Sloan Shoemaker

Sloan Shoemaker

Sloan was born in Tokyo, raised in South Carolina and learned to ski in Western North Carolina. He earned a B.A. in English from Washington and Lee University in 1984, but really grew up in Aspen starting at age 23. After working various ski industry jobs in the winter and for the Independence Pass reclamation and restoration project in the summers, Sloan started a master’s at the University of Denver in Environmental Policy and Management. He was hired as the Executive Director of Wilderness Workshop in 1997, leading its transformation from an all-volunteer minimal–budget nonprofit to one with a dozen professional staff and a budget of over $1 million. Sloan attributes much of his success leading Wilderness Workshop to the training he received at Leadership Aspen (now known as RFL), class of ’99. He retired from Wilderness Workshop in 2018 and joined the RFL Board of Directors in 2022. Sloan lives just south of Carbondale with his wife, two daughters, two cats, and one dog in a solar heated and powered straw bale house. He is still trying to figure out what he wants to be when he grows up.