From the Mountains to the Meeting Room: How One Member of the Elements Family Is Changing Recovery in Truckee

If you have read an Elements newsletter, followed us online, or seen much of our marketing over the past five years, there is a good chance Jordan Brandt had something to do with it.

Jordan joined Elements five years ago as our Marketing Director. He came to Truckee from Oregon with ten years of marketing experience, a newborn, and a wife who had always dreamed of living here.

When we asked during his interview what brought him to Truckee, his answer was pretty simple.

“My wife just had our child, I was looking for a new job, and when I asked her where she’d want to go, she said she’d always wanted to live in Truckee. So when I looked up marketing jobs in the area and Elements was hiring, I decided to make it happen for my family.”

And after a working trip to Truckee and plenty of deliberation, he did.

Jordan and his family packed up, moved south, and put down roots. He quickly became part of the Elements team and brought a style of marketing that has always been less about selling something and more about connecting with people. If you know Elements, you know that fits right in.

But during his time here, Jordan was also building something much bigger outside of Elements.

Through some difficult stretches in his own life, Jordan found his way into Truckee’s recovery community. He started attending meetings, then hosting them, and eventually began paying attention to what was missing.

Truckee had a strong recovery community, but access to local outpatient behavioral health treatment was limited. Jordan saw an opportunity to create something different: a local program built around evidence-based treatment, community, and making care accessible to more people.

So he decided to build it.

After years of hosting meetings, building relationships, learning the landscape, and navigating what Jordan has diplomatically described as “an immense amount of state-mandated hoops,” Jordan and his wife opened Crow’s Nest Ranch Outpatient in January 2024.

At the time, our Director of Operations, BJ Carter, asked Jordan whether this would eventually mean leaving Elements.

Jordan didn’t see why he couldn’t do both. Running an outpatient program, he figured, couldn’t be that hard. He was wrong. And he will be the first person to tell you that.

Over the past two and a half years, Crow’s Nest Ranch has grown from community meetings in the Veterans Hall basement and after-hours gatherings at the martial arts gym where Jordan trains, to therapy groups in a shared yoga studio, and eventually to a standalone office with its own staff and a nationally accredited clinical program.

From the beginning, the goal has been to make treatment accessible to the community Crow’s Nest Ranch was created to serve. The program accepts insurance and works with Placer and Nevada Counties to provide Medi-Cal coverage for its programs.

“My emphasis in creating Crow’s Nest Ranch started with community first,” Jordan has said, “and it remains focused on that community-first mindset.”

That commitment extends beyond the clinic itself. Through its Radical Recovery project, Crow’s Nest Ranch provides affordable space for recovery meetings, events, and community gatherings, helping strengthen the same kind of support network Jordan found when he needed it.

In a lot of ways, it is a very Truckee story.Someone comes here looking to build a life for his family. The community welcomes him in. He puts down roots, goes through something hard, and then turns around and creates something that can help the people around him.

We have had a front-row seat to a lot of that journey, and we could not be more proud of what Jordan and his family have built.

There was also a period during Jordan’s time at Elements when he needed to step away and focus on himself. When he was ready to come back, his job was here waiting for him.

Jordan has said some kind things about Elements because of that. From our side, it was simple. You take care of your people. We are glad we could be there for him, just as he has been there for Elements over the past five years.

While Jordan is moving on from his day-to-day role at Elements, we don’t expect him to disappear entirely. He has already made certain promises about stopping by the office, including continuing to voice his grievances about whatever our crew has allegedly done to his lime green, lifted Jetta. We welcome that.

More importantly, we are excited to see what comes next for Jordan, his family, and Crow’s Nest Ranch.

If you or someone you know could use support, you can reach Crow’s Nest Ranch at hello@crowsnestranch.org or (530) 448-4555. Jordan has specifically pointed out that he is the one answering that phone, so when you call, you know who is on the other end.

We are proud of you, Jordan. And we’re pretty glad that five years ago, when your wife said Truckee, you listened.