Executive Leadership Team
Kelly Nordini
Chief Executive Officer - Denver
Kelly has been at the forefront of Colorado politics and conservation policy for over two decades. She has played a pivotal role in the conservation movement by leading efforts to advance clean energy, transform our transportation sector and elect environmental champions to office. In her previous roles as a campaign strategist, chief of staff to the speaker of the Colorado state house and deputy chief of staff to Governor Ritter she has played a role in some of Colorado’s largest environmental successes including the voter approval and development of the light rail system, increased renewable energy standards and various nationally-leading clean energy policies. She lives in Denver with her husband and two daughters.
Jessica Goad
Vice President of Programs - Denver
Jessica joined our team in 2016 and is from Golden. Before coming here, Jessica worked at the Center for Western Priorities, Center for American Progress, and The Wilderness Society.
Favorite place in Colorado: The deserts of Western Colorado
Hablo Español
Advocacy Team
John Magnino
Senior Director of Government Affairs - Denver
John has spent his entire career working for change at the state level -- in the legislature, in the advocacy community, and at the ballot box. John previous served as Director of Government and Public Affairs for Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Senior Director of Legislative Affairs at the State Innovation Exchange (SiX), and campaign manager for the successful Yes on EE ballot initiative to deliver funding for universal pre-K education in Colorado. John hails from the Midwest, living in Madison, WI and Arlington Heights, IL before coming to Colorado.
Favorite place in Colorado: The summit of Huron Peak
Luke Schafer
West Slope Director - Craig
Hailing from Michigan, Luke started working with us in 2004 and previously worked for Colorado Environmental Coalition.
Favorite place in Colorado: Anywhere on the “Best Slope”
Josh Kuhn
Water Campaign Manager - Denver
Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Josh started his work with us in 2015. Josh worked as a consultant for The Wilderness Society and as Conservation Fellow at the Colorado Mountain Club before joining our team.
Favorite place in Colorado: A tent under the stars, near a river, and far away from any roads.
Jenny Gaeng
Transportation Campaign Manager - Denver
Jenny joined Conservation Colorado in 2018 as a field organizer. Previously, she worked for Big City Mountaineers and the Continental Divide Trail Coalition. She believes that the best adventures are the ones that change the world.
Favorite place in Colorado: High in the Sangre de Cristo range
Lorena Gonzalez
Communities and Justice Campaign Manager - Denver
Originally from the south side of Chicago, Illinois, Lorena started her work with us in 2021. Before joining our team, Lorena worked as a co-chair of the Southwest Environmental Alliance–a direct action, environmental justice group in her former Chicago neighborhood–and on the national media team at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Favorite place in Colorado: Strawberry Park Natural Hot Springs
Hablo Español
Misha White
Senior Program Associate - Denver
Misha has lived across Colorado and joined Conservation Colorado in 2019. She has previously worked with nonprofits and foundations committed to community success and has contributed through project management, policy research, and communications. Her goal is to continue to support positive racial equity based outcomes through policy. Misha lives on the ancestral and unceded lands and resources of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ute, and many other indigenous peoples.
Favorite place in Colorado: Standley Lake.
Brien Webster
Public Lands Campaign Manager - Grand Junction
Originally from Colorado, Brien started working with us first in 2015 as before rejoining us in 2023 and previously worked with Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.
Favorite place in Colorado: southern-facing slopes and at the river’s edge.
Digital & Communications Team
Angela Simental
Vice President of Communications - Denver
Angela grew up in the Texas-Mexico border. She has more than 15 years of experience in bilingual marketing and communications, including community journalism, local government communications, and crisis management. She earned a bachelor’s in Journalism Mass Communications and a master’s in Creative Writing from NMSU. Angela enjoys hiking, snowboarding and reading.
Favorite place in Colorado: Dream Stream
Hablo Español
Joe Cooper
Visual Content Coordinator - Denver
Originally from Boulder, Colorado, Joe joined our team in 2021. He received his degree and previously worked for Colorado State University.
Favorite place in Colorado: Devil’s Thumb in Boulder
Development Team
Andrea Pacheco
Vice President of Fundraising - Denver
Andrea grew up in Colorado Springs and has more than 17 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising. She was previously the Director of Development at Project Angel Heart and has also worked in annual giving and major gift roles at Colorado College and the University of Colorado Boulder. Andrea is a graduate of Smith College, a member of Community Centric Fundraising’s Denver chapter, and spends her spare time baking, biking and camping with her wife and young daughter.
Favorite place in Colorado: Spanish Peaks Wilderness
Ana Duque
Major Gifts Manager - Denver
Ana is passionate about building community with purpose. She has led diverse fundraising initiatives with great success supporting programs to promote social change. Originally from Colombia, she moved from Miami to Colorado, as she is called to advocate for environmental justice, and sustainability.
Favorite place in Colorado: Red Rocks.
Hablo Español
Marisol Ibarra
Development Associate and Database Analyst - Denver
Marisol joined Conservation Colorado in July 2021. A Colorado native, she was inspired to join in the movement to help protect her beautiful home state and the wonderful communities that make it home. Previously, she worked at a nonprofit that focused on providing nutritious meals to individuals experiencing illness.
Favorite place in Colorado: Parents’ beautiful backyard
Hablo Español
Operations and Finance Team
Nikki Riedt
Vice President of Operations & Finance - Denver
Originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Nikki started working at Conservation Colorado in 2013. She previously worked as the Director of State Administration for the Public Interest Network.
Favorite place in Colorado: Red Rocks.
Cara DePan
Executive Team and Human Resources Coordinator - Denver
Before joining the team in 2022, Cara previously worked for Uncommon Schools and Elon University’s Sustainability Office. Originally from upstate New York, she received her degree in Environmental Studies and minors in Human Services & Environmental Education.
Favorite place in Colorado: Brown’s Canyon (rafting down the Arkansas River)
Katie Kirdahy
Data Manager - Denver
Katie joined our team in 2017, and is originally from Seattle, Washington. Before starting with us, Katie worked with the City of Spokane’s Environmental Programs Department, served two AmeriCorps terms, and most recently worked as Volunteer Coordinator at the Nisqually Land Trust in Washington.
Favorite place in Colorado: Garden of the Gods.
Dane Jordan
Finance Administrator - Denver
Dane joined our team in spring 2023. After a brief semester at Quest University Canada, he returned to his home state of Colorado to stay. He earned both his Master degrees from the University of Colorado Denver, one in Accounting, and the other in Taxation.
Favorite place in Colorado: Ridgway
Oliver Abdulrahim
Office Manager and Hiring Administrator - Denver
Oliver joined our team in 2021. Having previously lived in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Bahrain, and Texas, he is excited to have finally made it to the Colorado mountains.
Favorite place in Colorado: Arapaho National Forest
Organizing Team
Caroline Casteel
Organizing Director - Denver
Caroline joined Conservation Colorado in May of 2020 and has been organizing in Colorado for eight years. She previously worked at Colorado Progressive Coalition, Front Range Economic Strategy Center, and Colorado Jobs with Justice.
Favorite place in Colorado: Wet Mountains of Beulah
Renée Larrarte
Front Range Field Manager - Denver
Renée is from Fort Collins and started here in 2014. Renée previously worked for the Obama Presidential Reelection Campaign as a Campaign Field Organizer for Larimer County. She is also the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Women’s Lobby of CO.
Favorite place in Colorado: Pingree Park.
Ian Roche
West Slope Field Manager and COBA Program Lead - Grand Junction
Growing up in Evergreen, Colorado, Ian joined Conservation Colorado in 2018. He has worked in veterinary clinics, on ranches, and for Colorado Parks and Wildlife while always holding the natural world in the highest regard.
Favorite place in Colorado: Flattops Wilderness Area.
Emma Ragona
Front Range Field Organizer - Jefferson County
Emma is originally from Louisville, Colorado but is an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) and a descendent of the Matinecock Indian Tribe of New York. Prior to working at Conservation Colorado, Emma has worked as a Legislative Aide in the Colorado House of Representatives during the 2021 Legislative session. She has also interned both in the State of Colorado Governor and Treasurer’s office.
Favorite place in Colorado: St Mary’s Glacier
Chris Norton
Central Mountains Field Organizer - Glenwood Springs
Chris joined the Organizing team in 2022 after finishing his AmeriCorps VISTA year with the Chaffee Housing Trust. He previously served as Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay where he worked as a community environmental promoter.
Favorite place in Colorado: Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Hablo Español
Ana Hinojosa
Grand Junction Field Organizer - Grand Junction
Ana joined Conservation Colorado in 2022. She graduated from Colorado Mesa with a degree in Environmental Science and has previously interned with the Forest Service.
Favorite place in Colorado: Grand Mesa National Forest
Hablo Español
Jaz Boehmke
Front Range Field Organizer - Adams County
Jaz has many years experience in community based grassroots organizing around farmworker rights, indigenous land sovereignty, LGBTQIA2S+ issues, and fighting against pipeline construction among other things. They are very excited to be with Conservation Colorado at the crossroads of people and politics. Prior to this they have worked with League of Conservation Voters, in non-profits, as a wildland firefighter, as a teacher, and as a construction worker. They have helped build several natural buildings including strawbale homes that participated in the Living Building Challenge and implemented the first residential compostable toilets and closed loop black-water systems in Utah.
Favorite place in Colorado: Ceran St Vrain Trail
Hablo Español
Isaiah Flores
Front Range Field Organizer
Born and raised in Colorado, Isaiah joined the Front Range Organizing team at the start of 2023. Isaiah previously served as an Americorps NCCC Corps Member in 2018 to 2019. He also worked as Mentor through the Metropolitan University of Denver Chicana/o Studies Journey Through our Heritage Program from 2019 to 2022. He loves Basketball, Skateboarding, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Favorite place in Colorado: Shelf Lake Trail, on Guenella Pass near Grant
Protégete Team
Beatriz Soto
Protégete Director - Carbondale
Beatriz has been at the intersection of community building, social justice and working towards a stable climate for the past two decades. She is a LEED certified architect that worked on a variety of energy related projects, from Net-Zero affordable housing to high performance straw bale homes, sustainable developments in the pacific coast of Mexico, as well as providing professional trainings with the US and the Mexican Green Building Councils. She is former Director of Defiende Nuestra Tierra for The Wilderness Workshop, also a co-founding member of Voces Unidas de las Montañas, first non-profit organization in the central mountain region, made up of Latinx leaders that helps create opportunities for Latinos to speak and advocate for themselves.
Favorite place in Colorado: Rifle Mountain Park and the White River National Forest
Hablo Español
Patricia Ferrero
Protégete Leadership Development Manager - Denver
Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Patricia joined us in 2015. She previously worked as a Family Aid Coordinator for Mayan Families.
Favorite place in Colorado: Mesa Verde.
Hablo Español
Victor Galvan
Protégete Strategic Partnerships Manager - Denver
Victor Galvan was born is Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in Denver, Colorado. For the past 15 years Victor has helped shape immigration policy in the state of Colorado that include ASSET, which provides instate tuition for undocumented students in Colorado, the expansion of the Colorado Road and Safety Act, giving more undocumented people access to licenses in Colorado and Virginia’s law which made it illegal for police to utilize ICE warrants to hold immigrants in custody for Immigration. Victor led the walk-outs in 2017 as the Trump administration tried and failed to end the DACA program, championed by thousands of brave undocumented youth from across the country and created through executive order under the Obama administration in 2012. He was recently hired as the Strategic Partnership Manager at Protégéte and will be building a strong networks and coalitions that will foster the development of Latinxs voices to bring diverse solutions to environmental justice and conservation movement.
Favorite place in Colorado: Chitaqua Park in Boulder
Hablo Español
Political Team
Aly Ferrufino-Coqueugniot
Political Director - Denver
Aly started her work with us in 2017 as a Protégete Community Organizer and is from Denver. Before joining us, she worked for Workplace Resource as a Project Coordinator.
Favorite place in Colorado: The Great Sand Dunes
Hablo Español
We Are Hiring!
Board of Directors
Helen Gemmill
Board Chair
Consultant and Farmer - Unincorporated Boulder County
J.W. Postal
Secretary & Treasurer
CEO/Founder Nikola Power - Denver
Dana Bryson
Senior Vice President, Social Impact - Study.com, Denver
Angela Giron
President/CEO of Boys and Girls Club of Pueblo County, Pueblo
Ning Mosberger-Tang
Innovo Foundation, President - Boulder
Tamra DeBrady
Account Executive, Cigna Corporation
President, Colorado Black Women for Political Action
Katherine Archuleta
Nonprofit Founder/Former Obama Administration Official - Denver
Jay Fetcher
Rancher - Steamboat Springs
Nicole Melaku
Executive Director, National Partnership for New Americans - Denver
Steve Kaplan
Partner, Kaplan Kirsch and Rockwell LLP - Denver
Heidi McIntosh
Earthjustice Rocky Mountain, Managing Attorney - Denver
Rudy E. Verner
Partner with Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP - Boulder
Office Contact Info
Denver Office
303 E. 17th Avenue, Suite 400,
Denver, CO 80203
(303) 333-7846
Durango Office
1309 East 3rd Ave, Suite 110
Durango, CO 81301
(970) 335-8191
Grand Junction Office
546 Main Street, #404
Grand Junction, CO 81501
(970) 243-0002
