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Heather Hershkowitz has come full circle: raised in Incline Village, she spent summers on the lake and winters skiing, and now she has returned to manage the maintenance operation for Palisades Tahoe. After an extensive career as a rally mechanic that took her around the globe, Heather began overseeing Alpine’s vehicle program in November 2026. Her new position combines hands-on repair work with shop leadership and logistics for a varied fleet.
Her connection to Tahoe runs deep: Heather raced as a youth for Diamond Peak, remembers family ties to the mountain community, and has long admired Alpine as a place where her mechanical skills can support daily mountain operations. In taking this role she brings a motorsport mindset to a winter resort environment, balancing speed, precision, and safety for both staff and guests.
From backyard wrenching to the world stage
Heather’s mechanical curiosity began with simple maintenance: replacing brakes to save money in high school sparked a passion for working on cars. That early work led her to enroll at the Universal Technical Institute in Sacramento, where she trained as a technician. An apprenticeship at a Subaru dealership followed, giving her a strong foundation in diagnostics and service. A chance at a rally in Nevada ignited a fascination with the discipline of rally car competition — vehicles that must perform on snow, gravel, ice, and dirt — and she soon started building her own cars funded by odd jobs and a modeling gig at Mt. Rose.
Stepping into motorsport
Her first official motorsport role came in 2016 with the Subaru Rally Team in Burlington, Vermont. From there Heather worked at the rally school DirtFish in Snoqualmie, where she maintained the fleet and prepared cars for events. Later she joined Race City USA in North Carolina and worked with Vaughn Gittin Jr’s drift team. By early 2026 she pursued a position with Hyundai, which led to relocation to Germany and time on the World Rally Championship circuit. Highlights include working at the grueling Dakar Rally, where Heather spent 30 days in the Saudi Arabian desert maintaining competition vehicles.
Running Alpine’s operations
At Alpine Heather oversees a complex inventory of roughly 150 vehicles, a mix that includes cars, snowcats, snowmobiles, groomers, and trucks. With a crew of eight mechanics she balances hands-on repair with administrative responsibilities: scheduling, ordering parts and diesel, tracking fuel reports, monitoring work hours, and managing budgets and expense reports. The shop tackles a wide variety of fabrication tasks — from welding and custom parts to planned maintenance — and hopes to add a sewing machine to repair upholstery in-house.
Maintenance, logistics, and safety
Heather’s role also covers compliance: proper disposal of hazardous waste, coordination with local authorities, and prioritizing safety for employees and guests. She organizes recovery procedures when a vehicle breaks down on the hill, orchestrating tows back to the shop and scheduling repairs. Much of her time is spent ensuring that the team has the right parts and tools, and that preventative maintenance routines reduce downtime for critical snow operations.
How rally experience informs shop leadership
Working on race teams taught Heather to operate under pressure and to juggle multiple moving parts: logistics, food, lodging, and rapid repairs. Motorsport demanded anticipating failures, fast diagnostics, and improvisation — skills she now applies to resort fleet management. The pace familiar from rally service parks translates to quick turnarounds in Alpine’s shop, while teamwork and clear communication keep complex operations running during peak winter demand.
Representation and mentoring
Heather’s path has also been shaped by being a woman in a male-dominated field. She was often the only woman in training classes and became the first female mechanic for Subaru Rally Team USA. Small but meaningful changes, like finding workplaces that provide women-sized uniforms, marked progress. Heather embraces both the technical and the personal sides of her life — from working in the pits to dressing up for modeling jobs — and she uses her profile to support emerging talent.
Giving back
She received a scholarship from the Jessi Combs Foundation and now mentors current scholars, offering advice on shop techniques, career navigation, and confidence-building. Her message is practical and direct: learn continuously, be authentic, and let performance speak louder than doubters. For aspiring mechanics she emphasizes hands-on experience, curiosity, and resilience as the core drivers of long-term success.
Final thoughts
Heather Hershkowitz brings a rare combination of rally-honed urgency and community-rooted commitment to her role at Alpine. Her technical expertise, global motorsport background, and leadership approach are helping to keep Palisades Tahoe’s fleet ready for the demands of mountain operations while mentoring a new generation of technicians.