Our Team
Dean McGovern (he/him)
Executive Director, MontPIRG
CEO, MontPIRG Leadership Fund
Dean McGovern looks for spaces where education and community collide into social impact and transformative learning. He enjoys learning from people and contributing to groups who want more beauty, wellness, peace, inclusion, equity, and joy in their world. Dean serves as executive director of MontPIRG and CEO of the MontPIRG Leadership Fund. He is an associate instructor in the Honors College at the University of Utah. Previously, Dean served as executive director of the Lowell Bennion Center for Community Engagement and the Montana Campus Compact. His teaching, scholarship, and service focus on civic leadership and community engagement. He earned doctoral and master’s degrees from the University of Montana and baccalaureate degree from Colorado State University. Dean and his wife Amy enjoy following the active lives of their children who now reside in four different states. Answers to Dean's persistent questions are often found by running and hiking in the mountains.
Sophie Moon (she/her)
Regional Director (Missoula-Butte), MontPIRG
Sophie has a bit of a MontPIRG obsession. As a student of Environmental Studies and Political Science at the University of Montana, she worked as a MontPIRG intern, lead intern, canvasser, board member, and board chair. She even joined the MontPIRG Leadership Fund after graduating and now serves as our Regional Director (Missoula-Butte). That’s almost a decade with MontPIRG! Sophie is most passionate about helping students and young people explore how their interests intersect with civic engagement and community organizing. She has led statewide campaigns, built non-profits from the ground up, honed her communication skills, served some damn-fine food and wine, and even repped for a local plant-based milk company. In short, she likes to play in the nexus of food systems and advocacy - and she loves helping others discover their unique intersections with advocacy work, too.
Carl Anderson (he/him)
Regional Director (Bozeman- Billings) , MontPIRG
Carl grew up in Eastern Montana and from an early age, had a passion for protecting the environments and particularly the wildlife of his home state. He obtained baccalaureate degrees in Clinical Psychology and Biochemistry with a minor in Astrobiology as well as a Graduate Degree in Clinical Psychology through the Montana University System. After working in biochemical research for a time, Carl became convinced that his knowledge in the sciences would better serve the world of public policy. In 2018, MontPIRG gave him the opportunity to work with young folks and aid them in learning how to make tangible, positive change in the world around them and he knew that he had found his true passion in life. In his downtime, he founded a local organization that promotes arts and culture in the Gallatin Valley and spends every moment he can with his wife, daughter, and their dogs and cats.
Lisa Venckus
Social Media Manager, MontPIRG
Lisa is a third year student at the University of Montana, studying sociology, history, and secondary education. MontPIRG has been a defining feature of her university experience. In search of a few more mountains, Lisa came to Montana from Indiana, and within a week became an intern at MontPIRG, followed by being a board member, board secretary, and now the social media manager. She has always been politically involved, believing strongly in the idea that complacency is acceptance and you have to work for the change you wish to see. Advocacy and education are the root of that change.