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Paula Gren, Chief Executive Optimist
Mark Winer, Chief Executive Optimist
Hilary Weekes, Associate Chief Executive Optimist
ph: 978-352-4147
What did your 18 year old self see you becoming?
I dreamed of being a writer. One of my favorite authors is Paul Theroux. I love his attention to detail and his descriptive
conversations. To me, a travel writer exploring cultures, discovering new places, and creating an imaginative narrative based on
all those experiences felt like the absolute way to creatively express yourself and earn a living. From college, I left to pursue that
dream, and as I was backpacking around the world for 6 years, my storytelling tools transformed from words to photographs and
video.
What was one of the most interesting projects you’ve worked on?
I’ve always wanted to work with The Nature Conservancy and a couple years before COVID I was asked to shoot a year-long
project around Washington State to create a book about the varying wealth of the region in terms of Nature’s bounty, pleasures
and beauty. With the writer for the project, I drove around Washington State photographing different people, places and their
daily experiences to showcase what Washington State provides and why it is so necessary to preserve our wild places.
If you weren’t a photographer, what would you do?
I love the career path I’ve chosen, so I wouldn’t trade it for anything. However, it would be fun to get paid to travel around the
world and surf the greatest waves. It’d also be fun to be a honeybee farmer, or work in the Forest Service.
When you need it, what inspires you?
Nature is a big inspiration. Those quiet places away from all the noise. If that’s not immediately available, anything to do outside
four walls. I often go for runs to exert energy and get it replenished anew. The feeling of using all your body and knowing there
is still more energy than you originally thought is empowering and a source of inspiration. We limited by only what we think.
How do you get your news?
NPR.
What do you know now, you wish you’d known when you first started out?
I think having a blank slate is a gift, because you are than free to create without any preconceived notions. Your learning
capacity is unhindered by what you thought you knew.
What were you like as a 10-year-old?
My mother tells me I was stubborn, and if I didn’t get my way it became an issue that I needed to learn how to cope with…
When was the last time you watched the sun rise?
Right now. It is still rising from my perspective. But in truth, we’re the ones rising and falling. Not the sun.
What superpower would you want? Feel free to invent one.
I love walking into bookstores. To be able to touch a book and instantly absorb all its stories, materials, and knowledge would be
fascinating. You’d then need to have a massive brain capacity to store it all.
What is your dream assignment?
I love traveling to new places, new cultures, and learning new things about people. So if it was a long-term assignment involving
those three aspects and included shooting stills and motion, I would be in heaven.
those three aspects and included shooting stills and motion, I would be in heaven.
What celebrity (actor, writer, musician) would you most want to have dinner with?
I read The Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux and instantly found one of my favorite authors. His travel stores are incredible for
the modern day. If I could go back in time, I’d want to listen to the travel tales of Burton Holmes (1870 – 1952).
What are the top 2 things on your bucket list?
To spend a year raising my family in another culture (i.e. Oaxaca, Mexico).