational structures to provide our staff collective an effective, connective and loving container for work to occur. It’s been said this role is a swiss army knife of sorts, taking care of the little pieces that might be left behind and receiving, retaining, and redistributing information through the org. By keeping a beat on the emotional body and needs of the staff collective as a whole, I am able to help us all work more effectively together.
