Wallowa County chamber executive director honored for tourism work

Published 3:00 pm Friday, April 14, 2023

ENTERPRISE — Jennifer Piper, executive director of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce, has been honored by the Oregon Tourism Commission with one of its Rising Star awards.

The award came at the 2023 Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, according to a press release.

The award recognizes individuals who are new to the tourism industry — within the past five years — and have shown leadership, commitment and a passion for tourism in Oregon.

“In the few short years that Jennifer has held this position, she has shown great leadership and a strong commitment and passion for Oregon’s tourism industry,” the release stated.

An Enterprise native, Piper moved back to the city in 2020 to promote tourism in her home county and help local businesses survive and thrive through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her optimism, connection and love for the area and its people and communities show in her work and the relationships she’s built with community members, business owners and partners, the release stated.

“It was pretty cool,” Piper said Wednesday, April 12. “It’s an exciting thing to be recognized. It’s a peer-nominated award. That means that other people in the industry see that good things are happening at the Wallowa County Chamber.”

Of the 12 awards presented to individuals or organizations at the Portland event, Piper was one of three who received the Rising Star Award.

“It’s in recognition for the work done in my first two years at the Wallowa County Chamber,” she said.

Piper grew up here and attended Joseph Charter School for one year.

She went to Upper Columbia Academy, a boarding school near Spokane, Washington, for the other three years of high school.

After high school Piper attended the University of Portland, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and minored in fine arts.

She then lived in Portland for about 10 years and on the Oregon coast for another five or six years before returning to Enterprise in late 2020.