Stay Invested: An Interview with Mandy Warner, AMC’s Senior Director of Policy 

For 150 years, the Appalachian Mountain Club has been proving that a love of the outdoors can drive real change. From preserving forests to shaping national conservation policy, we’ve shown what’s possible when passionate people rally around a shared mission. Our members helped create the national forest system in 1911 and championed the Great American Outdoors Act more than a century later. And today, as environmental challenges grow more complex, AMC continues to rally its community to stand up for the outdoors. 

That’s where Mandy Warner comes in. Mandy is AMC’s Senior Director of Policy, and she joined our organization in the spring of 2025 to lead our policy advocacy from local town halls to the Capitol. She is a seasoned environmental policy leader with a rich background across the nonprofit, consulting, and federal government sectors. As a Biden-Harris appointee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mandy spearheaded strategic outreach and initiatives addressing threats to our climate, air, water, and lands. Prior to that, Mandy spent fifteen years at Environmental Defense Fund, where she led influential campaigns at the intersection of climate policy, advocacy, and coalition building—helping shape implementation of landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and advancing multisector Clean Air Act regulations. 

Mandy lives with her family (and a lively crew of pets) in Fairfax, Virginia. We chatted about what brought her to AMC, and what our community can accomplish this year and beyond. Below are edited selections from our conversation. 

Pam: What drew you to the Appalachian Mountain Club? Does AMC have a unique potential to make a difference in connecting people to the outdoors? 

Mandy: The outdoors has been a critical part of how I personally find joy and how I share joy with my family. We have a tiny patch of woods with a little stream outside my house—that’s where we went during COVID. My older daughter is Super Scientist in Training, so she’s always going out there grabbing stuff, finding the tiniest little fish and bringing them back. It’s been an important place for my family. 

Pam: I also have a similar little patch of woods by my house in Westchester, New York. I’m so grateful for it; it may as well be a state forest in my mind. Whatever woods is close to you is precious, and you love it. 

Mandy: Exactly right. And for the second part of your question, the AMC community spans diverse constituencies, and that’s unique in the policymaking realm. Like I go to the outdoors for hiking, but there’s other people who are out there for birdwatching. Some are out there for hunting, some for fishing or backcountry camping. There are so few organizations that bring together that broad set of interests. It’s a superpower that AMC can harness at a time of great uncertainty on what the future holds for some of our outdoor resources. 

Pam: AMC also brings together research interests. A phrase I use when I talk about AMC’s conservation policy is “it’s science-backed advocacy.” Do you think that matters? Does that hold weight in the policy world? 

Mandy: It absolutely does. AMC scientists are a critical resource to help accelerate and inform research being done at the federal and state levels, because AMC can connect the dots on what the policy means on the ground. Having your conservation policy informed by science makes you a stronger advocate with decision-makers who don’t have the opportunity to be as steeped in the science. They’re maybe getting reports from a federal agency on science, but they need to know what it means for their district. And AMC can provide those tangible examples. 

Pam: What about AMC’s recreational expertise—does that inform our policy positions? 

Mandy: Yeah, for sure. There are so few groups that do what AMC does. We’re connecting people to the outdoors. We’re making sure they’re having meaningful experiences. At the same time, we’re making sure we are being good stewards of those resources people are accessing so they be used for generations to come. It’s really walking the walk. AMC is on all sides of the equation. We are not just in the business of recreation; we’re also on the policy and science sides. Our policy positions seek to balance all these different needs and uses. 

Pam: Let’s help our readers anchor on what they should be paying attention to. What do you see as the biggest threats to connecting people to the outdoors in our region of Maine to Virginia? 

Mandy: The meta issue that I’m seeing emerge is investment. It’s not just dollars and cents; it’s investment of time and capacity. Everyone is feeling overwhelmed. So it’s not just about getting more money to protect and maintain more land and resources. We also need to make sure we have programs that drive access for all that we’re doing, education programs that remind folks that the resources are out there. 

Investment of time, resources, and energy by decision-makers throughout the AMC region is going to be a challenge. We need folks to focus on standing up for our lands, standing up for policies that many decision-makers have supported, that have been bipartisan. But it’s coming at a time when there are a lot of other challenges. 

Pam: I’ve noticed an upswelling of coverage around the attention economy. I love that you call investment not only a financial issue, but one of attention and mental bandwidth, of taking the time to focus on the outdoors and collectively organize around it. 

Mandy: I also think one of the challenges we’re going to face is fatigue. There are going to be setbacks, right? AMC has been through great times as part of the conservation movement. We had the Great American Outdoors Act signed into law in 2020, a huge bipartisan victory for conservation. We’ve also had some setbacks. So how do you keep people who care about these issues engaged and motivated when we are going to take some steps forward and some steps back? We must keep finding new ways to get people engaged and show the significance of their engagement, because we’re going to take on some fights that we’ll lose. But I want folks to focus on the fact that we are going to have a lot of victories and make real, meaningful progress in a challenging environment. 

Pam: Let’s zoom a bit closer. We recently heard about the federal budget request for 2026 gutting the federal funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). What are some specific actions that our readers can take to make sure this policy change doesn’t go through? 

Mandy: If they haven’t already signed up for AMC’s Conservation Action Network (CAN), they should. It’s a great resource to get plugged into the issues that we need AMC’s voices to underscore. We’re in the midst of a challenging budget season with the federal government, which will likely have huge, cascading impacts to state and local budgets over the next year or so. Take that time to get informed on the issues and raise your voice.  

The Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition’s conservation map is a resource where folks can see the sites and resources that are benefiting from a well-funded LWCF. It’s hard to imagine that you don’t have a natural resource close to you that’s not going to be affected if the government decides to disinvest from the outdoors, which is why AMC worked so hard to guarantee this funding permanently in the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). 

A lot of the decision-makers who voted for GAOA across party lines do not intend to have it unfunded or the funding reallocated, but they’re dealing with a massive budget and getting calls about every single issue under the sun. This is our opportunity to raise our voice and remind them that, hey, this part of the budget matters, too. AMC’s CAN alerts make it as easy as a couple of clicks to send this message to your legislators. Picking up the phone and calling them is super impactful. The gold standard is getting out there to meet your representatives, going to their town halls and other events.  

There is a pervasive atmosphere of we have to cut the budget, and I want to make sure that impacts to conservation and recreation are being elevated, considered, and course corrected as much as possible. The programs that AMC is advocating for are worth continued investment and provide substantial economic and quality-of life-benefits across communities. Our public land management agencies deliver incredible return on investment, leveraging partnerships and revenue streams far beyond what tax dollars put in. LWCF is a great example, since it doesn’t even use tax dollars at all—LWCF is a conservation offset, utilizing profits from oil and gas companies operating in federal waters to make lasting investments in our public lands from backyards to the backcountry.    

Pam: How are AMC members uniquely positioned to make a difference? 

Mandy: There are 90,000 of us. AMC saying “AMC doesn’t approve” carries weight. We see that when people stand up saying, wait a minute. What are you doing here? This isn’t what we asked you to do. This isn’t why we voted for you. That is starting to resonate.  

Pam: You and your colleagues on AMC’s Conservation Policy team are there to speak in the capitals, and AMC members can act locally and speak locally. They can table at farmer’s markets and show up at town halls. We’re really lucky to be able to be in so many different places at so many different levels. 

Mandy: For sure. And a decision-maker may see a dollar and cent in a budget, and they may see a title of a program, but they may not know what that means. AMC members are there to tell them, this is what it means. It means that it funded the restoration of a trail that I used to hike on with my grandfather. Members have authentic stories of what the impacts are, and that resonates a lot more than simply breaking down expenditures. 

Pam: OK, here is my last question for you: We interviewed Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, and her book What If We Get It Right? blew my mind wide open because it made me realize that there are so many ways to pursue climate solutions. So inspired by Ayana’s signature question, what does it look like to you if we get it right? 

Mandy: Right now, success to me looks like recommitment to the policies that have already been committed to, but also not losing sight of our longer-term goals and how we get where we want to go from where we are today. There is much work to do, but AMC, thanks to its dedicated staff, members, and cross-sectional partners, is on strong footing to ensure we are setting ourselves up for the future we collectively want and need for protecting the outdoors. Leveraging an investment of both time and dollars will allow us to deliver on the conservation work that we know is broadly supported. 

Commit to the outdoors. Join Appalachian Mountain Club as a member and lend your voice to the fight to protect critical landscapes for the well-being of people and the outdoors.