Meet Jess Rice | President & Director of Media Relations, wildHERness

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jess Rice and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jess, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
As a woman who’s been passionate about The Great Outdoors her whole life, I was always among the minority at outdoor functions, hunts and conservation organization events. Often, I was the only woman in the room. After locating a group that catered to fostering connections to nature and the outdoors for women, I realized I wasn’t alone. There were other women out there, clamoring to overcome barriers to explore what has traditionally been a male-dominated area. Daring, smart, fearless women. After one Women In The Outdoors event with the National Wild Turkey Federation, I was hooked. The confidence I felt was extraordinary, and I was absolutely sick with a desire to pass that self-reliant feeling on to other women.

That’s where wildHERness was born. I met three other women that share this passion for sharing knowledge to empower other women, and each was committed to redefining what it means to be a wild woman.

What should our readers know about your business?
Education is something that can never be lost; knowledge is a commodity to be exchanged. Our goal at wildHERness is to teach a woman that she can, so that no one can ever tell her she can’t. Although women have been the fastest-growing segment of the outdoor industry for more than a decade, many barriers to entry remain: cost, access, mentors, body size, race, sexual orientation, etc. The women of wildHERness are dedicated to offering skill-based events & workshops aimed at fostering outdoor competence and self-reliance, on a free to low cost basis. Outdoor recreation can be expensive, and we never want cost to be a barrier for someone who desires to participate. And, we pride ourselves on being extremely diverse, so that anyone, regardless of body size, color, sexual orientation or gender feels safe to learn.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My dreams would have been impossible to achieve without the support of the other wildHERness women, the co-founders, Jess Banes, Sharenda Birts and Alex Mosiman. We have been very fortunate to have mentors and volunteers cheering us on from the start, but Daniel Holder, host of the Hunt.Fish.Eat podcast gave me the final confidence to jump into this adventure, and I can never thank him enough.

Website: wildherness.org

Instagram: @_wildherness_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildHERness