Ben Kromash is the Leadership and Training Manager for Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado. He manages VOC’s training program, the Outdoor Stewardship Institute (OSI). This work includes developing VOC’s internal volunteer leadership as well as capacity-building throughout the state’s stewardship organizations. Ben is also responsible for helping to plan, implement and evaluate VOC’s Boots-on-the-Ground volunteer projects. He brings a combination of real-world experiences and intersectional academic background to his work.
Growing up in Chicago influenced Ben’s desire to study racial inequality and environmental sustainability at Macalester College. After undergraduate studies he worked at a food bank in Seattle, which informed his understanding of food access and direct service with marginalized communities. Next, Ben served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Paraguay, where he worked on environmental education and reforestation efforts. Following Peace Corps, Ben completed a master’s degree in Environmental Sociology at Colorado State University. He studied efforts to make the outdoors more racially equitable through a case study on environmental education. Ben joined the VOC team in 2022.