Director of Communications

Ariel Overstreet has served as MSGA’s Director of Communications, overseeing all association communications, public relations and media relations efforts, since June of 2008. A creative and proactive problem solver, Ariel has been instrumental in innovating and revolutionizing the communications efforts of the association. She has implemented a social media platform, improved communications with members and improved relationships with the media.

In 2009, after MSGA celebrated its milestone 125th Anniversary, Ariel led the discussion about what needed to be done to help ensure that the association was successful for another 125 years. Her answer was to “Do a better job of telling our story—the story of the Montana Stockgrowers Association and Montana’s family ranchers—to keep ranchers, and ultimately our association, in business.” Under Ariel’s careful stewardship, MSGA’s communications have led the way in telling positive stories about ranching in Montana to the general public, media and our decision makers in Helena, Mont. and Washington, D.C.

The key to this effort has been the development of the 2010 Multimedia Communications Internship which Ariel designed to bring in a top multimedia college student to help MSGA develop compelling, captivating content for MSGA’s social media platform. Ariel successfully recruited Lauren Chase for this internship, for which MSGA and Lauren received a Gold Hermes Creative Award for telling the story of Montana’s ranch families through online video, from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. Ariel provided the spark to create a full-time position for Lauren at MSGA in February of 2011.

In addition to her communications duties, Ariel provides staff support for the Beef Production & Marketing Committee and the Research Education Endowment Foundation (REEF), and coordinates the Montana Environmental Stewardship Award Program. During Montana’s bi-annual legislative sessions, Ariel serves as a lobbyist for MSGA and the Montana CattleWomen. Ariel works closely on the bison issue and regularly attends meetings of the Interagency Bison Management Plan partners, the Yellowstone Bison Citizens Working Group and the Montana Board of Livestock.

Ariel grew up on a small ranch near Big Timber, Mont. where her family breeds and raises Quarter Horses for ranch and rodeo use. She attended high school in Reed Point, Mont. and graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology. Ariel received the Senior Thesis Prize in Anthropology for her originally researched thesis entitled “Growing Up Cowboy: High School Rodeo in Montana.” Prior to working for MSGA, Ariel was a freelance writer and photographer with frequent contributions to the Agri-News (now the Western Ag Reporter) and Community Crossroads magazine. She also worked as a photographer’s assistant at Wilke Photographics in Bozeman, Mont.

Ariel is a director of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center. Ariel serves as the chairman of the MCHF’s Communications Committee and as the group's Media Director. She also serves as an interview volunteer for the Princeton University Alumni Schools Committee.

E-mail Ariel