We rely on an active network of volunteers and community partners to help support and empower our new neighbors. Our staff will grow in the future as need increases and funding allows!
Nancy Van Maren, Executive Director
Nancy helped found Nations to Neighbors Montana in 2021 as a Sponsor Circle to welcome Afghan evacuees to Billings. With tremendous volunteer support and 100% community funding, she coordinated the resettlement care for four families. With the opening of a resettlement agency in Billings, she helped to pivot Nations to Neighbors to become a nonprofit in support of refugees over the long welcome – the many months it takes to build community and learn daily life skills in this foreign context. Nancy also has a fulltime job with the International Rescue Committee, supporting US communities that engage to sponsor refugees. She has three graduate degrees—in public policy, social work, and humanitarian and disaster leadership. Previously, Nancy was the first director of the non-partisan Legislative Office of Performance Evaluations for the State of Idaho (1994-2002), overseeing performance audits as the “State Watchdog” for an equally bipartisan committee of the Legislature. Nancy has lived and studied in France and England, and worked in (French-speaking) Rwanda and Madagascar. She and her husband have four amazing, grown children.
Laura Thaut Vinson, Program Developer
Laura joined Nations to Neighbors Montana in 2024. She received her PhD (2013) in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and subsequently had a 10-year career in teaching and research, most recently as a tenured Associate Professor of International Affairs at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Both her teaching and research have focused on the Global South and the history, politics, and dynamics of major humanitarian crises, including international and domestic responses to the global refugee and displaced persons crisis. Prior to earning her PhD, she was a 2005-2006 Fulbright student research fellow to Lithuania (studying labor migration), interned with the U.S. State Department in D.C., the U.S. Embassy to Lithuania, and the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe. She also held a one year U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security post-doctoral fellowship at Dartmouth College’s Dickey Center for International Understanding. Her studies have taken her to Africa (Nigeria and Kenya), Eastern Europe, and Central America. In 2023, she moved with her family back home to Billings (where she grew up).
Ellie Miller, Creative Design Volunteer
Ellie joined Nations to Neighbors Montana in 2024. She received a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design in 2021 and has worked as a designer since. Ellie is a multi-discipline artist, working in digital and print design, fine art, and photography. She was born in Denver, CO, but was raised in Montana as the third generation of a deep Montana family heritage. Ellie has volunteered for a few different causes and traveled to Brazil on two different occasions for humanitarian work. As the design volunteer for N2N, she has helped to build the brand and website.
Nations To Neighbors Montana 