Abbi Peters

The PA Wilds Center’s first hire, Abbi Peters oversees organization-wide programs, strategies and approaches. She brings 20 years of experience within the creative economy to the Center’s leadership team and played a crucial role in establishing the programs that drive the PA Wilds Center’s place-based entrepreneurial ecosystem: The Wilds Cooperative of PA network of rural entrepreneurs; the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, a growing retail operation based at state parks in the PA Wilds that help rural entrepreneurs get products to market while improving the visitor experience; and Round-Up for Conservation, a charity checkout campaign that reinvests in state parks and forests in the region. A 2021 graduate of the Appalachian Leadership Institute, Abbi is especially eager to put her experiences to work in her local community of Ridgway, Pa, as an elected councilperson. Abbi lives the dream of creative placemaking as she and her husband restore a 10,000 square-foot schoolhouse that serves as their home, work studio, and eventually a space for visiting artists.