20 Under 40

Alice Buckley

Stevie Croisant

Shayla Mills

Audrey Capp

Bert Bartle

Brad Doll

TWENTY UNDER

40

Ryan Watin

OCTOBER 17, 2021

Matthew Ulrich

Kami Ryles

Ben King

Jeff Lusin

Hannah VanWetter

Emily Allison

Ellie VanDyke

Brett Evertz

Brooke Weimer

Carrie Krause

Daniel Corbin

Deejay Newell

Eli Bailey

2 | TWENTY UNDER 40

TWENTY UNDER The 20 Under 40 Awards, created by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and sponsored by ERA Landmark Real Estate, First Security Bank and Bozeman Health, celebrate the best and brightest young people in the Gallatin Valley.

These rising stars in the business and non-profit worlds

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are also passionate about volunteerism and giving back to the community, and have been selected for this honor because of both their business acumen and their commitment to making our valley, and the world, a better place.

Scores of candidates for this award were nominated and

submitted by Daily Chronicle readers. A committee consisting of judges from both the business and non-profit worlds reviewed all of the submissions, and the 20 outstanding individuals featured on these pages and celebrated with a lunch at the Hilton Garden Inn on Oct. 18 are this year’s chosen few.

Congrats Shayla Mills!

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Emily “ Allison

It was not a place I had been thinking about or a role I had been pursuing, but it worked out really well.

She didn’t intend to go into a career in development, but Emily Allison is right where she wants to be.

Allison is the development director at Bridgercare, Bozeman’s local women’s health and reproductive clinic. She’s held that role since 2017 and, during the pandemic, helped raise more than half a million dollars for Bridgercare’s affordable reproductive services, which are offered on a sliding scale.

“In my role specifically, it’s just very different every day,” Allison said. “You just get to work with a lot of different people.”

Allison is also the treasurer of the board of directors for Forward Montana, a statewide organization founded in 2004 that aims to engage young people in politics. The work isn’t dissimilar to what she does at Bridgercare, Allison said. Unlike many boards of directors, the Forward Montana board is “youth-led and youth-serving.”

Allison grew up in Bozeman. She moved back after college and worked for a time as a cross country ski instructor with the Bridger Foundation before moving into a marketing role at another business. She enjoyed the work and her coworkers, but the position at Bridgercare just felt right, she said.

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Allison’s role at Bridgercare has her working in lots of different arenas. It’s a very public-facing role, but it wasn’t something she had even been thinking of when she came across the job listing.

“It was not a place I had been thinking about or a role I had been pursuing, but it worked out really well,” Allison said.

She enjoyed the job she was working, but wanted to get involved with something that really made a positive impact on the community.

“It’s a really powerful way to create really positive change,” she said. “We’ve got a good team.”

The reproductive health care Bridgercare provides serves about 5,000 patients every year, though providing that service isn’t always easy. It’s never been harder to be a reproductive health clinic in Montana, Allison said. But the team and the community support behind Bridgercare will continue to work hard to bring high-quality health care to patients.

Many of the patients who come to Bridgercare donate, Allison said, whether it’s just a few dollars or a few hundred. It’s a big vote of confidence for people to donate to something they believe in, she said.

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Eli Bailey “ If I can play my part and leave this place a little better than I found it, it’s a life well spent.

The driving force for Eli Bailey, president of Absaroka Energy, is the cause.

“I’ve always had the responsibility gene,” said Bailey, 38. “As more and more consciousness about climate change and ocean plastics came out, I just felt very driven to spend my time … finding solutions.”

Under Bailey’s watch, Absaroka Energy works to create reliable storage for the energy generated by renewable energy resources like solar and wind. Mainly, those power storage projects are pumped storage hydropower projects, like the Gordon Butte project in Martinsdale, Montana.

The company is the “natural partner” to renewable energy creators.

“It takes renewable energy and makes it reliable,” he said.

Absaroka Energy also creates technology to break down and dispose of hard-to-recycle materials, like mixed plastics, and some hazardous, hard-to-dispose materials. Essentially, materials are superheated and broken down into base components, which can then be recycled into fuel or new, “virgin” plastics.

Bailey grew up in Casper, Wyoming doing “all the outdoor things” and lived all around

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the globe in his 20s. Part of the reason he wanted to get involved in making renewable energy a reliable reality was his passion for the outdoors.

“Wilderness was always my happy place,” he said.

“If I can play my part and leave this place a little better than I found it, it’s a life well spent.”

He hasn’t spent quite as much time outdoors lately, though -- he and his wife’s first child, now three months old, has kept him busy. He’s also busy with homework again after deciding to go back to school for an executive MBA from the University of Texas Austin.

Bailey serves on the advisory board for SeaChange, a nonprofit aimed to eliminate plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.

One of the many obstacles to cleaning the plastic out of oceans is what to do with it once’s it’s been collected and is actually out of the water. The units developed by Absaroka Energy can be shipped in a shipping container, assembled on a ship, and “literally vaporize” any plastics pulled out of the ocean.

“We think a fantastic application of the (plastic recycling technology) is with ocean plastics,” Bailey said.

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 5

Bert Bartle

For Bert Bartle, banking is much more than a nine-to-five.

“Banking is more than providing a loan,” said Bartle, 39. “I really think at the end of the day, we’re here to help people grow and prosper.”

Bartle is the VP/Regional President of Opportunity Bank. He’s been at Opportunity Bank since 2012, but he knew he was going to go into banking from a young age.

As a high schooler, Bartle asked his mom, an accountant, if he should go into accounting or banking. Knowing how much he enjoyed being around people, his mom suggested banking.

“I’m more of a people person, so I headed in that direction,” he said.

Bartle grew up in the Bozeman area and graduated from Montana State University in 2004.

He enjoys fishing, spending time outdoors and with his wife and two daughters, 11 and 13.

“It’s been great to be able to raise my kids here,” he said. “I don’t see myself leaving anytime soon.”

In addition to his banking career, which has also included years spent at Mountain West Bank and Sterling Savings Bank, Bartle serves on the Board

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The people in Montana and Bozeman are resilient.

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of Directors for Prospera and is a board member for the Monforton School Foundation. During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, he spent nights and weekends helping sort out Paycheck Protection Program loans for lenders.

He continues to spend time helping businesses and lenders work through the PPP forgiveness programs.

The pandemic has been tough on lots of those organizations, but Montans are tougher.

“The people in Montana and Bozeman are resilient,” he said.

Through his work on the Prospera board of directors, Bartle teaches financial education and literacy to kids and families.

It’s a lot of practical education, he said, but things that likely aren’t just taught in school -- like how to use a debit card and how to protect your private financial information online.

“The reason I’m here is to be able to support Bozeman,” Bartle said. “Financial education gives me a way to do that.”

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Alice “ Buckley

My bread and butter is executive facilitation, but I get really excited about how we can do work in the state.

Alice Buckley has two big jobs. One is working as a director at Profitable Ideas Exchange. The other is representing the people of Montana -specifically, House District 63 -- at the Montana State Legislature.

Buckley decided to run to represent HD 63, which includes much of the university district, because she didn’t see her own experiences or those of people like her represented at the state level.

“I want to have a voice in the conversation and a seat at the table,” said Buckley, 28.

Buckley, originally from California and with family in Great Falls and Butte, went to MSU for her undergrad. She moved away to attend Yale University and, after graduating, returned to Bozeman and worked for Future West and Yellowstone Grassfed Beef before taking on the role at PIE four years ago.

PIE’s mission is to bring groups of people, often executives, together and facilitate productive, dynamic dialogue and idea sharing. Buckley is especially excited about the ability to focus more of those conversations on issues that impact

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Montanans, like infrastructure, affordable housing and child care.

“My bread and butter is executive facilitation, but I get really excited about how we can do work in the state,” she said.

Being a trained facilitator, Buckley said, has given her the ability to listen to a variety of perspectives and be comfortable discussing opposing viewpoints. As one might imagine, those are useful skills for someone crafting laws. One of her big policy focuses at the moment is working to expand access to child care, she said.

Buckley said she wants to help make it more accessible for young people to get involved with the legislature, but also bring attention to something important: there are more ways to work in the world of public service and make meaningful change than running for office.

When Buckley isn’t representing Montanans at the legislature or facilitating dialogue at PIE, she can often be found spending time outdoors with her husband and their two dogs.

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 7

Audrey “ Capp

I love seeing our students leave and have successful careers … and sharing those stories.

Audrey Capp is a busy woman.

Being the director of communications and public relations at Montana State University’s Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship is a fulltime job. But, in addition to that, Capp volunteers with the Bozeman Kiwanis Club and serves as the advisor to a college service organization. She also works with the MSU Women’s Circle of Excellence program, an annual networking and professional business development conference to elevate women in the business world.

In addition to all that, she still makes time to garden, cook and spend time outdoors with her husband and two young daughters.

Capp’s role at MSU is, in large part, dedicated to telling the stories of students and alumni and building upon the one-size-fits-all view that many have of a business college and what can be done with a business degree.

“There’s always such a specific way of looking at business, and we’re trying to expand that view,” Capp said. Business majors can lead all kinds of careers and start all kinds of businesses, she said, and “it’s nice to be the person to talk about the

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stories.”

“I love seeing our students leave and have successful careers … and sharing those stories,” said Capp, 38. “That’s just a really great feeling.”

Her volunteering with the Kiwanis Club began as a kid in Butte, where Capp and her father would spend time together volunteering with the Butte Kiwanis Club. She’s just continued to do so into her adult life, she said.

“These towns wouldn’t have as much as they do, the richness, if they didn’t have these organizations,” she said, like the Kiwanis Club and other service-oriented organizations like the Lion’s Clubs.

Capp has served as the faculty advisor for the Circle K International club, the college studentoriented version of the Kiwanis Club, for almost 15 years. While service with Circle K does look great on a resume, the kids all genuinely want to volunteer their time to do things like helping plant 80-something trees around MSU’s campus.

“These students are just so dedicated,” Capp said. “I’m just so inspired that college students are willing and able and interested in helping others.”

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Daniel “ Corbin

My team allow me to have the time to be able to help in the community.

Daniel Corbin had worked under a State Farm insurance agent for about a year and a half when, inspired by the impact that agent was able to have on the community and his clients, Corbin decided to open up his own agency.

“We can help people plan for the future, and basically make people aware of situations or circumstances that they might not be aware of,” said Corbin, 34.

Corbin grew up in Manhattan and knows the ins and outs of potential risks -- while most people think of insurance as a monotonous chore, he said, he can help people realize the ways in which it applies to their day-to-day lives, especially during fire season.

The day the Bridger Foothills Fire took off in 2020, Corbin had a hunting trip planned. He canceled that hunting trip and went towards the fire instead to do whatever he could to help.

While the fires raged, Corbin helped people living in the fire’s path cut gates for cattle and horses in pastures that would otherwise be trapped, helped evacuate people living in the area and delivered

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food and supplies to firefighters.

“It feels good, to have so many people behind you for so many years, to have the time and ability to give back to the community,” he said.

“My team allow me to have the time to be able to help in the community.”

That team includes his employees at the Corbin Insurance Agency through State Farm, but it also includes Corbin’s wife and their children.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Daniel worked overtime helping First Security Bank deliver Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses that had applied. He also helped elderly people in the community sign up for COVID-19 vaccines and donates his time to a variety of organizations, including the Belgrade Bandit Baseball program and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

“At the end of the day, it’s a calling, it’s what felt right,” Corbin said about his time spent helping community members. “If I’m able-bodied, I feel like I should be helping.”

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 9

Stevie Croisant

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For Stevie Croisant, it’s all about community.

Croisant founded We Are HER, a nonprofit and online community to support survivors of domestic and sexual violence, on her own in 2016. It began as a blog, where she and others could share their experiences and support each other in their healing.

To her surprise, the We Are HER community just kept growing. It became a podcast, now entering its third season, and has hosted online and in-person trainings, workshops and retreats.

“It grew bigger than I ever even imagined,” said Croisant, 29. “It’s been surreal. I started (We Are HER) wanting to know I had a community of people I related to … and I do.”

While she’s lived in Bozeman since her first post-college job, just this spring Croisant started working at Warriors and Quiet Waters as its firstever marketing and communications manager.

Warriors and Quiet Waters is a local nonprofit that works to help combat veterans recover from the mental and physical stresses active duty service brings through fly fishing and spending time in Montana’s outdoors.

It’s been really rewarding to be able to educate Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley.

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Croisant’s job at the organization is to show the community -- and donors -- the impact Warriors and Quiet Waters has on the veterans it serves, and to show veterans who may be interested in participating in programs that they’re not alone.

“Our product is impact,” Croisant said.

She also volunteers with HAVEN, Bozeman’s local domestic and sexual violence shelter, mainly working with the End The Silence campaign.

That campaign sends people like Croisant to trainings about domestic and relationship violence and then into the community to educate professionals like law enforcement and nurses about how to identify and end relationship and sexual violence.

“It’s been really rewarding to be able to educate Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley,” said Croisant, a survivor of an abusive relationship herself.

When she’s not doing any and all of the above, Croisant is often spending time in Montana’s beautiful outdoors with her fiance and their two dogs.

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Brad Doll

For architect Brad Doll, the unknown is part of the fun.

“I think what’s the most exciting thing is walking into a project and being comfortable not knowing where it’s going to end up,” he said. “That unknown is the most exciting part for me.”

Doll, principal designer at A&E design, has been on teams that have designed everything from elementary schools to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Originally from Billings, the 38-year-old loved drawing and liked math, and architecture felt like a good combination of the two. He went to Montana State University for his architecture degree, then spent about 8 years in Spokane before coming back to Bozeman to open the Bozeman branch of A&E Design.

In the roughly 7 years since, Doll and his team have designed civic buildings throughout Montana.

He regularly works with young architects, who bring refreshing ideas to the table. It’s engaging to help young architects work through their vision and how he can help bring that to life in a real,

tangible way, he said.

When designing schools, Doll’s team works with the teachers -- and the students -- to make sure that what they’re designing is going to be the environment that best suits the needs of the people who are going to be using it the most.

“They’re as much an integral part of the design process as we are,” Doll said.

For the past three-and-a-half years, Doll has also served on the Board of Directors for the Gallatin Valley YMCA. During the past year, he’s been the president of the board.

“The community has given me so much,” Doll said. “It’s my way of giving back.”

When Doll isn’t working or volunteering, he’s likely to be found spending time with his wife Paige and their children, playing guitar, golfing, skiing and doing “anything in the outdoors,” he said.

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I think what’s the most exciting thing is walking into a project and being comfortable not knowing where it’s going to end up.

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TWENTY UNDER 40 | 11

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I just was drawn to the people, the relationship aspect of things.

Brett Evertz

Whether it’s his clients or his coworkers, Brett Evertz’s strength comes from his ability to form relationships and care for people.

Growing up in eastern Montana, Evertz knew ranch work wasn’t for him. He started college in Dickinson, North Dakota, before coming to Bozeman to continue his education. He started working at a bank, and hasn’t looked back since.

As a mortgage lender and sales manager for Opportunity Bank, Evertz leads his work with care, and it pays off.

“I just was drawn to the people, the relationship aspect of things,” Evertz said. “Whether that’s relationships with the clients, with referral partners, with coworkers, support staff, it’s how I have found myself able to be successful because of those relationships.”

Evertz, 34, has always had an interest in real estate, so working in mortgage lending has been the perfect fit. He said the growth in the area has been accompanied by a huge growth in their business.

A Bozeman resident since 2013, Evertz said he likes how many different types of people and activities are available to do in the area. He is involved in the Gallatin Association of Realtors

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Young Professionals Network and serves on the board of the Cancer Support Community Montana.

“I always tried to be involved in something and I just tried to pick something that feels right to me,” Evertz said.

As much as he likes Bozeman, Evertz, an enrolled Northern Cheyenne member, said he likes to visit home in Busby frequently.

Though Evertz enjoys his own success in business, he loves seeing his coworkers grow even more through his role as sales manager for Bozeman, Livingston and Butte.

“As a business person, it’s always rewarding for your own success but it’s been extremely rewarding to see the success that my staff has been able to have over the years,” Evertz said. “I’m excited to continue on that route and see how they grow.”

Evertz said his goal is to continue growing alongside Opportunity Bank, without losing sight of why he is drawn to his work.

“I think in general, I care about people, I generally enjoy people, so the rest just kind of falls into line with that,” Evertz said.

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Congratulations Brooke Weimer

on your 20 Under 40 honor!

brooke@eralivingston.com 406.223.3389

406.586.1321 | info@eralandmark.com Robyn Erlenbush, CRB, Broker Owner. Each office independently owned & operated.

Care where you are.

BozemanHealth.org

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 13

First Security Bank would like to congratulate the 20 Under 40 recipients!

OURBANK.com /// 406.585.3800

CONGRATULATIONS

TO BOZEMAN SYMPHONY'S CONCERTMASTER

CARRIE KRAUSE FOR WINNING THE 2021 DAILY CHRONICLE 20 UNDER 40 AWARD! Join the Bozeman Symphony and Concertmaster Carrie Krause in action this 2021/22 Concert Season.

BOZEMANSYMPHONY.ORG | (406) 585-9774 | 1001 WEST OAK STREET, SUITE 110 | BOZEMAN, MT 59715

14 | TWENTY UNDER 40

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Ben King

Ben King believes everyone has a time in their life when they have to put their head down and use the skill, talent and ability they have to make a difference.

As founder of Best Practice Medicine, that time for King is now.

King started the business in 2015, with just three guys and a dog after a long career in paramedicine showed him again and again how inequities in the healthcare system impacted patients.

“I got to see firsthand the impacts of that which were depending on where the person may be and who the people caring for them was, they would have very different outcomes,” King said. “Particularly in states like ours, the equity of distance funding and resources is really … well it’s really inequitable.”

So, he decided more advanced training could make a difference, and began Best Practice to provide more accurate simulation training for high-pressure incidents and to provide emergency medical staff.

Best Practice also began working with the U.S. Forest Service to provide EMTs and paramedics in support of wildland fires through the U.S. But, the past 18 months have brought unprecedented challenges to the company.

Best Practices work with the Forest Service put them in position to take federal contracts to assist with COVID-19 response in Montana and across the country.

Best Practice teams helped with vaccine clinics from California to New York, even setting a record for the number of vaccinations in one day in Houston, Texas.

I want to build a socially responsible company based out of Bozeman.

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The company built a few mobile vaccine trailers in King’s driveway, which now have been deployed across the county and state for vaccine clinics.

“We would have never expected that we would have that tremendous opportunity to be of service in that way,” King said.

“We ended up deploying teams from coast to coast, so we were able to help Montanans have good high paying jobs, providing meaningful work across the country and here at home in our community.”

King’s workload has felt like it has doubled every few weeks during the course of the pandemic.

A father of a two-year-old and four-year-old, King puts in over 100 hours each week guided by Best Practices core values which include optimism, learning “can-do,” radical support, and “fanatical attention to detail.”

Though Best Practice is focused on getting through the pandemic, they also have big goals. In ten years, King said they want the company to impact 10 million patients.

“I want to build a socially responsible company based out of Bozeman, that provides good paying jobs for highly skilled people, and is part of the community safety net for decades to come,” King said.

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 15

Carrie Krause

For nearly two decades, Carrie Krause has enjoyed creating and performing in what she calls the “final frontier” of Bozeman’s music scene.

For Krause, a violinist who performs with the symphony and specializes in Baroque music, Bozeman is rich in culture and music, and also provides ample opportunities for innovation.

“In Bozeman, it’s kind of the final frontier.

Especially when it comes to something as specialized as Baroque music, there is so much room to create,” Krause said. “I feel really fortunate that if you dream it up, you can make it happen, and it has an impact because it very likely hasn’t been done before.”

Krause certainly packs a lot of music into her day.

She performs with the symphony, teaches 25 students and runs both a chamber music program for kids and an amateur orchestra for adults of all abilities.

As one of the few specialists in Baroque music, which is music based on a historical era, Krause is highly sought after to perform all over the country and world. In normal times, she might be on the road as much as a third of the year.

A few years ago, Krause decided to take her love of Baroque music and bring it to home. She runs Baroque Music Montana, which holds workshops, performances and lectures all over the station and region.

The group uses local artists for performances, and sometimes brings in musicians from all over.

“We take it often into small - very small - towns and

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My team allow me to have the time to be able to help in the community.

small venues, because that’s the setting that the music was originally written for, not large concert halls,” Krause said.

Krause has been playing violin since she was a three-year-old in Fairbanks. Though she grew up in Alaska, Bozeman was always home - her family is from the area, and her parents and grandparents all went to school at Montana State University.

So when a job opened up at the symphony when she was graduating college, Krause jumped on the opportunity.

She has served as the concertmaster - the first chair violinist who also acts as the representative of the musicians to the conductor and vice versa ever since.

“Bozeman is an incredible place to be a musician, because audiences here value culture and value music so deeply, and the presence of the symphony is really felt in our town,” Krause said. “We reach a large percentage of our population compared with larger cities.”

Krause enjoys the physical, emotional, intellectual challenges and rewards of playing music, not to mention the connections she has been able to form with her colleagues and audiences over performances.

“Being able to play music, it astounds me on a daily basis. Because you get to engage your whole self,” Krause said. “It can become this beautiful thing, and allows you to deal with whatever’s going on in your life in a real and very personal way.”

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Jeff Lusin “ ”

You can’t live in a bubble without affecting people that you grew up with, and helped your life.

Everybody has an opinion on Jeff Lusin’s work.

As an architect who focuses on community work, Lusin’s work, which includes Van Winkle Stadium, fields at Montana State University and Neptune’s in Livingston, changes the face of the city he grew up in.

As a principal at 45 Architecture, Lusin, 38, feels a special responsibility to do his best work for a quickly growing community.

“I like affecting your community in a positive way. Being from Bozeman, I think I have a unique perspective because I think people have a hard time remembering what it was,” Lusin said. “I think it’s better to be involved than to complain about it but not be involved. If progress is going to happen, I’d like to be able to affect it.”

Lusin always loved science and art equally when growing up, so he decided he’d look into a career in industrial engineering, maybe end up designing cars or bikes. He decided getting an architecture degree in undergrad would be a good first step.

He fell in love with architecture while at Washington State University, and came back to Bozeman briefly for some graduate courses at MSU before landing a job at a San Francisco firm.

He and his wife made a pit stop in Portland, Oregon before deciding to move, or, as Lusin jokingly says, “retire” back to

Bozeman, where they are now raising their 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

Lusin started at 45 Architecture in 2016, and focuses a lot of his work on public buildings, like schools in Livingston, Ennis and Great Falls and a library project in Belgrade.

Lusin said having a hand in creating a positive built environment for his kids’ home is rewarding.

“We could just design high-end homes, but there’s not as much moral or ethical benefit from that,” Lusin said. “Whereas, when we drive by and people are like, ‘I love playing on that field,’ or ‘My kids run around on that field,’ ...That’s what makes it all worth it.”

Lusin loves taking advantage of the outdoor activities around town (he jokes that adjusting back to life in his hometown required getting back into “Bozeman time”). But, he mostly focuses on his kids and work, even going so far as to recently earn an MBA. Lusin is hyperconscious of what Bozeman was, what it is becoming. So, everytime he designs a project, Lusin is not only thinking about how neighbors will view it, but also how his first-grade teacher or high school football coach will react.

That mindset comes with a lot of pressure.

“You can’t live in a bubble without affecting people that you grew up with, and helped your life,” Lusin said. “So there’s a lot of sense of responsibility, which I feel like I thrive in.”

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 17

Shayla Mills “ It’s a small-town community feeling that I love, and I think that’ll always be close to my heart.

Shayla Mills was always dedicated to her work, so much so that she went back to school to earn a finance degree when her kids were still young.

But it wasn’t until she joined Edward Jones as a consultant in 2019 that Mills found her true passion. At her old jobs at Big Sky Western Bank and Stockman Bank, Mills enjoyed building relationships with clients as a mortgage lender.

But after the weeks-long period she worked with the clients to get a mortgage was over, Mills hardly saw them again.

Now at Edward Jones, Mills gets to build years-long relationships with her clients, helping them set and reach their financial goals.

“Being able to help clients build wealth, create the relationships, and be able to make friendships with these people while helping them financially, it’s been super fulfilling,” Mills said. “Now I work with individuals for a lifetime.”

Mills, 38, grew up on a ranch in North Dakota, where she learned old-school values like working hard and caring for your community.

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“I just feel like it put in the hard working side of me, it created that for me,” Mills said.

Mills, who moved to Montana and graduated high school in Butte and went to Montana State University before starting her family, spends her time either working or driving around her two kids, who are now in high school and middle school.

When she’s free, Mills likes camping, hunting and golfing.

Mills does more than help her clients with their personal financial goals and manage retirement and education accounts. She also is heavily involved with the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce and other business groups in the area.

She previously served in leadership roles in the chamber and chairs the Belgrade Business Link group.

Mills said her involvement in those groups allows her to network and market herself, but also provides her with a way to give back.

“It’s a small-town community feeling that I love, and I think that’ll always be close to my heart,” Mills said. “No matter where you’re located in the Gallatin Valley, you can create that sense of community, anywhere. I mean it’s a small valley.

Even though it’s growing too fast right now it still has that small town feeling.”

18 | TWENTY UNDER 40

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We just want to make sure that we are able to help the community grow in a sustainable way.

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Deejay Newell

Deejay Newell was on her way to law school in San Francisco when she made a summer-long pit stop in Bozeman, to, as she says “breathe in the fresh air before I dedicated my life to a library.”

Her plans to continue west to study law disappeared quickly after arriving in Bozeman.

“I think it was three weeks in that I called my parents and told them, ‘I’m not coming home and I’m not going to law school and I’m gonna figure it out. I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m gonna figure it out,’” Newell said. “I knew that this is a place that I needed to be, and I didn’t quite know why, but I knew that there’s potential here for me to grow into the person that I knew that I wanted to be.”

Newell, 31, admits it might sound cheesy, but for her it’s true. She started working at what was then Little Red Wagon Coffee Roasters and visited Panama to see where the beans are made.

That experience changed her perspective and set her on a path of working in the world of coffee.

“I just totally fell in love. I was infatuated with the story with what was happening at the origin, and realized that this side hustle barista gig was much

more, and I needed to be a part of it,” Newel said.

Newell became a part-owner of Treeline Coffee Roasters in 2016, when the company opened its roasting room on Wallace Avenue. Before starting her career, Newell jokes that she was a typical Starbucks drinker.

Now, she has a full understanding of all that goes into getting coffee in your cup each morning. Newell said she loves being able to tell that story, create jobs and foster gathering places in her community through her work with Treeline.

“I mean it felt like all of a sudden I landed in my dream job where I could travel the world, meet people who were extremely passionate about what they were doing and tell their story,” Newell said. “It just felt like this career had so many opportunities to flourish and give back.”

Newell, who enjoys skiing, camping and mountain biking in her spare time, is involved with the Women’s Business Center and the Bozeman Parking Commission.

Newell said she and her business partner, Natalie Van Dusen, feel strongly about giving back to a city that supported their business so much.

“We just want to make sure that we are able to help the community grow in a sustainable way,” Newell said. “I feel like I’ve been welcomed into this community with open arms.”

Kami “ Ryles

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 19

It’s about just helping those families and them having success stories after they’ve been on the scholarship and they were able to get a better job or graduate from college.

Kami Ryles has always had a love of helping families and young children, even when she was a kid herself.

While growing up in Bozeman, Ryles started babysitting, then began working with the Boys and Girls Club. She followed her passion through college, majoring in family and consumer science at Montana State University.

During her time there, she snagged an internship with Childcare Connections, a Bozeman-based non-profit that serves Gallatin, Park, Meagher, Lewis and Clark, Broadwater and Jefferson counties. When she graduated, there was a position open to be an eligibility specialist. Ryles got the job, and almost 14 years later, she is now assistant director.

“Obviously you’re not in the nonprofit-world for the money, so I think it stems from helping families and parents,” Ryles jokes. “It’s kind of been a passion of mine.”

Ryles, 37, helps with the organization’s safety programs, which involves checking car seats and giving out free helmets to local kids. She also administers the Best Beginnings scholarship for

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Childcare Connections, which subsidizes childcare costs for eligible families.

The work doesn’t come without its challenges - particularly in Gallatin County, where the cost of living is so high that many families who could benefit from the program don’t qualify, because they make too much money, even though they are still struggling to scrape by.

A goal of Ryles is to see changes to the program so it helps more families.

“I think just knowing families are able to work or go to school, and maybe not have to worry so much about the cost of childcare as much,” Ryles said. “It’s about just helping those families and them having success stories after they’ve been on the scholarship and they were able to get a better job or graduate from college.”

When she’s not working, Ryles and her family, including a first-grader and twin 4-year-old boys, enjoy camping and other outdoor pursuits.

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Matthew Ulrich

Being in the shadows of a successful operation is not a new role for Matt Ulrich.

As an offensive lineman at Northwestern University, Ulrich was used to being the background, though he was voted team captain during his time in college.

It’s the lessons he learned there and with the Indianapolis Colts where he won a Super Bowl ring with Peyton Manning in 2007 - that Ulrich uses in his role as chief growth officer at Profitable Ideas Exchange.

“My role as an offensive lineman has helped a lot.

We’re never in the spotlight,” Ulrich said. “That’s what we do for our clients. We make them shine, and yet we’re connecting the dots for them.”

Ulrich, 39, has worked for the company since 2012, when he moved to Bozeman with his family, fulfilling a promise to his Montana born-and-raised wife that they would raise their kids in the mountains.

Now, he spends much of his free time running after his four boys, ages 10, 9, 8 and 3. Ulrich also volunteers with the Gallatin Valley YMCA board and coaches.

When Ulrich started at Profitable Ideas Exchange,

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This community is what we decide to make it, so I think all of us - If you feel like you can lead this community, should be putting your fingerprints on it in some way

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the company had about a dozen employees. Now, it has 75.

Ulrich said having his fingerprint be a part of the company’s growth has been incredibly fulfilling.

“When I pull into the parking lot and I can’t find a parking spot, it’s a pretty dang good feeling that we’ve created jobs and business value in Bozeman,” Ulrich said. “I always wanted to raise the family here, that was the vision, and I didn’t know what exactly we’d be doing, so to be able to be a part of an organization that can create cool and interesting jobs for people is probably what I enjoy most.”

The company works with clients all over the country and world, connecting business leaders with each other to share expertise and ideas.

That line of work has enabled Ulrich to have a wide-reaching impact.

“I can be facilitating a conversation of chief operating officers in Europe from my desk in Bozeman,” Ulrich said.

After living in the Midwest for the first 30 years of his life, Ulrich is enjoying the small town feel of a community like Bozeman.

“This community is what we decide to make it, so I think all of us - If you feel like you can lead this community, should be putting your fingerprints on it in some way,” Ulrich said.

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 21

Ellie VanDyke “

I feel like every place has a kind of rebirth and Bozeman is having its rebirth, and I’m glad that I am part of it.

Ellie VanDyke doesn’t like boring.

Ever since her time at Montana State University, VanDyke has been involved in the start-up scene in Bozeman, first at Beartooth, which allowed users to use their phones off the grid; and now at FanUp Software Inc, which is a fan engagement platform.

For VanDyke, the unpredictability and pressure of the start-up environment is what keeps her coming back.

“I like the freedom to think about cool and creative ideas. I think I would go a little crazy doing the same thing every day. When you’re in a start-up and when you’ve been in a start-up environment, for better or worse, you’re wearing five to 10 hats, all the time,” VanDyke said. “No day looks the same. It’s cool to have to be part of the wins but also to be held accountable for the losses.”

VanDyke, 30, is the chief operating officer at FanUp, which launched in January of 2020 and focuses on live engagement with audiences during events, meaning the pandemic was, well, not ideal.

But, FanUp is still standing nearly two years later, even after losing most of their contracts in a 24-hour period last March.

“Looking back, it’s a blur but that’s all part of the gig too,” VanDyke said. “We’re still here to tell the tale.”

VanDyke, 30, grew up in Bozeman, and is now raising

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her three sons, all under the age of five, in the area with her husband, who works in agriculture.

As a Bozeman native who has worked tech - an industry that has heavily contributed to the area’s growth - and also as someone deeply concerned about the future of agriculture in the area, VanDyke said it’s both exciting to see so many growth opportunities in Bozeman and heartbreaking to see the impact on agriculture.

“I feel like every place has a kind of rebirth and Bozeman is having its rebirth, and I’m glad that I am part of it,” VanDyke said.

VanDyke enjoys spending time with her family outdoors, and also volunteers as a CAP Mentor through Thrive.

In her future, VanDyke sees herself starting more companies. She doesn’t envision ever working a corporate job.

“In the startup environment you learn really quickly, you have to pave your own way and you’ll learn really quickly what doesn’t work,” VanDyke said. “You just reiterate and move forward and you know you’re gonna fail and I like that kind of exciting, learning responsibility, it’s like a fast track to learn anything.”

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Hannah VanWetter

When you find a place that you care about finding ways to be involved in the community I think is really important.

While working in construction in southwest Montana, Hannah Van Wetter saw a gap in the housing conversation.

“There’s a lot of really smart people that work in the housing space, there’s nonprofits, developers, there’s all these other entities that exist. To us, we felt like the buck was stopping at who was actually building the homes,” said Van Wetter, who is a co-founder of Foothold, a company focused on increasing the supply of affordable homes.

So, Van Wetter and her business partner Sam Atkins decided to do something about it. They started laying the groundwork for the company in 2020, and officially incorporated in March of this year.

The company builds modular homes out of a Butte facility affordably and delivers them to customers. Van Wetter said building the homes in a factory cuts down on time and cost, since everything is done in the same building.

“We wanted to take sort of a supply-side, product based solution to housing,” Van Wetter said. “And by focusing on being able to build a smaller, high quality, more affordable home, then you can work with landowners, you can work with developers and sort of work to find a product that works really well.”

The company is building its first homes at the

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moment direct to customers and hopes to scale up to work on larger-scale developments in the future.

Van Wetter’s background in contracting, which involved building homes in the area, has paid off. Now, she gets to create the work environment she wants to be in.

“It’s been fun to take the frustrations that I have with the construction industry in general - particularly being a woman in construction where you are sort of subject to the culture and the environment such as it is - and really spend some time thinking about what is this place that I want to work and who are the people that we want to hire and who’s the team we want to assemble around us,” Van Wetter said.

Van Wetter, 29, moved to Bozeman a few years ago and is involved in the Gallatin Valley Land Trust’s NextGen Advisory Board.

She also serves on the Bozeman Community Affordable Housing Advisory Board.

She said they are not looking to compete with anyone else in the housing sphere, but to help fill a gap in the solutions puzzle.

“We’re really just trying to create a solution that brings more housing to the market in a way that uses less waste and is built in a way that doesn’t burn out the people that are building the houses,” Van Wetter said. “When you find a place that you care about finding ways to be involved in the community I think is really important.”

TWENTY UNDER 40 | 23

Ryan “ Watin

Any outlet we can provide (that fosters connection) I think is going to have exponential value.

At a company growing rapidly, Ryan Watin works to make sure that the voices of all employees are heard.

Watin, 39, works as the Chief People Officer at XY Planning Network, a financial planning company that in turn helps professionals open their own financial planning firms.

“It’s making sure someone is at that table to represent (employees),” Watin said of his position.

“I just really defend and champion the culture … we don’t always get it right, but we try.”

Watin, originally from Missouri, started at XY Planning Network about a year ago. Before taking that job, he spent years working as part of a director team that oversaw several thousand employees in the world’s first national park, Yellowstone.

Prior to moving to Bozeman, Watin was a cofounder of the Livingston Pride Coalition, which was formed to help connect LGBTQ+ people and create an opportunity for the community to share and celebrate their identities. The coalition put on a pre-pandemic drag show that brought in more than $7,000. All that money went to Aspen (Abuse

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Support Prevention Education Network), a Livingston nonprofit that works to provide shelter and support to survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

“We donated every penny,” Watin said, to Aspen.

Watin was also involved in organizing an AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) employee resource group at XY Planning Network. The group is a place for employees who identify as AAPI, including Watin, to share their experiences, celebrate their identities and create meaningful change in the organization and in the community.

“It’s really easy for us to feel isolated in this world, especially with COVID,” he said. “Any outlet we can provide (that fosters connection) I think is going to have exponential value.”

In his free time, Watin loves to travel and experience new things, whether that’s trying a new food or testing out something a little less common, like acupuncture.

“I am just a junkie for new experiences,” he said.

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A big part of life is the people and things you surround yourself with.

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Brooke Weimer

Brooke Weimer’s passion for design and the Paradise Valley made her career in building and selling real estate almost a no-brainer.

“I feel like real estate is making dreams come true,” said 39-year-old ERA Landmark Realtor.

Her job is essentially to help people make what is likely going to be the biggest investment they’ll make in their lives -- “It’s something I don’t take lightly,” she said.

About five years ago, Weimer, who grew up on a ranch in the Paradise Valley, wanted to find a way to give back to the community through her work in real estate.

“I wanted to create a program that showed the community I appreciated their support for me,” she said.

So she began giving 5% of her own net proceeds for every real estate transaction to the nonprofit of the buyer’s choice, with only one condition -- the nonprofit has to be local.

“It’s a good way for me to connect with clients and with nonprofits,” she said.

Weimer and her husband have built several homes for themselves and for other clients and,

with that construction background, she’s continued to expand upon the knowledge she’s able to impart on clients about their purchases.

“Once we started building our own homes, I realized I did have an eye for design,” Weimer said.

“I feel like I can offer a better service to my clients because I have that background.”

While her work as a Realtor® and her two kids keep her busy, Weimer said people in the community likely know her voice for a different reason -- she’s the announcer for Livingston High School basketball games.

“I was asked to do it a few years ago and it was very much a challenge for me, but I’m always up for a challenge,” she said. The position is paid, but she volunteers her time to do it and donates the pay back to the school.

More than anything else, Weimer said, her goals with her career and her volunteer work are just to be a positive force for those around her.

“A big part of life is the people and things you surround yourself with,” Weimer said. “I want to be a positive impact on the people I surround.”