NEWS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
Contact: Gretchen Hyde, Executive Director, 208-866-2466, ghyde@idrange.org
IRRC hires new full-time Rangeland Educator
BOISE – (Nov. 9, 2023) – The Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission has hired Carrie Markham of Bruneau as its first full-time Rangeland Educator.
Markham is an experienced classroom teacher with 14 years of experience in the Grand View-Bruneau, Mountain Home and Prairie school districts. She also has a passion for agriculture, natural resources, ranching and rangelands.
Markham will augment the existing education outreach efforts by IRRC Executive Director Gretchen Hyde, Jackie Ingram in Challis, and Melanie Mosekian of Cambridge. Both Ingram and Mosekian work part-time for IRRC.
“I am excited to combine my passion for agriculture and natural resources with my teaching skills,” Markham said. “My goal in this new position is to help the IRRC expand the reach of its current educational programs by helping take the I-ROAM program into more schools across the state and promoting teacher use of educational materials created by the IRRC to help meet various state standards.”
Markham was raised by parents who had a background in ranching and logging in Eastern Oregon. As a teen, she was involved with 4H, FFA and high school rodeo. Those interests led her to pursue a teaching degree in secondary agricultural education.
After graduating from the University of Idaho, she went to work in the agriculture industry, first for Performix Nutrition Systems and later for Northwest Farm Credit Services. After meeting and marrying her husband, she stepped away from her banking job and moved to Bruneau.
The relocation led to a new career path, and she gained Idaho Teaching Certificate and a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership. She taught math and special ed in the Bruneau-Grand View and Mountain Home school districts, and she also taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Prairie – while she and her husband raised two boys, cattle and horses.
“This experience gave me an appreciation and understanding of the needs and concerns of ranchers as they relate to rangeland,” Markham said.
In the spring of 2023, Markham decided that she was ready for a change from traditional teaching. “As soon as I learned about the educator position for the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission, I knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do,” she said. “It gives me the opportunity to help promote an industry and lifestyle that I am passionate about while still using my education background.”
About IRRC: The Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission is a state agency whose primary mission is to sustain and enhance Idaho’s rangelands and ranching heritage through public education.
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