Naz Ahmed serves members and guests of the largest outdoor co-operative in the U.S., leading locally in Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia. REI’s Local Experiences team programs events, guided tours, classes and builds partnerships to include philanthropy especially around increasing public access to the trails and waterways, supports local diversity and inclusion in outdoor recreation and advocates for public lands for the outdoor recreation industry in state and national legislative bodies. A Virginia, D.C.-metro born native, Naz came to REI full-time overseeing the Sierra – Tahoe area. While in California, Naz was an inaugural member of the California Outdoor Recreation Partnership (CORP) – a coalition of outdoor recreation manufacturers, guiding services and distributors. CORP successfully worked with the California legislative assembly to pass bonds to support continued growth of California public lands and establish California’s Office of Outdoor Recreation in the California Governor’s office. As part of this work, Naz was a witness and gave testimony in support of these bills on behalf of sponsoring California assembly members.
Prior to REI, Naz was a strategy consultant to federal and commercial clients, focused on supply chain due diligence, industry regulatory impacts and organizational change management. Naz brought her leadership background as a former civil servant with the Department of Defense, Department of State and Department of Labor. She holds a master’s and bachelor’s in political sciences from the George Washington University and the University of Virginia respectively. Naz enjoys all the ways one can recreate and explore the region, whether hiking, rock climbing, cycling or picnicking.