A Shot of Her Own

Kelly Godfrey started retrieving birds for her father about the time she learned to walk. He raised her alone from the age of five, and her childhood ran between a deer lease and a lake: gun safety, hunting, fishing, camping, all of it learned at his side. When she lost him to cancer in August 2011, the outdoors became the thing that kept her moving.

She finished a bachelor's degree in wildlife management with a minor in biology at Tarleton State, then spent six years as a park ranger with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Motherhood ended the ranger schedule; late nights and weekends do not pair well with a husband whose work calendar is even less predictable. She became a stay-at-home mom in Comanche and, for a while, the outdoors went quiet.

Her story points at something worth naming. Access to the outdoors tends to ride on a person: the dad with the lease, the husband who hunts, the friend with a boat and a spare rod. When that person is gone, or was never there to begin with, the door is heavy to open alone. And Godfrey hears every version of it from her own members.

Some women had a husband or father who hunted but she stayed home anyway; the men in their lives would not take them, or they did not want their first missed shot to happen in front of an audience. Some lost the person they shared the outdoors with, the way she did. Some never had anyone with the patience to teach them at all.

In January 2021, Godfrey went looking for a few friends who wanted to spend real time together outside. By mid-April they had taken their first camping trip. She set up a Facebook group afterward, mostly so other women could find them, and named it Texas Women's Outdoors. She is the first to say the whole thing started by accident.

It did not stay accidental. On August 4, 2021, Texas Women's Outdoors became an LLC, and in five years, more than 1,240 women have come through its programs. Its combined reach across social media and its website tops 11,000, and a working team now stands behind the calendar.

Our Mission

“Texas Women's Outdoors exists to inspire, equip, and empower women to embrace the outdoors with confidence, purpose, and community. Through immersive experiences, hands-on education, and shared traditions, we connect women to the land, the wildlife, and one another — fostering a lifelong love of the outdoors and the skills to thrive in it.

We are dedicated to creating opportunities that honor heritage, strengthen conservation, and remove barriers to outdoor access. Whether through hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, or hands-on workshops, we help women and families step into the field with knowledge, courage, and support.”

Our Vision

“We envision a future where every woman feels at home in the outdoors — confident, connected, and committed to conserving the wild places we love. Texas Women's Outdoors is building a movement that unites education, adventure, and stewardship into lifelong opportunities, empowering women and families to lead boldly in every outdoor space.

Through mentorship, meaningful experiences, and a vibrant community, we are creating a legacy where outdoor traditions are preserved, shared, and celebrated and where future generations inherit a deep respect for the land, the wildlife, and the outdoor way of life.”

The women who come to Texas Women's Outdoors get a real curriculum, not a meetup. The calendar has included:

• Camping, kayaking, and fly fishing, sometimes all on the same weekend

• Clay shooting in Fort Worth

• Dove hunting near Lubbock and hog hunts around Comanche

• Waterfowl, aoudad, and bowfishing trips

• Homesteading and hiking

The group also runs an annual retreat every April, now three years in:

• 25 women, Friday afternoon through Sunday morning

• Seven sessions of classes

• Lodging and food included

The coordinators carry credentials that would hold up anywhere:

• Brooke Selby runs Mom & Me Adventures, holds a biology degree in environmental conservation, and serves as a Texas Youth Hunting Program Huntmaster

• Rachel Hanses coordinates camping, hiking, and backpacking; she is a TPWD Texas Family Outdoors Certified Leader, an NRA Range Safety Officer, and a backpacker with 14,000-foot summits behind her

• Tiffany Harelik coordinates the annual retreat and is an Advanced Master Beekeeper who co-founded the West Texas Beekeepers Guild

Behind them stands Women in the Field, Godfrey's vetted network of partner instructors, every one of them insured:

• Jess Logan of Cowgirl Recon, a firearm instructor since 2016, Chief Range Safety Officer, and Texas License to Carry instructor

• Colette Owen, an NSCA master-class shotgun competitor, All-American, and 2015 Sporting Clays World Shoot class winner

• Capt. Mary Ellen of Capt Mary E's Guide Service, who guides wade and boat trips for speckled trout, redfish, and flounder on the Upper Coast

• Tiffany Kersten of Nature Ninja Birding Tours, a professional bird guide who completed a Big Year across the Lower 48

• Kelli Prescott of Lone Star Fly Fishing, a full-time guide who specializes in Guadalupe River rainbow trout

• Capt. Jaime Wilson of Empire Fishing Charters, a Navy veteran with more than ten years offshore

Vetted is not a courtesy word here. Godfrey checks out every outfitter and host location before an event goes on the calendar, a practice the group learned the hard way after getting scammed early on. The promise to members is a safe place to learn, with the support and the opportunities to use it. These are women who teach for a living, or close to it, and they teach other women without an audience of husbands and brothers watching from the tailgate.

The mentored hunt is where the whole model comes together. In November 2025, the group ran its third annual mentored hunt at Sierra Mesa Ranch, hosted by owner Rob Carringer. Five hunters, five guides, every one of them a woman. The weekend starts on Friday and runs through the full arc:

• Firearm handling before anyone climbs into a blind

• The sit and the shot

• Cleaning the animal

• Packing meat to take home to the family

Chef Austin Odom of Oma Leen's walked participants through wild game processing and cooked a venison backstrap to prove the point. The weekend closed with three whitetail does and a blackbuck doe on the rack, the heaviest at 105 pounds. The fourth mentored hunt runs this October, with the Lone Star Outdoor News Foundation sponsoring all five hunters for the second straight year.

The sponsor bench is growing too. Steve Ebenstein of K&S Exotics has sponsored women to hunt his ranch for the past two seasons, has another sponsored hunt planned for this fall, and was a major sponsor of the 2026 retreat.

Godfrey told Lone Star Outdoor News the group is "proud to serve as a support system," and the structure backs the claim. Nobody on that weekend hunts alone, and nobody drives home wondering what to do with the animal in the cooler.

Texas has other women's outdoor programs, and good ones. What sets Texas Women's Outdoors apart is the shape of the pipeline. A woman can show up knowing nothing, camp for a weekend, learn a shotgun from an NSCA All-American, and within a season or two be field dressing her own doe with a female guide at her elbow. The organization covers the full distance from first campfire to meat in the freezer, and it does it with all-women instruction at every step.

For the reader who owns land, there is a second reason to pay attention. Groups like this one are building the next generation of hunters, stewards, and eventually landowners. The women coming through these weekends are learning to value the same things you do: patience, conservation, and what a piece of ground can feed. And every one of those weekends happens on somebody's land.

Godfrey books her events through outfitters and host ranches today, and the group's 501(c)(3) foundation, which sponsors women who cannot afford events or gear, is open to conversations with landowners who see a fit. The foundation has its own page on the group's website, along with its own Facebook and Instagram, for anyone who wants to follow that work directly.

If there is a woman in your life who has been waiting on that one invitation, this is it. Find the current event calendar at texaswomensoutdoors.com and send it to her.