Growing up in Hawaii, Debbie Pummel always heard that her state, with its Polynesian flower garlands called leis, was the heart of hospitality. But she always tells people that she found the true heart of hospitality in Wyoming.
Now, after a 30-plus-year career in the Cowboy State’s tourism and hospitality sector, it is Pummel who is being highlighted for her big heart.
Pummel is the 2026 winner of Wyoming tourism’s highest honor, the BigWYO award, which was presented Tuesday night during the Governor’s Hospitality and Tourism Convention.
“Debbie has been a hospitality leader and a mentor and an inspiration of mine for going on close to 30 years,” Wyoming Hospitality and Tourism Executive Director Chris Brown told Cowboy State Daily Wednesday morning. “This isn’t just a job for her. It’s a way of life. It’s her personality, and I just couldn’t be more excited for Debbie to win the BigWYO award this year.”
Education Has Been A Career-Long Focus
The BigWYO award is a lifetime achievement award given to individuals who have made a difference in Wyoming’s hospitality and tourism sector across Wyoming.
Now regional director of sales for Safari Hospitality, which owns 13 hotels in Wyoming, Pummel has spent decades nurturing the state’s next generation of hospitality leaders.
“She’s been on the Wyoming Hospitality and Travel Coalition Board for more than 20 years,” Brown said. “For the same amount of time, she’s been on the Wyoming Hospitality and Travel Coalition’s Education Foundation Board as well, and she’s currently Education Foundation Board President.”
In that role, she’s been the general marshaling the forces to support Wyoming’s nationally recognized ProStart program, which handed out more than $2 million in industry-funded scholarships to Wyoming students Tuesday night. It’s a jumpstart for the careers of numerous youths across the Cowboy State, and it’s something that warms Pummel’s heart to see every year.
“(Pro Start) is taught to more than 1,700 high school kids across 24 Wyoming High Schools,” Brown said. “And we facilitate giving out scholarships to places like Escoffier and other culinary and hospitality-related academic programs across the country.”
Pummel’s passion for Wyoming’s ProStart program is just one of the many things that sets her apart, Brown said.
“It’s her drive and her love of Wyoming hospitality that’s driven her to participate,” he said. “I mean, she is sincere. She wants to influence and positively impact and mentor the next generation of hospitality leaders in the state.”
Falling For The Wyoming Way
Pummel landed in Casper in 1993 with her husband, who was in the military at the time.
She was already hooked on hospitality as a career, but she wasn’t yet sure about Wyoming’s wide-open plains.
A job offer from the Homer Scott family at Sheridan’s Holiday Inn changed everything. There she took her first, deep dive into Wyoming culture.
“The people, the wide-open spaces, the heart of hospitality — a lot of people say that you go to Hawaii and you get lei’d because that’s, you know the heart of hospitality,” Pummel said. “But I say it’s the Wyoming way. It’s an even better way, how Wyoming is about hospitality, and it goes back for generations.”
The Scott family exemplified all of that, Pummel said, and showed her what it meant to be Wyoming at heart.
“He was very special to me and his wife Janet and their family,” she said. “And I think that’s what really drew me into Wyoming.”
Pummel’s career later took her to Cheyenne, where she served for a time at the Historic Plains Hotel while it was undergoing renovation in the early 2000s. Then she went on to work at the Holiday Inn in Laramie, where she was promoted to Regional Operations Manager for Timberline Hospitality. Timberline recently sold to Safari Hospitality, and Pummel is now regional director of sales for its 13 properties in Wyoming.
She’s landed right back in Casper — a full circle moment bringing her right back to where her Wyoming journey began.Pummel has settled into Casper for good, now. It’s the place where she’s surrounded by her children and her many grandchildren.
Forever Cowgirl At Heart
Pummel may have come from a state known for its sand and surf, but her Hawaii childhood was actually lived on a ranch. That’s one reason she believes Wyoming’s cowboy code and culture instantly felt right to her.
“My family still owns a stable,” Pummel said. “I helped my uncle train horses and I grew up on the back of a horse.”
Pummel still loves horses, but she also loves people. It’s the people that drew her into hospitality and kept her there for three decades now, though it was a career she discovered by chance. She took a night desk job at a Best Western in Colorado right after earning her business administration degree.
“I just went with that industry because I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said. “And then it all just fell right into place with hospitality.”
That’s one reason she’s been so passionate about educational opportunities for students. She wants to help more people intentionally find their way to what has been a great career for her.
To be given an award like BigWYO is an incredible honor, Pummel said with tears in her eyes Tuesday night. But, at the end of the day, the accomplishment she’s proudest of is just getting do what she loves, while at the same time, being there for her family.
“At the end of the day, I’m so blessed to love what I do,” she said. “This is me, this is what I do. I could retire in seven years or so, but I can’t even imagine that.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
