Grizzlies of the Last Decade

Colt Anderson ’09 played football as a standout defensive back for the Griz from 2004 to 2008 and, for the next decade, played in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts and Buffalo Bills.

Passionate about giving back, Anderson and his wife, Keelie, created the nonprofit Colt Anderson Dream Big Foundation, which puts on an annual “Dream Big Event” for elementary schoolchildren in their hometown of Butte. The event brings in sports celebrities and other role models for kids in a day of free activities, experiences and resources to help children reach their dreams.

A member of the Grizzly Scholarship Association and a part of many fundraisers, Anderson also is co-owner of Uptop Clothing Co. and the popular Missoula Club.

M Jackson, M.S. ’11, is a National Geographic Society Explorer and Expeditions Expert, TED Fellow, three-time U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Turkey and Iceland, and past Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia.

Jackson’s work documenting the impacts of climate change to ice communities and glaciers in Iceland provided the research for two books and “In Tangible Ice,” a collaborative project with NGS Explorers, filmmakers and scientists on glacier retreat in eight circumpolar nations.

As a role model for female scientists and all aspiring scientists, Jackson gave a TED Talk on “Glaciers, Genders and Science: We Need More Stories of Ice” in 2017. She also taught a popular writing course at UM this spring.

Adam Moreno, M.S. ’11, has fought fires for the U.S. Forest Service, served in the Peace Corps in rural Paraguay as an environmental education volunteer, and worked on climate change modeling and forest management strategies in both America and the European Union.

Moreno now works as a lead scientist at the State of California Air Resources Board, researching the effects of climate change on California and aiding the state in reaching climate goals as catastrophic wildfires rage. He previously worked at the NASA Earth Exchange in Silicon Valley, researching climate change, forest vulnerability and supercomputing to develop an early warning system for large-scale ecosystem disturbances.

Moreno is especially passionate about advancing under-represented populations in academia and earth science, especially rural communities and women.

Gregory Smith ’08 joined Missoula Anesthesiology in 2018 and serves as an anesthesiologist at St. Patrick Hospital and Community Medical Center. He also is a diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology.

As a medical student and as a practitioner, Smith has received some of the highest honors for his leadership, research and community service, including induction into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

His research, which links intraoperative opioid prescribing with worse postoperative pain outcomes, has challenged fundamentally held beliefs within the anesthesiology field. Presented at conferences all over the United States, Smith’s work has been accepted for peer-review publication later this year for its insight into the opioid epidemic in America.