Executive Director, World Montana

WorldMontana, a Montana 501 (c)(3) nonprofit with more than 28 years of hosting international visitors in Montana, has hired Ellen M. Bush as Executive Director.

Bush, former Executive Director of CASA of Montana, joins WorldMontana at its new location at St. Charles Hall in the Artaza Center for Global Excellence at Carroll College.

WorldMontana works with programs in the US State Department and US Congress to give over 170 professionals from around the world the opportunity to meet with their counterparts in medicine, law, education, environment and accountable governance. WorldMontana plans to partner with programs at Carroll and other organizations around the state to provide opportunities in citizen diplomacy and global education for students, faculty and business leaders in Montana.

Bush worked at the state Department of Corrections as the public information officer after her return to Montana in 2000. She moved to the Supreme Court administration office as CASA/GAL coordinator in 2002 and took the nonprofit to a more visible role outside the court system in 2005.  As Executive Director of CASA and Montana, she and her husband, Rick Bush, began the signature Park-2-Park Montana bike ride across Montana in 2005. She left CASA in June 2012 to pursue other opportunities, including work with Wycliffe Russia as a communications consultant.

She is a graduate of the University of Florida Law School and holds a BSJ and MSJ from Northwestern University. She began her career as a reporter at the Independent Record in 1977 and taught journalism classes at the University of Florida and Northwestern University.