Longtime resident Lisa Jones McClellan was honored with Explore Whitefish’s Friend of the Fish award last month for her dedication to the Whitefish community.  

The award is fitting as Jones launched the Friend of the Fish campaign in 2020 as communications outreach during the Covid-19 pandemic. The campaign continues as an education program asking visitors to recreate responsibly, treat people and wild places with respect, and to leave no trace. 

Explore Whitefish, also known as the Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau, established the Friend of the Fish award in recognition of a partner who has exhibited the highest level of commitment.  

Jones McClellan was fresh off of teaching a workshop at Explore Whitefish’s annual meeting, "Bridging the Generation Gap in the Workplace,” before the award was presented.  

Criteria for the annual award include longevity, active participation, contribution to the industry through events, committees and workshops, and community impact, leadership and mentorship.  

"She has always been one of our advocates artfully tackling some of our community's biggest disrupters, including COVID, anti-visitation sentiment and discrimination,” said Brian Schott, who contracts with Explore Whitefish for communications and sustainability initiatives. 

“She's a regular volunteer and has counseled new staff and board members for Explore Whitefish. She's a lover of the arts, in particular live music, and has helped encourage musicians to support organized tourism management,” Schott said.  

Jones McClellan started her career at Big Mountain in 1990 as a snow reporter and was promoted to public relations and special events manager. She was responsible for starting the Big Mountain Amphitheater in the early 90s, hosting scores of concerts, music festivals, theater and the first microbrewery festival in Montana.  

She later started her own business and took on the contracted role of public relations and crisis communications for the convention and visitors bureau at its inception and continued serving for over 20 years.  

Her passion for conservation provided the core of her public relations efforts which includes messaging of stewardship. She has also been a leader in creating partnerships to stand up to hate and in developing support for diversity and inclusion. 

Jones McClellan’s community volunteer work has been diverse during her tenure.  

She has served throughout the years as Whitefish Trail Hootenanny music coordinator, been a board member for the WAVE, the North Fork Preservation Association, Climate Smart Glacier Country, and a board chair for the Flathead Arts Council and Flathead Family Planning.  

She has served on committees or volunteered with North Fork Bear Aware, Citizens Climate Lobby Earth Day, Tamarack Grief Resource Center, Writing Coaches of Montana, Glacier National Park Centennial Committee, Whitefish dark skies committee, Whitefish Centennial committee and Whitefish public art committee. 

Now semi-retired, Jones McClellan works part time as a public relations/crisis communications consultant and as curator of a powder skiing and live music event called Heligrass, and workforce training for Flathead Valley Community College. 

"One of the things we can always count on is [Lisa] will support our team, our mission and not back down from the issues or programs she believes in, even when it gets a little heated," Schott said.  

"You talk about the story of Whitefish, and Lisa is an integral part of it. She has blood, sweat and tears on the soul of this town," Schott said.  

She was honored to receive the award and expressed her love of the Whitefish community, while crediting her teammates and many partnerships for the successes achieved over the decades.   

"I'm blown away and so appreciative of this honor. I am proud of the work we have done over the years and the teams we have had because I couldn't have done anything without my partners," Jones said.  

“But what's really important is that being here today shows that I have total confidence in the future and the direction this team is going, the messaging, the talents and passion," Jones said.