Kelly Heaton

Executive Director

Red Lodge

Core Values:  Hope, Honesty/Integrity, Love, Trust, Curiosity

Kelly Heaton brings 20 years of nonprofit experience to her role as Executive Director of Leadership Montana. She has a BS from the University of Colorado-Boulder and moved to Montana in 2004. She loves the collaborative and dynamic nature of nonprofits and the opportunities they provide to make positive change. Kelly has extensive experience in organizational and financial management, fundraising, relationship building, marketing, outreach, and strategy. She has spent time in every role of a nonprofit, giving her a well rounded perspective of how an organization runs, and the importance of each position. In her previous leadership roles, she helped raise $3M for Glacier National Park’s Centennial Campaign, created local and regional partnerships to benefit survivors of domestic violence, and scaled up a 7-8th grade healthy relationships curriculum from a statewide program to one that is used in over 20 states. 

As a Leadership Montana graduate (class of 2014) and Masters Class graduate (Class of 2019), Kelly is thrilled to lead, and give back to, an organization that has provided so much growth, meaning, and connection in her life. She believes wholeheartedly in the mission of building a better Montana through knowledge, collaboration, and civility. 

She currently serves as the Chair of the Beartooth Billings Clinic Board of Governors and is a 16-year member of Rotary International. Kelly also served as a Councilwoman for the City of Red Lodge for 3.5 years. She enjoys meeting people, solving problems, strategy sessions, traveling, hiking, skiing, camping, and backpacking and is happiest in the great outdoors. She lives in Red Lodge with her husband Matt, the local game warden, and their son Connor.

Current Favorites  

Word: Connection

Sound: Sandhill Crane calls, thunderstorms, and quaking aspen leaves  

Book: Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life 

Holiday: Birthdays-I love honoring the day people were born 

Movie:  Little Shop of Horrors. I love musicals! Watching people singing and dancing evokes a lot of emotions. Also, anything with humor because smiling and laughing more is always good.  

Song:  I truly appreciate all kinds of music, so it’s hard to pick a song. My favorite genre is Rock, and the only thing I struggle with is heavy twang. 

Montana scene:  Mountains-all the crags, lines, crevasses, waterfalls, the microenvironments, and the scale of the space they cover is breathtaking and fascinating to me. It’s a 3-way tie between Hole in the Wall campground in the northern reaches of Glacier National Park, the Shields Valley, and winding along Hwy 78 at the base of the Beartooths.