This story is modified from what I posted on my 2020 Archuleta County Commissioner campaign website in an effort to let voters know my background and qualifications for a position on the Board of County Commissioners.
As a mother of three, a self-employed business consultant, community volunteer, and affordable housing homeowner, I have served Archuleta County on the front lines for nearly 30 years.
There are those who have worked with me, volunteered with me, known me for years or heard my name mentioned around town, but as someone who tends to lay low and keep to myself, not many people know me well. Whether a friend, colleague or neighbor for decades, or someone reading about me for the first time, my goal is to share with you a little bit about who I am.
2016 PRESS ARTICLE ABOUT MY CANDIDACY IN THE PAGOSA SUN
Pagosa Springs became my new mountain home in 1993 after leaving the beaches of southern California where I attended Cal State Long Beach (CSULB), worked summers as an Aquatics Camp Director for the City of Long Beach, and worked for Trader Joe’s during the school year. I gave up surfing, sailing and scuba diving for flyfishing, hiking and skiing/snowboarding when my in-laws purchased 178 acres on Four Mile Road after being lured by an ad in the L.A. Times newspaper.
My first job in Pagosa Springs was in 1993 at the new Radio Shack store, which was a perfect fit having studied Electrical Engineering in college. Back then we could fix electronic devices and the store was a hotspot for most of the community residents and organizations.
An aerial view of the uptown Pagosa Springs shopping center in 2001. As an early adopter of digital technology I was often hired by clients to do aerial photography, which included free rides in their planes!
My son was born in 1994, prompting me to cut back on my hours at Radio Shack and start my own business as The Computer Tamer with work that I could do mostly from home. I fixed computers, removed viruses, set up systems, and did on-site computer tutoring and support. That job took me to every part of Archuleta County, working for people of all walks of life, all financial statuses, small and large businesses, nonprofits, and government entities. I found myself doing many hours of pro-bono work for seniors and low-income residents who needed computer help but couldn’t afford it, and I participated in yearly Computer Fix-It-Free days for the community where I joined other computer techs to provide free computer support and repair to anyone that needed it.
I stayed part-time at Radio Shack from 1995 to 2003 while running my own computer repair and support business, as well as volunteering on the board of the Pagosa Springs Arts Council as editor of their quarterly newsletter and doing freelance writing for the Pagosa SUN newspaper. From 1995 to 1999 I also worked part-time as head coach of the local summer-league swim team. I had been a college swimmer with a full scholarship at New Mexico State University before transferring to CSULB so it was fun to not only coach but also compete again along with the kids at some of the swim meets we attended around the state.
I resigned as the swim coach to commit to the required 25 hours a week building my own home and five others through Colorado Housing Inc (CHI), a local self-help affordable housing organization funded by the USDA’s Rural Development grants. In early 2000, after having lived in 11 different county locations in 7 years, I became a proud homeowner and finally had a stable location to raise my son. 20+ years later I am still in that same house that I love, now raising two teenage daughters.
If my son, now in his late-20s and a southern California restaurateur, wanted to move back to the town where he was born and raised, I don’t know how he or anyone with a modest income could afford to live here. Teachers, law enforcement, retail, seasonal and service workers have a hard time finding a place to live near Pagosa Springs and decent, affordable workforce housing is hard to come by. The housing problems facing hard-working families, veterans and seniors in Archuleta County are personal to me.
WORKING ON MY SELF-HELP BUILD WITH COLORADO HOUSING IN 2000
In 2003 I was in my 30s when my first daughter was born. Seeing a need for quality swim instruction and water safety, I created a swim program based on my own teenage experience as a swim instructor and managed the Little Dippers Swim Academy. For several summers I watched dozens of kids and adults go from water newbies to adept swimmers.
In 2005 my second daughter was born and shortly after I founded a print publication with a friend – the Pagosa BRAT magazine – as a way to share with other parents the places to go and things to do with kids in Pagosa Springs. I continued community volunteer work with local nonprofits, schools, and anywhere I found a need for my services.
I spent many hours volunteering at the Pagosa Springs Arts Council gallery, previously located in Town Park, helping with the nonprofit’s website, newsletter and events.
In 2007, after lamenting with others how often we hear about great events only after they’ve already happened, I started the Pagosa Scene Calendar of Events as a free resource for anyone to use to promote their local events and provide a single location for residents to use to learn about what’s happening in the county. The project involved learning the backend code for a calendar database system that I could customize to be useful and user-friendly.
The Rural Philanthropy Days (RPD) event came to southwest Colorado in 2010 as a way for rural nonprofit organizations to connect with representatives from large, front-range Colorado donors and find funding opportunities. In addition to being the one to research, write and present the two-minute pitches for funding for the nonprofit board I served on, I also volunteered at the RPD event in the small town of Mancos, near Cortez, and created pro-bono a free website to organize and showcase the dozens of nonprofits in Archuleta County and the services they provided. RPD was hosted in Pagosa Springs in 2014 and I once again volunteered my time to help our nonprofits acquire the funding needed to continue to provide their essential services.
2014 RURAL PHILANTHROPY DAYS IN PAGOSA SPRINGS
In an effort to consolidate the many organizations I volunteered for, I was a 2008 founding member and 2014/15 president of the Pagosa Mountain Morning Rotary Club service organization. Later I was a founding member of the San Juan Stargazers astronomy club, providing free work creating and maintaining the club website. When I learned that board members were needed for the CHI affordable housing nonprofit I stepped forward and joined, spending eight years on the board and eventually becoming President of the organization, working to ensure that other community members had the same opportunities at affordable homeownership as I did.
Through my years of community service, participating in town and county visioning meetings and attending economic development workshops and trainings, I found that our county had many well-meaning people making decisions but was lacking the quality leadership needed to plan for our area’s future.
At an early age my father instilled in me the importance of taking action to support what one believes in. My first foray into community activism was in 1983 when at age 12 I walked door to door seeking donations in support of the New Mexicans in Support Of a Bilateral Nuclear Freeze. In college at age 19, I learned of the hazards of the toxic chemicals being sprayed by helicopter on the southern California neighborhoods where I lived. The morning clouds of poison were being used in an effort to combat the highly-invasive and crop-destroying Mediterranean Fruit Fly and I took part in candlelight vigils on busy street corners to raise awareness and encourage residents to learn about the program risks and contact their local representatives for discussions on other options that didn’t involved the aerial spraying.
Speaking at the 2008 Archuleta County Commissioner Candidate Debate
In 2008, not wanting to criticize Pagosa Springs leadership without backing my community insights and ideas with action, I ran for Archuleta County Commissioner for the first time. There were four candidates that year vying for the District 2 seat that was eventually won by the Democratic candidate. (I have always been registered as Unaffiliated so my battle was garnering support from voters from both parties.) Although I earned less than 500 county votes in that 2008 race, I gained valuable knowledge from sitting through a year’s worth of Town and County government meetings.
I was humbled by the many people working to make so many aspects of our county work, and the urge to use my professional expertise to serve the community became even stronger.
A friend whose day job was associate planner for the Town of Pagosa Springs joined the new Durango Roller Derby team in 2009. I drove the 60 miles to Durango to volunteer at events to support her and the hard-working women in the new club. My role at the Durango bouts was ticket-taker, where I was able to glean insights into the diverse community support of the roller derby league as my volunteer position was to look at driver’s licenses and check ages so those over 21 could get a mark on their hand.
Eventually Pagosa Springs formed their own derby team, Rollergirls In Pagosa (RIP). In addition to providing free work to build the club’s website and design and print their bout flyers, I completed the training necessary to volunteer as Head NSO (Non-Skating Official). My roller derby name was Science Friction!
While donating 20+ hours per month of pro-bono or volunteer time, my paid work evolved to include graphic design services, web design and development, and eventually technology consulting. In 2010 I heard the CEO of Parelli Natural Horsemanship present the commencement speech at a business workshop graduation I was invited to attend and I was intrigued by the vision and mission of his company. I put together a pitch for consulting services at Parelli and was hired by their Chief Technology Officer to do special projects in their IT Department.
I stayed with the company for seven years, eventually becoming the Director of Information Technology and overseeing a team of developers located both in-office and remotely. I worked with both a local and worldwide staff of 60+ people at locations in the UK, Switzerland and Australia and got a good taste of corporate business.
Providing IT support for Parelli at the California State Fair in Sacramento
During my years at Parelli I stayed active in Rotary and continued to stay involved with local political meetings. In 2016, when the District 2 County Commissioner was term limited, I tried once again for that position. This time there were three of us vying for the position (there were 4 in 2008). I was confident that although I was an unaffiliated candidate up against a born-and-raised local backed by the Republican party I could convince residents that the job of commissioner should go to someone with professional qualifications and high-level skills to bring to the table, and to someone who was willing to commit to the position as a full-time job.
I campaigned on a platform of transparent public process, communication and integrity, and I set aside what was usually my tranquil summer of fishing high mountain creeks to instead jump back into attending local meetings, shaking hands at public events, and walking the street waving at cars with my campaign signs. When 2016 election day passed, I had garnered more votes than the Democratic candidate that year but still lost by over 2000 votes to the popular Republican candidate. I was disappointed with the loss, but more disappointed for the county residents and my supporters who knew that my qualifications, experience and commitment to the community were much needed on the Board of County Commissioners.
Listening to a question at the 2016 County Commissioner Debate
My 2008 and 2016 campaign losses were learning experiences and I continued forward with a mission to serve my community and continue never-ending self-improvement, something encouraged as a company core value at Parelli. I sat through hours of meetings to learn about the Archuleta County Housing Authority and the Pagosa Springs Historic Preservation board, attended local and national business and economic workshops, and volunteered at the women’s US Open LPGA golf tournament in Colorado Springs and the PGA’s BMW Championship held in Denver where I had the opportunity to do tech support in the PGA event’s media room with journalists from around the world.
When the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade held their first ever GoCode Colorado event in 2014, sponsored by Google as a way to get public data into the hands of Colorado businesses, I joined a team of coders in Durango to design and develop software that earned us a trip to the finals at the Denver Art Museum and ultimately a 2nd place prize of $15,000 to use to build out the company we created.
Part of the 2nd place team at the 2014 GoCode Colorado event
In 2019 I traveled to Grand Junction to acquire my Marijuana Support Employee badge through the Colorado State Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED). Having the badge enabled me to help a long-time friend and his partner who were starting a hemp farm in the county and needed assistance with their website and marketing. I had been involved years earlier in community information sessions regarding dispensaries, listening to discussions that included local educators and law enforcement, after meeting a local senior who advocated for and started Archuleta County’s first medical marijuana dispensary in an effort to provide medical marijuana to senior citizens and other residents of our county. It’s been interesting learning how the industry has impacted our local economy since then, including tax revenue, business owners dealing with evolving regulations, and locals who are employed by the establishments.
In 2017 I resigned as Director of Information Technology at Parelli Natural Horsemanship in order to pursue my passion for technology education. I used money I had saved and founded Quarkshow Science Communications with a goal to bring my STEM career presentation to schools around the state in an effort to encourage teens to pursue a path in science and technology. I also created and presented regional business education workshops, teaching business owners, managers and employees about websites and e-commerce in order to help them better achieve their objectives or learn how to do the online work themselves.
I became involved with music event production through 10 summers volunteering for the South Fork Music Association’s Rhythms on the Rio annual fundraising festival. I was the backstage coordinator at the event, working with the national acts that came to South Fork to support the nonprofit’s mission to bring music programs to regional schools. Through connections from the audio company at that event, I ended up doing backstage production work at events in Summit County and worked closely with one of the largest music event production companies in Colorado, learning about the details and intricacies of planning community events in mountain towns near Denver.
Art and music in our schools has always been important to me, especially since my son was diagnosed with ADHD in third grade. Although he struggled in the classroom, he persevered and ran four years on the high school cross country team and graduated from PSHS in 2012. His willingness to succeed in school was due largely to incredible teachers who dedicate so much to the success of our kids, and from the music programs that kept him interested in school. In addition to choir and drama, he participated in the high school’s Americana Project, a class that teaches kids about songwriting, music history and production. Many PSHS graduates remember my son as the kid who wore three-piece suits with a tie and a fedora hat to school and played music on campus or on the sidewalks around town!
A bumper sticker I designed for my car and to give to friends
In addition to my own political endeavors, since 2010 I have spent summers helping several other county residents from both major political parties with their local campaigns. Regardless of political affiliation, I feel that in a local election we should all strive to support what is best for our community. I was on the committee to help support the local 5A ballot initiative that involved an increase in property taxes to fund better teacher salaries, a new charter school, and campus security. My role was creating the 5A campaign website as well as marketing materials that helped the public understand what the initiative was for, how it would be funded, and what it would cost them. I was pleased when 5A passed overwhelmingly when it went to the voters in November of 2018.
A high-mountain escape from my business, parenting and volunteer life!
I have been fortunate to be able to spend hundreds of hours with my children at school as a parent volunteer (up until high school when they get embarrassed being seen with mom!). My oldest daughter graduated from Pagosa Springs High School in 2021 as class salutatorian as well as being voted by her teachers as Outstanding Senior Girl. In addition to her excellent academic success, she also holds multiple varsity letters in swimming, track and cross country.
My youngest is a sophomore this year and at nearly 6’3″ tall, plays on the volleyball and basketball teams. She’s taking advantage of the excellent pre-med classes available at the high school with a goal of pursuing a medical degree and eventually becoming a heart surgeon, something that hit very close after her dad was diagnosed with a serious hereditary heart condition earlier this year. Being a self-employed technology consultant for most of my time in Pagosa Springs has allowed me to set my own hours in order to make my children my number one priority.
When a developer colleague called me in 2018 about tech help needed at a company he worked for in Utah I was pulled back into working with NetSuite, an Oracle database product used by some of the largest companies in the world. I have a NetSuite Administrator certification from my time at Parelli, the pay offered was excellent, and I could work from home so I joined their IT team as a part-time contractor, flying occasionally to the company headquarters near Salt Lake City to do in-person work. I’ve consulted part-time with that company for nearly three years and discovered that there are many other $10 million+ revenue companies that need high-level help with their technical business processes, leading me to found a NetSuite specialty consulting company with two other colleagues. As a Systems Engineer, I work to help companies get the most out of their database investment by identifying solutions to diverse business problems.
A flow chart I created to help internal staff understand a new membership process
My current technology work is challenging and always different. I work with professional teams in many different locations, providing strategic guidance to help them solve immediate problems and plan for long-term goals.
In early July of 2020 I learned that the District 2 commissioner that I lost to in 2016 was running unopposed. With no other candidates in the race he would retain the seat by default, a seat I had fought so hard to win in 2016. As an unaffiliated candidate my only way onto the ballot is by petition and I found out that the deadline to turn in petition signatures had been extended to the end of July to allow more time to collect signatures due to Covid regulations that prevented most public events. I felt it was my civic duty to give county residents a choice for the position so I scrambled to put my petition packet together and in 10 days I had collected well over the 145 signatures required to get my name on the November ballot.
I spent 10 days collecting petition signatures while attempting to keep out of the hot July sun
My goal for being a county commissioner was to make serving the community my full time job and be a leader that listens and leads from behind based on my diverse training and experience as well as what I have learned from interactions with a wide range of local residents. I moved to Pagosa Springs fresh from college in southern California when I was 22 and I turned 50 in 2020. Pagosa Springs has been my home since 1993 and I served as a volunteer and on various nonprofit boards since my first weeks in the county.
I lost the 2020 election by less than 400 votes out of 9000 ballots cast and was proud of the conversations I started in my community. I gained confidence in my leadership skills and was able to stay current in learning about communication, diplomacy, strategic planning, economic development, decision making, and finance. I put my community advocacy on the back burner and focused on building my own business and spending as much time as I could supporting my teenage daughters who wouldn’t be home with mom much longer.
My current ambitions are to use my unique skills built through decades of diverse professional and volunteer opportunities in order to make the world a better place. I hope to use technology and my ability to distill complex information into digestible bites as a way to bring the wonders of science to youth and also to adults who don’t have time keep up on new developments.
Professionally I would describe myself as a Systems Engineer who is able to design processes, identify problems, and find business and technical solutions for complex systems. With a background in electrical engineering, computer science, digital marketing, grant writing, fundraising, event production, graphic design, web development, public policy, economic development and communications, I endeavor to find positions where my expertise can be of the best service. I’ve studied and attended workshops on diplomacy and leadership and pride myself on bringing people and teams together to collectively accomplish goals. By listening and identifying needs I’m able to provide targeted assistance where there is usually no formal role assigned. I have been referred to as the “caulk” by executive teams in companies I work for because through asking questions of staff and learning how processes work I’m able to find the cracks in an organization that no one has noticed and plug holes to allow processes to function smoothly.
Some of my best professional accomplishments have been setting up teams for success so my consulting services were no longer needed by providing long-term solutions, staff training, documentation and sustainable plans for moving forward. I have built long-term relationships with the people I work with and my reward is when previous clients call me years later for help on a new project and I’m able to see how far they’ve come and continue to learn from their evolution.