Thirty-five current and emerging leaders were recently selected to participate in the 2016-2017 Leadership Fort Collins program. The group is a diverse mix of professions with representative from education, large and small business, not for profit and city and state office.
Leadership Fort Collins, a program of the Fort Collins Area Chamber, educates and motivates leaders who are committed to shaping the future of our community while encouraging inspired and active involvement that contributes to community betterment.
Ann Hutchison, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce executive vice president, announced the class on September 1. “The selection committee had a tremendous task when they were asked to select this year’s class. We had 63 fantastic applications for the program and as a result, have an outstanding class,” she said.
The 2016-2017 class members are:
Alex Alvarez, C3 Real Estate Solutions
Alison Aristoff, PVH and MCR Foundation
Valerie Arnold, Windermere Real Estate
Rick Behning, Baseline Engineering
Savanah Benedick, Larimer County Community Development Division
Erik Berlin, Dohn Construction, Inc.
Emily Birdsall, Jolly Events
Ryan Cassidy, Colorado Business Bank
Jess Dyrdahl, Colorado State University
Alex Falloon, Wells Fargo Advisors
Jill Foster, Belfor Property Restoration
Megan Griffith, CSU College of Agricultural Sciences
Eric Hansen, The Group, Inc.
Marva Hewett, First National Bank
Beth Higgins, Poudre School District
Natalia Infante Caylor, Thrivent Financial
Angela Johnson, Blue Ocean Enterprises
Miles Kailburn, Old Town Media
John Kloster-Prew, Audubon Rockies
Christopher Lowe, UCHealth
Nick Morris, Bond & Morris
Tiffany Paulus, Deltek, Inc.
April Peterson, Blue Federal Credit Union
Jennifer Ray, Woodward, Inc.
Colan Scheidenhelm, Schure Consulting, LLC
Alaina Squires, Brinkman Construction
Zachary Sumner, BW Container Systems
Mary Beth Swanson, Voices Carry Child Advocacy Center
Abe Theiss, Brinkman Partners
Jessica Torres, FLEXX Productions
Melissa Venable, American Red Cross
Jessie Willard, UCHealth
Meghan Willis, UCHealth
Chris Wood, Platte River Power Authority
David Young, City of Fort Collins
The Leadership Fort Collins program will begin on September 8 with a day long experience at the CSU Mountain Campus and includes eight program sessions that run from October 2016 to May 2017.
Sessions for the 2016-2017 program are planned by the Leadership Fort Collins Steering Committee, which is made up of graduates from previous leadership programs. Committee members include:
Melinda Brown, Melinda Brown Events
Heather Buoniconti, Food Bank for Larimer County
Jen Cooper Miller, SummitStone
Mark Culloton, Austin’s American Grill
Maryann Fillingim, UCHealth
Shannon Hein, Mantooth Company
Lauren Ives, Heath Construction
Nalo Johnson, City of Fort Collins
Diane Jones
SeonAh Kendall, City of Fort Collins
Amy Kolczak, UCHealth
Jennifer McLain, Alpha Center
Teresa Sedlak, Summitstone Health Partners
Brad Ward, FRII