Protected Area System Manager

Ang Rita is a Senior Program Manager for the Nepali office of The Mountain Institute, a non-profit organization based in West Virginia. He helps manage the protected area system in Nepal. Ang Rita is an expert on eco-tourism and sustainable development, particularly in the region near Mount Everest called the Solo-Khumbu Valley. He is also a Sherpa, one of Nepal’s many ethnic groups, and has worked to preserve their cultural traditions. Sherpas live mostly in the western Himalayas and many support regulations that help protect the remaining forest from overuse.

Career Path: Ang Rita earned an undergraduate degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism at Lincoln University in New Zealand, followed by a master’s degree in Protected Landscape Management from the University of Wales in England. He worked for the National Parks Service in the United States for several years and still recounts stories of elk encounters. A picture of a very famous friend of the family hangs on the wall of Ang Rita’s home: Sir Edmund Hilary, the first man to climb Mount Everest. Ang Rita’s father was one of the Sherpa porters who helped Hilary succeed.