Born and raised in North Carolina, Stacey spent summers at the beach and winters on family adventures in the Appalachian and Great Smoky Mountains. During her junior year at UNC Chapel Hill, Stacey left the U.S. for the first time to study photography and cooking in Florence, Italy. Crisscrossing Europe on an unlimited Eurail pass, she fell in love with the small villages, stray animals, and the kind people she met along the way.

After college, Stacey moved to Washington, D.C. to hone her policy writing, softball playing, and happy hour skills. Eventually she decided life outside the Beltway would be more fulfilling, so she traded her Blackberry for a satellite phone and headed to South Sudan to support local government efforts to reestablish schools and women's organizations after decades of war. After earning a master's degree in International Education Policy from Harvard, Stacey spent the next 15 years building and managing girls' education and youth empowerment programs in Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Traveling extensively in these regions, Stacey often found herself in close proximity to and moved by incredible wildlife conservation efforts led by local people. In her role leading Nat Hab's Alaska programs, Stacey is excited to again work with local communities to showcase the unparalleled marvels of Alaska and to build exceptional experiences that bring people close to Alaska's wildlife and the amazing communities and that work to protect it. 

Stacey lives in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband, two boys and Sudanese cat. She waits every year for Tarheel basketball, warm summer nights at the beach, and mango season in Rwanda.