The Collective

Meet

Kristin Dahl

Building resilient communities through sustainable travel and outdoor recreation

Crosscurrent founder and CEO Kristin Dahl is a pioneer in the travel and tourism industry, creating a unique niche with her experience and innovations in both destination development and destination management. Kristin has a deep devotion to helping people understand, enjoy and preserve the world’s natural wonders, and she puts her strong leadership and organizational skills to work every day to do exactly that. Building on 17 years developing rural destinations in the Pacific Northwest, she created Crosscurrent as a way to help communities build robust and vital tourism economies through accessible outdoor recreation and healthy ecosystems. She is building an experienced and inspired team of professionals who can support destination development anywhere.

During Kristin’s tenure at Travel Oregon and Rural Development Initiatives, she helped frame the concept of community tourism in the Northwest, leading numerous teams in successfully developing Oregon into a premier travel destination. She devised innovative new ways for communities to build and manage sustainable tourism – most notably, designing and producing the Oregon Tourism Studio and the Oregon Outdoor Recreation Initiative. As part of this work, she focused extensively on unifying the public and private sectors in rural communities, bringing them together behind innovative strategies for sustainable economic development. She has many years of experience working with a diverse array of community leaders to foster collaboration, develop big visions, home in on priority actions and ignite action. This has played out in the development of world-class outdoor recreation and agritourism experiences, as well as sustainable visitor transportation options.

Kristin’s innovative work to shape the field of destination development garnered the following awards during her post at Travel Oregon:

  • National Geographic Leader in Sustainable Tourism, Platinum Level
  • Gold Medal World Responsible Tourism Award, Best Short Film for Responsible Tourism
  • Distinguished Partner in Innovation, Oregon State University Extension Service
  • Finalist, National Geographic Traveler World Legacy Awards in Destination Leadership
  • Alice Award for Bike Tourism Development in the state of Oregon, The Street Trust (formerly known as the Bicycle Transportation Alliance)

Originally from Juneau, Alaska, Kristin started her career in tourism as a glacier and whitewater guide, an experience that has driven her career’s work to balance economic growth and tourism with stewardship of people and places. Over her career she has led expeditions in North America, Central America, and Southeast Asia.

In her free time, Kristin can be found mountain biking, skiing and whitewater rafting in the Pacific Northwest with her husband Jake, her kiddos Piper and Booker, Cash-dog and friends.