Nicole Rosenleaf Ritter joined Project WET in 2010 as a communication specialist, charged with raising the national and international profile of the organization.

Born and raised in Montana, Nicole from an early age took advantage of any and all opportunities to learn about the wider world. First traveling overseas at 17 with the Montana Youth Choir, she vowed to return, and less than a year later she was studying German and music in Vienna on a University of Montana exchange program.

After finishing German and Russian degrees at UM, she went on to graduate school at Yale University, earning an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies. She began her career in publishing and journalism, working at an alternative travel magazine in New England and then moving to the Czech Republic to work at an international journalism training center and magazine covering the post-communist region.

Upon her return to the United States after four years in Prague, she worked as a freelance writer and editor, placing hundreds of stories in local, regional and national media and writing a travel guide to the Czech Republic that was published in 2005.