TIPS Welcomes New Director

Teton Inter­a­gency Peer Sup­port Wel­comes New Director

Teton Inter­a­gency Peer Sup­port (TIPS), a project of the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole, is pleased to announce Michael Nash as the Direc­tor of TIPS, who will lead the orga­ni­za­tion into its next chap­ter of growth, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and impact.

This new role strength­ens orga­ni­za­tion­al capac­i­ty and expands efforts to sup­port the men­tal health and well-being of local first respon­ders. Michael will dri­ve strate­gic plan­ning efforts and will be respon­si­ble for devel­op­ing a long-term fundrais­ing strat­e­gy to sup­port peer sup­port ini­tia­tives across first respon­der com­mu­ni­ties. Michael will con­tin­ue to advance TIPS’ mis­sion by strength­en­ing part­ner­ships, coor­di­nat­ing peer sup­port train­ings and over­see­ing day-to-day operations. 

Before join­ing TIPS, Michael worked for the Nation­al Park Ser­vice for 32 years, hold­ing a vari­ety of roles includ­ing Deputy Asso­ciate Direc­tor, Deputy Super­in­ten­dent of the Nation­al Mall and Memo­r­i­al Parks, and Act­ing Deputy Super­in­ten­dent of Grand Teton Nation­al Park. Michael’s tenure as the Chief Ranger at Grand Teton Nation­al Park pro­vides him with a deep under­stand­ing of inter­a­gency col­lab­o­ra­tion and the unique cul­ture with­in Teton County’s first respon­der com­mu­ni­ty. Michael ini­ti­at­ed the first peer sup­port pro­gram with­in the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or, train­ing over 125 spe­cial­ists to serve near­ly 2,000 law enforce­ment offi­cers, dis­patch­ers and their fam­i­lies nation­wide to pro­vide crit­i­cal men­tal health support. 

“We are so excit­ed to wel­come Michael Nash to lead our Teton Inter­a­gency Peer Sup­port pro­gram into its next stages as we con­tin­ue to be a mod­el of excel­lence in sup­port­ing first respon­der men­tal health. Nash’s lead­er­ship in devel­op­ing and nur­tur­ing peer sup­port among NPS park rangers for the past sev­er­al years, along with his lived expe­ri­ence in the Nation­al Park Ser­vice, will ben­e­fit our com­mu­ni­ty for many years to come,” shared Eliz­a­beth Cher­outes, found­ing mem­ber and cur­rent TIPS therapist. 

TIPS Welcomes New Director

About Michael Nash
Direc­tor, Teton Inter­a­gency Peer Sup­port Program

Michael Nash joined TIPS in July 2025 fol­low­ing a 33-year career with the Nation­al Park Ser­vice where he worked to pro­tect both the nat­ur­al resources and vis­i­tors across some of the country’s most icon­ic nation­al parks. His career spanned time in Aca­dia, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Great Smoky Moun­tains, Grand Teton, and the Nation­al Mall and Memo­r­i­al Parks. He con­clud­ed his ser­vice in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., as Deputy Chief in the Office of Pro­fes­sion­al Responsibility.

In the final chap­ter of his career, Michael became a strong advo­cate for men­tal health aware­ness in the first respon­der com­mu­ni­ty. His per­son­al expe­ri­ences led him to encour­age oth­ers in the field to pri­or­i­tize their men­tal and emo­tion­al well-being through­out their careers. He found­ed the NPS Law Enforce­ment Peer Sup­port Pro­gram and now con­tin­ues this work as Direc­tor of the Teton Inter­a­gency Peer Sup­port Program.

Michael and his wife, Julie, met in the Grand Canyon in 1994 and raised their two chil­dren in four nation­al parks. Since 2010 they have called Jack­son their home and enjoy the moun­tain lifestyle. You can find them in the back­coun­try ski­ing in the win­ter, run­ning in Cache Creek or road bik­ing the many beau­ti­ful path­ways in the valley.

About Teton Inter­a­gency Peer Sup­port (TIPS)

Teton Inter­a­gency Peer Sup­port (TIPS), a pro­gram of the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole, pro­vides men­tal health sup­port and stress man­age­ment for first respon­ders and their fam­i­lies in the Teton Coun­ty, Wyoming com­mu­ni­ty through edu­ca­tion, con­fi­den­tial peer sup­port and a direct link to men­tal health professionals.

About the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole has a mis­sion of improv­ing lives through phil­an­thropic lead­er­ship. This includes act­ing as a leader, cat­a­lyst and resource for our com­mu­ni­ty. We make grants, pro­vide excel­lent donor ser­vices and ensure the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of our phil­an­thropic com­mu­ni­ty. We do these things well because we lis­ten to our com­mu­ni­ty. We are com­mit­ted to open­ing our minds to pos­si­bil­i­ty. This has led us to launch­ing three com­mu­ni­ty-wide Ini­tia­tives that focus on the root caus­es of com­mu­ni­ty chal­lenges, includ­ing Behav­ioral Health, Hous­ing Solu­tions, and Edu­ca­tion and Fam­i­lies. Our team is smart and flex­i­ble but that is not as impor­tant to us as our desire to cre­ate a sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment where we can make mean­ing­ful change with our non­prof­it part­ners, and in turn, the com­mu­ni­ty at large. We talk things through, and then we inno­vate and imple­ment them. We believe in con­nec­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, com­pas­sion and curiosity.