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A Western American by birth, Dr. Tamar McKee hails from �Ǹ�Թ�, CO. After venturing out to New York state for her B.A. in anthropology at Hamilton College where her studies of the American West dovetailed with the anthropology of Tibet, she returned to �Ǹ�Թ� for a dual Masters in anthropology and museum and field studies at CU. This chapter also served as her introduction to the CAW, first as an intern, and then as a program and research assistant. During this time, she helped bring into fruition conferences and reports such as "Facing Fire: Lessons from the Ashes" and "Boom and Bust in the American West;" while gleefully overacting��the character of water-guzzling Suburbia in CAW’s “Urban-Rural Divorce” play. As CU alumni, McKee went on to teach at Regis University and work for various museums in the �Ǹ�Թ� area, including co-curating "Waves on the Turquoise Lake: Contemporary Expressions of Tibetan Art" at the CU Art Museum, an exhibit and symposium that was the first gathering of contemporary Tibetan artists from Tibet and the Tibetan diaspora since 1959. Riding the wave of Waves, McKee set off to conduct her Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of British Columbia, with plans to shift topics from the study of art to human-horse relationships in nomadic Tibetan culture. But when political strife in 2008 shut down access to key field sites in Tibetan communities in China, McKee pivoted to Bluegrass Kentucky as her field site to study human-horse relationships.

In 2014, she graduated with her Ph.D. and went on to teach at various universities in Vancouver, British Columbia before landing as a faculty in social sciences at Quest University in Squamish. As her family grew, so did the desire to explore entrepreneurship and together with her husband, McKee co-founded Khala & Company, bringing them back to the �Ǹ�Թ�-area to make the most of the area’s natural and outdoor business incubator climate. In 2019, McKee became the first manager of the re-branded Stephen H. Hart Research Center at History Colorado where she oversaw the daily operations and special projects and programs tied to the research center, including an exhibition development series on the diversity of horse culture in Colorado. McKee re-joined the CAW in December 2021 as the Manager of Programs and Operations, leading the transformation of the Center for the American West as it is known today for its academic programs, art exhibits, research, and myriad public events and programs.��

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