Chaffee County Community Foundation

Meet Our CCCF Team

Meet Our Board of Directors

rick hamilton - BOARD Chair

Rick brings an extensive history of business and nonprofit management to the CCCF Board. He has held leadership roles in Nonprofit Management, Real Estate Enterprises, Manufacturing and Marketing. An avid volunteer, Rick supports many organizations including Project Angel Heart, Salida Community Center, Farm To Table, Habitat for Humanity and is involved with his neighborhood HOA.

Guy V. pAdgett - VICE CHAIR

Guy V. Padgett has served on and worked for numerous non-profit boards, from economic development, to arts organizations, to public transit and more. Over the course of his career, he has specialized in the organizational health of nonprofits, focusing on those administrative and operational aspects that allow the smooth functioning so vital to accomplishing a nonprofit's mission and goals. Padgett is equally interested in public service, having served on the Casper, Wyoming city council and eventually serving as Casper's mayor, making him the youngest individual to do so, as well as Wyoming's first openly gay elected official. Padgett moved to Colorado in 2009 where he completed a Master's degree in international relations form the University of Denver. Most recently, he was a contender for a city council seat in Denver's District 7. He currently serves as the Director of Operations for WyoFile, a non-profit news site, and was recently appointed to the Chaffee County Community Foundation board. He currently resides in Salida, Colorado, with his husband and their very spoiled cat.

Wendy Hall - Secretary

Wendy has served both corporate and nonprofit Boards for more than 30 years, providing critical administrative support, including project management and corporate record keeping.  Since moving to Chaffee County, she has been actively involved in a number of civic and nonprofit organizations, working in the trenches and leading other volunteers.  Her compassion for animals has led to a variety of farm animals that she hosts on her property after they were in need of care and shelter.

Connie Callahan - Treasurer

Connie Callahan has a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Eller College of Management. With over 16 years in the mining industry, she is currently the Chief Metallurgist at Climax Mine. Growing up in 4-H, Connie has a passion for community and youth development and a love for animals. She enjoys the great outdoors, horseback riding, hiking, and is learning to paddle board. Connie resides in Buena Vista.

christy doon

Christy is currently the Assistant City Administrator for the City of Salida. Previous roles with Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) included serving as the South Central Colorado Regional Manager and working on Rural Economic and Community Development. She is also on the faculties of the University of Colorado and Adams State University. Christy is chairing CCCFs Community Empowerment Committee.

Moe Leneweaver

Moe has held development roles here in the state with High Mountain Institute and Conservation Colorado, and was previously a grassroots community organizer with IMPACT Charlottesville in Virginia. She also served on the Board of the Sierra Service Project in Sacramento for four years where she was Chair of the Resource Development Committee. Moe serves on CCCF's Development & Marketing Committee. 

MICHAEL ROBINSON

Michael Robinson is a global executive leader in critical infrastructure innovation, engineering & operations, and risk management in telecom and banking. He was a pioneer in deploying land and transoceanic fiber optic systems, including many of the submarine fiber optic systems that span the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans as well as the China Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, connecting over 128 countries. Mr. Robinson was also a pioneer in the U.S. wireless network infrastructure as a founding team member of Sprint PCS serving as their Vice President/GM of Operations, and COO of their subsidiary in Mexico before he decided to launch his own company.

Jamie Sabbach

Jamie has spent her adult life working in and for local government as a practitioner, educator, and consultant. Having had the privilege of testifying to the United States Congress on the critical importance of parks and public lands, she is a self-described “disappointed idealist” believing society should be fueled by anger and love in order to do what may not be popular, but necessary.  Jamie is the founder, president, and a principal consultant with 110% Inc. and serves as a faculty member of Indiana University where she teaches financial management in the School of Public Health’s Master’s program.

ANDREA EARLY COEN

For over 25 years, Andrea’s professional background has been in the experiential education nonprofit sector, working with schools, nonprofits, outdoor and agriculture education centers, farms and wilderness programs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, and Colorado.

Since joining Guidestone’s team in 2008, she has worn many hats, and is thrilled to have stepped into the role of Executive Director. She is passionate about agriculture education, traditional homesteading arts, growing healthy local foods, a thriving local food system and forwarding Guidestone’s mission to grow a vibrant agricultural future.  Andrea is also a musician, a mom, and an active member of her local community.

She is excited to serve in a community leadership role by joining CCCF's board, allowing her to leverage her extensive experience in the nonprofit sector and representing the agricultural community. 

Jack Wolfe

Jack brings over 40 years of real estate and non-profit work to the Chaffee County Community Foundation Board.  He has developed residential, commercial and resort projects in the US and Europe.  He has previously served in leadership positions in a non-profit adaptive ski program, a community foundation, a start-up open space program, and a Colorado mountain hut system.  Jack is passionate about skiing, hiking and golf.  He and his wife Wendy reside near Salida.

Sarah Reed

Sarah's career has spanned the arts and engineering from custom woodworking to mechanical engineering to her current work in data visualization and information design. She holds a BA in Mathematics from the University of Colorado, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a MA in Information Visualization from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her interests lie in the intersection between the technical and the beautiful and how technical information can be accessible to all. 

Sarah has recently joined the board of the Chaffee County Community Foundation as a way to give back to the people of the community and learn more about their needs. She's continuously inspired by the love and dedication within the community.

Past Board Members

Lisa Martin (Founder)
Cindy Williams (Founder)
Sydney Schnurr (Founder)
Dr. Edward Cooper (Founder)
Merrell Bergin (Founder)
Dustin Nichols
Jordan Brown
Art Hutchinson
Gary Buchanan
Kayce Penrod
Gordon Schieman
Casey Martin
Aaron Oglesby
Katie Davis
Paul Alexander
Bonnie Davis
Megan Leesley

John Vandewalle

Caitlynn Fortner

Meet our Advisory Board

Ed Cooper

Ed is an educator and leader in not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. He has more than 50 years of experience focusing on new enterprise development and sustainability, international strategy, leadership development, distance work/learning and use of technology to improve learning. He earned his PhD in Management Systems & Marketing from the University of Colorado at Boulder and attended medical school at the University of Venezuela focused on research in Leprosy. He has completed several hundred consulting projects since 1975. He is a founder and the founding board chair for the Chaffee County Community Foundation. For the past decade, Ed has been working in Kosovo, initially as the Senior Consultant for USAID through World Learning/TLP and focused on a country-wide leadership development program. He was a founder of the venture-capital-funded Arist and at Altius in San Francisco. He served as Entrepreneur in Residence for the University Ventures Fund in NYC and CEO at Marketing and Management Services, Inc. Ed was Provost at Saybrook University, with campuses in San Francisco and Seattle & at New England College with 22 learning sites in New England. He also served for 15 years as the founding graduate school dean and as a full professor in the MBA program at Regis University. He served as the first CEO of MERLOT (www.merlot.org), a digital objects library/referatory and held administrative and faculty posts at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), the University of Colorado, and Metropolitan State University of Denver. He helped found International Data Systems in 1982 and moved them to an IPO. He is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and professional presentations, co-author of three books and most recently was keynote speaker at the University of Pristina Kosovo Commencement.

Judy Hamontre

Judy’s background is in education, the performing arts and physical fitness. Retirement now allows her the opportunity to give back to the community. She particularly enjoys her involvement with youth and arts organizations as well as the Ark-Valley Humane Society where she volunteers and serves as board vice-chair.

John Vandewalle MD MBA BSc(Hons)

John is a serial entrepreneur with a vision of bringing world-class education to every student on the planet.

John was a high school teacher, biochemist and physician. He was VP of International Business in pharmaceuticals then founder and CEO of Teva Neuroscience and President of Quintiles.

He mentored in The HEMP program, at Rockhurst University Executive MBA program, Southwest High School and Big Brothers Big Sisters in KC. After President of The OP South Rotary Club, he was 2 term District Governor for Rotary. He served on Boards of The School of Management at Rockhurst University (and adjunct marketing professor), The Alliance for Childhood Education; ROFW, The KC Tech Academy, KC Suicide Awareness, Heart to Heart International, Gordon Parks Elementary School, The Epilepsy and Multiple Sclerosis Foundations. He is a member of The Community Action Against Human Trafficking Rotary Club and also mentors in the prisons.

John is a member of the Salida Sunrise Rotary Club and The District Advisory Committee of the Salida School Board. He is a past board member of The CCCF, The Peak to Peak Pickleball Club and The Salida Tennis Club. He is a founding member of The Ark Angels and the Junior Edison Stea2mplant.