In Conversation

ALEXA: Hi, this is Alexa Wiley. In November 2025, I had the honor of having an inspiring conversation with Chad Brown, a Portland-based award-winning photographer, filmmaker, Navy veteran, conservationist, and social entrepreneur. His life’s work is continually shaped by a journey of service to the country, the natural environment, and underrepresented communities. Chad embodies a driving passion and what I would call a calm stick-to-it-ness for projects that combine multimedia storytelling and advocacy work to protect wild spaces. We talked about his unique willingness to stay in uncomfortable spaces and how he works to build resilience through faith and his practice working through problems as they arise. I hope you enjoy Chad’s insights as much as I do.

All right, are we good?

CHAD: We are good. Recording. Absolutely.

ALEXA: Awesome. Cool. One of the things I was thinking about talking with you about is um not only maybe your latest project, but just kind of trying to think about like the person that you are and the and the work that you do in the world. Um is it ever just like a lonely space to be? You show up for so many people, and you do so many things. I’m just wondering, you know, what gets you out of bed in the morning?

CHAD: Yeah. Um what gets me out of bed in the morning? Wow, that’s a good question. Um there’s a lot that I am doing and it’s all manageable. It looks like I’m really busy. I just I think I just probably have found a way to perfect the art of craziness and being able to make it look like well it looks like but I’m able to manage that that type of craziness. But I think that craziness is kind of like a direct contrast to uh being in a hostile environment that where I came from and what I still live in my mind, and how that operates in my head sometimes, and that’s the fight that a lot of people don’t see and that’s the fight that I could that I tend to act out and so getting up in the morning is almost kind of like getting back into the fight and the fight hasn’t ended. Um, and that fight is not war anymore, but it’s a war of justice and a war of advocacy and community. Everything that I’m doing, the job hasn’t ended. And so when I do wake up in the morning, I’m waking up with that kind of mindset that it’s time to get back into the fight, you know.

But I think that’s also getting back into the fight is this is where it kind of gets a little spiritual uh you know walking a line of faith and hope and prayer. um that ties to my personal mental health and well-being that I do constantly find myself living and doing things in a lonely state where it makes me vulnerable, and that vulnerability opens up to uh like you know negative narratives in my head, anxiety etc. And I fight through that with prayer. What I do – I reach out to God. I’m talking to God all the time, you know, and I’m say, “God, you know, help me find a way today, you know, help me get through this” basically.

ALEXA: Yeah. A lot of people have different forms of faith, you know, whatever their faith is in. But that makes a lot of sense because, kind of, you know, especially if you’re blazing a trail like you do, it’s not like you look around and see a bunch of other people doing the same thing.

CHAD: Right. Right.

ALEXA: So, it would seem like a place where it would be like ripe for doubting you know, what’s going on. So – a lot of this what you’re saying, some of the resilience comes from the faith and prayer…

CHAD: …even your elders I mean, you know I still call upon my grandma sometimes I say you know my grandma, her name is Mama Loyce, and I said Mama Loyce what would you do? I wish I could hear your voice and you could talk to me right now and whisper, you know, to me like some encouraging words, and I’m trying to listen to you, you know, and I’ll talk to my grandpa –  cause they were very well – I mean – prominent in my life when I was a kid, and they were like my anchor. So I’m reaching out into that spiritual space constantly, you know, even though sometimes I may find myself in doubt of that spiritual space. I may find myself in a place where I am not wanted in that spiritual space because you know we all um some of us have a crooked path…

ALEXA: …when you say not wanted in a spiritual space, do you mean like a physical church or do you feel like just in the space that you’re in?

CHAD: The space, in the space. It could possibly transcend itself into the church, you know, it’s… I’m not perfect. I’ve done crazy stuff and especially when I was in the military, I’m not happy about, but I live with a lot. And so forgiveness is hard on your own self, you know, and so I still constantly battle with those things that have happened in my life. And you know, this has a lot to how you how you’re raised, you know, it’s how you’re rooted, right? and how you’re raised and how I was raised is – when we’re talking about like you know Christianity and God, you know not hardcore though, but how that was presented to me is that that God is a fearing God and he uh doesn’t have that much space for you to screw up actually you know you know (laughter) and we all know I mean – today

ALEXA: it’s not like you’re going to go to hell…

CHAD: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So, some of that um uh childhood stuff comes bubbles up a lot and I have to catch myself and I guess it goes back to like if I’m uh do I have the access to step into that spiritual, due to the stuff that I’ve done in my past and haven’t been forgiven etc. But I do have that access you know.

ALEXA: Right. It sounds like a lot of layers to work through.

CHAD: Yeah, it is. It is.

ALEXA: but you have a lot of practice at it. I think you’re It seems like you’re really good at it, because you you’re kicking, you know, butt and doing a lot of really amazing things. One of the things I really admire about you is just knowing that even just to have a project, there’s obstacles, right? And then there’s the internal -what you’re we’re talking about – which is you know, everyone has those kinds of internal hurdles or barriers, and it’s just really cool to hear about what brings people forward on their path um through those barriers. Is there a time when you like you were in a project that you’ve completed but at the time where you’re like I don’t think this project’s going to work?

CHAD: No. No I never had that that that thought never come across. It’s because you just work through whatever and stay with it and I work through it. I stay with it. I see it through uh no matter what. I probably my entire life I may have thrown in the white towel probably twice, you know. Uh but other than that, it’s um I’m staying the course, seen it through. Um and in order to see things through, you have to be flexible, and you have to be able to navigate many different types of layers of differences when you’re dealing with people working and that’s probably the most hardest thing when I’m navigating projects and I’m taking a stand and stepping way out in the unknown place. Um, you know, one of the things that didn’t that I didn’t never thought about is I was on this project, well, Operation Roam up in the Arctic Village and I brought a new group up there and one of the guys, he was really appreciative of this opportunity that he was able to come up to the Arctic and be part of this group. And he said to me, “It must be really really scary.” And I said, “What do you mean by that?” and he said, “Well, everything that you’re doing, it’s like basically your own reputation and you having people that are investing in your organization of a mission that you’re setting forth and it’s all riding on your shoulders and you’re relying on us to carry that torch forward with no contract. You’re just, you know, kind of relying on us to come up, you know, stand up…

ALEXA: Which sounds like a little bit of faith in there.

CHAD: It is faith. Um, it’s a lot of faith. Yeah, it’s a lot of faith and it’s…

ALEXA: … is it scary?

CHAD: I mean, it is scary. Yeah, it’s very scary. Um, but I never let that stop me. I do believe that if I move forward and align myself with the right people, the right organizations or companies etc. and align with the right people that it’s going to fall in the right place.

ALEXA: You know, it’s almost like you’re a natural risk taker. It’s part of kind of who you are in terms of projects, and you know stepping into spaces that maybe you don’t see a leader in yet and you’re like well, let’s step into this void.

CHAD: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And adversity will percolate leadership. You know…

ALEXA: you mean like your experiences? Like it’s kind of taught you some things about how to be a little bit more resilient?

CHAD: Absolutely. In really tough situations. Absolutely. You learn from that. and uh and you fall a couple times and I think that’s like, to a lot of people, you’re not wired but you’re kind of taught like you know – you fail and you fail period. You know, but failing is actually a good thing you know cause you have the opportunity to retrain yourself, you have opportunity to learn from your mistakes, you have opportunity to rebuild yourself and do it right and be better. You know, and there’s a there’s a beautiful um gifts of failure that we don’t talk about and it’s not in our teachings, I guess you could say. You know, even in in school, elementary and high school, um failure is kind of looked it’s kind of looks bad in a way, you know, and…

ALEXA: yeah, it’s not celebrated or it’s not seen as just part of some sort of process.

CHAD: Exactly.

ALEXA: I mean, maybe there’s a few, you know, corporate organizations like, “Yeah, we’re going to fail up, fail harder.” But yeah, if they actually fail, do they still believe that? You know, I don’t know. Like you’re saying…

CHAD: I think that’s where leadership is found. Um that’s where I found it. Yeah. you know, when you get stripped away from everything and you find yourself at the bottom and you have lost. This is when you are uh forged to redefine what you’re about. You know, you’re facing yourself, you know, and you have to um figure that out. That’s just it. And we have every ability to figure that out. It’s just who’s willing to stay in that space long enough to figure that out because it doesn’t feel good.

ALEXA: It sounds like, though, that it’s a place that – I’m just imagining myself like um – it’s hard to do things alone. So, and we live we’re in a culture where it’s very individualistic, right? But the way I see your leadership, at least the little bit that I’ve seen in some of the projects that you’ve explained and some of the talks that I’ve been to with you, you really share leadership with people. So that um you’re giving people leadership opportunities.

CHAD: Yeah.

ALEXA: Through what you do. So, you’re…it’s just a very, it’s like you’re sharing that space, right? Um so that’s another form of kind of creating a community and a bond. And so, it’s bigger than you.

CHAD: Yeah. When I’m working with community or groups or and when there’s problems arise, I always say never come to the table pointing out the problem. Come to the table, point out the solution. That has a lot that of that under layer is I want to continue to move. Continue to move. It’s kind of like survival. um you know when you’re in the wilderness or even urban survival the whole point of – one of the points of – survival is to keep moving. You got to keep moving you know, um when you are in a position even in like again wilderness situation the worst thing that can happen to you if you don’t put all the elements in place to survive, is allowing the mind to go stagnant. If the mind goes stagnant, then you got a really bad problem on your hands. You literally have become your worst enemy and your chances of death is right around the corner now, you know? But if you have the ability to keep your mind moving forward, right? That means you’re constantly…

Alexa: …and even if you don’t know what the answer is…

Chad: …you’re still open for solutions. You’re still thinking out of the box. Even if you have to stay put because you have sheltering in place or whatever. Absolutely. Continuing to think. Yeah. If you’re in place, you still got a routine. You got to go get wood. You got to go get fire. You got to go get food, water, you know.

ALEXA: Have you been in a situation like that before?

CHAD: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, and those are some of the things I’ve learned. I mean some of it is military but some of it’s just me being in situations and… transferring that into a business and office and organizations and projects etc. Especially working a team is…okay you create a problem I mean you pointed out the problem um and if we don’t have a solution it becomes stagnant and what happens time is passing by we’re trying to figure out we’re looking at each other crazy and where money’s probably being wasted and all that, you know, but if we have solutions, we can we’re more productive that way. We can work together. We understand the problem, but we got solutions to work that problem, you know, in the military, we call it “work the problem,” working the problem, you know, you continue to work it and continue to work it until you have solved it. Period.

ALEXA: So, in some ways like a lot of what makes things hard in life is also what makes you resilient. Those things that push us to our limits and then also um maybe we find you know like faith or something bigger right to move us through those things where then those little things don’t seem so much big of a deal anymore – or whatever ‘little’ I mean it depends.

CHAD: I mean I don’t want to cancel out like you know the little things. People do move through the world and some people don’t have those experiences so what may be little to me I need to honor that and get some grace with that and understand that for that person it’s their growth and their own personal battle I just need to respect that. But when I do see you know someone stumbling off of something that’s a little bit small or whatever it is a key indicator of my understanding where they are at in their own leadership basically, you know, and that kind of tells a whole different story. Uh and that’s important to pay attention to especially in group dynamics because those kind of things can disrupt a group in a way you know if you’re not able to manage that you know and so in a in a younger stage uh of learning um and you never manage your own situation problem or even anger. That’s a process you have to go through and when you go through it you do come out with a better understanding of yourself and what you’re capable of taking on basically.

ALEXA: …especially if you’re in a place where you’re allowed to fail maybe?

CHAD:  Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

ALEXA: and a lot of the work that you do is not only about connecting people to nature, helping them be more resilient, creating leadership opportunities, but you’re also working to uplift the voices of those people that haven’t had voice, right? Just thinking about when you went to talk about your latest film and you went to Pendleton – are there things that you have to continually defend your work? Cause that whole film was basically a response to, oh, we’ve heard people have had experience with racism on this trail. We need to work on that in our state in on these national forest lands.

CHAD: A lot of the things that I’m doing, including the film and everything, it’s very hard. And I think one of the biggest things of what makes it so hard is not just the fact that I’m an African-American man, but I do come with a lot of layers. And some of those layers are very complicated. And it’s easy to put someone in a box because you can actually make that connection. What makes it even harder for myself, people try to put me in a box, but there’s more to it and there’s so much to where uh it overflows out of that box into other different boxes. Like when I’m on stage speaking about the film Unseen, I’m also on stage representing two organizations. I’m also on stage representing veterans. I’m also on stage as a film director. And you know what? And I’m on stage of many other things…community leader uh I’m on stage as an outdoorsman or representing indigenous nations that I’m speaking about etc. in the most best way possible basically. But I’m in all these different spaces and I think there’s a lot of uh stand back because like again it goes back to like if you are a park ranger that’s what you do and that’s your identity. There’s no threat. I can come straight to you through the park ranger, you know, if I need help, right? But if you’re wearing a lot of different hats and these hats that you’re wearing are not half-ass you’re actually, (laughs)  you know, I’m not I’m not toot to my horn, but you’re owning these hats, right? That’s a lot of I would say that’s a lot of muscle that you’re bringing, yeah, to the table, you know, and that’s a lot for someone to digest.

That veteran hat is probably one of the hats that transcends across race. It transcends across politics. You know, it brings me into uh I don’t care what kind of space I’m in, whether it’s anarchy or KKK or congressional or whatever, that veteran, it just it opens up the door where for me to walk in, in a safe way.

ALEXA: Thanks so much for listening. I want to thank Chad Brown for the opportunity to record our conversation. Please do check out Chad’s nonprofit environmental advocacy work at loveisking.org and check out his creative media work at chadocreative.com.