Britney Crookshanks

Britney Crookshanks has early ties to the landman profession. She got her start helping her mother copy documents and update maps during her senior year in high school in West Virginia. While in college, she continued to work in land during breaks in school as she evaluated numerous majors to define her career path.

But the more she learned by working in the land industry, the clearer the choice became. At the time, East Coast universities didn’t offer land management programs, so Crookshanks dropped out of school and took on the task of educating herself in the field.

“I spent the next 12 years taking every opportunity afforded to me to learn the many facets of land,” she said. “I worked in the field as a landman and in-house at different Appalachian operators before cofounding Infinity Natural Resources in 2017.”

She later completed a Regents bachelor of arts in which she fashioned her own course of study. Since then, she has worked with numerous local universities and colleges to help create programs to support people specializing in land management or the land profession in the Appalachian Basin.

“So much of this industry supports the entrepreneurial spirit, which brings a high level of energy and excitement to the workplace,” Crookshanks said. “You can create opportunities for yourself by working hard, connecting with each other and adapting to the changing environment. I love being challenged and being forced out of my comfort zone in a fast-paced environment. Whether technology is advancing, regulations and laws evolving, or markets adapting, there is always something new to learn and a new solution to be found.”

Which doesn’t mean that finding those solutions are easy. “There have been times in my career I was provided opportunities to expand my skill set with little or no training,” Crookshanks said. “It can be paralyzing to look at a new task and not understand how to get started. But when I get overwhelmed, I have repeated the saying, ‘Do you know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.’ It’s a good reminder that in order to get a project finished, you have to get it started and take one step at a time.”

An early career assignment involved securing a pig launching site for a midstream company in Pennsylvania.

“It was the first midstream client I represented and I had absolutely no idea what a pig launch could be. I knew it wasn’t actually something that would launch a pig, or, at least, I hoped it wasn’t,” she said.

She began researching what the company needed for its pipeline inspection and cleaning device and, as she had always done, figured out a solution.

“It was a lesson I still utilize every day,” she said. “You don’t have to know all the answers, but you need the resources to learn them.”

As the leader of the land team at Infinity, she taps into the skills developed as the mother of three active children, both in positive and negative situations.

“I think it’s important as a leader to not be afraid of difficult conversations,” Crookshanks said. “You must be willing to be uncomfortable to show inspirational leadership. Whether you are having to deliver difficult news to a team member or receive feedback that is hard to hear, you must get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

“One lesson I am always learning, whether it’s raising my children or helping support our team, is there can be more than one right answer or more than one way of doing things.”

She also strives to emphasize the positive contributions of all members of her team.

“Sometimes folks might not fully see or understand how someone has positively impacted the results,” Crookshanks said. “Being a champion for each other will teach the team how individual members impact overall success.”

Check out the rest of Hart Energy's 2025 Women in Energy here.