Born in Fort Collins and raised in the rural Four Corners region of Colorado, Elizabeth Peck grew up exploring the mountains and canyons of the Southwest. She spent several years in New Mexico, studying Music and Russian at the University of New Mexico. For two summers, Elizabeth lived abroad in Russia, studying language in Vladimir, and ecological education in Buryatia, Siberia. In addition to her travels and other studies, she served as student teacher and Editor–in-Chief of Scribendi, a regional student literary arts publication.
Pursuing interests in public policy and rural development, Elizabeth worked as a Rural Policy Fellow in Washington DC, where she became interested in storytelling as a way to increase involvement in public decision-making. She later pursued her interests in storytelling through workshops with author Harrison Fletcher at the Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop in Denver. Influenced by the writings of Thomas Goltz and Fitzroy Maclean, she is fascinated by the history and cultures of the Caucasus region, and hopes to travel there in the near future. She came to the Salt Institute with an interest in documenting immigrant cultures, specifically ethnic minorities from the former Soviet Union. In her free time, she is attempting to climb all of Colorado’s 54 peaks over 14,000 feet, and is currently on number eleven.
