BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Deborah Linke President
Deborah is the owner of Linke Consulting, and Project Manager for the Hydro Research Foundation's Hydro Fellowship Program. Prior to this she managed the Bureau of Reclamation's corporate power program, as well as numerous projects for the Department of Energy. She served on the Governing Council for the International Hydropower Association and chaired a working group for the International Energy Agency. She has served on the Bootstraps Board for five years including serving as Awards Chair. Deborah's other volunteer experience includes Chairman of the Board for the Family Support Center, State Public Affairs Chairman for the Junior League, and Girl Scout leader. She says, "Bootstraps is a way to give back to my community in an area I feel is key to the future of our world...helping to see that young adults get a college education.” Deborah is married to well-known sculptor Harold Linke. They have two children, both of whom were Bootstraps award recipients.
Erik Pedersen Vice-President
Erik graduated from Evergreen High School. He received a Bootstraps scholarship and attended Colorado State University where he received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Erik is currently the Assistant General Manager at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen. He is also a member of the Club Managers Association of America. Erik chose to become a member of Bootstraps to give back to the community that he grew up in and loves. Erik is married to a fellow EHS alum and they live in Evergreen.
Pam Macy Secretary
In college, Pam double majored in social work and psychology with graduate work in guidance and counseling. Pam has worked with at-risk teens in a residential setting, as director of a group home and as a foster parent to a wide range of children. She continues to volunteer for Bridgeway Home for Pregnant Teens and Into Your Hands, an organization which provides education and other resources to children in Uganda. She also supports adoption organizations and has 2 adopted children. Pam also works with children in transition who have aged out of foster care and have minimal resources. She has chosen to work with Bootstraps because two of her children were award recipients and she is a strong believer in the opportunities that education provides.
Patti VonVihl Treasurer
Patti is a Colorado native and graduated from Aurora Hinkley High School. She and her husband, Bill, have three grown daughters. During her 8th grade year, Patti decided she wanted to be a teacher. Patti received a bachelor’s degree from Metropolitan State College with a major in Elementary Education and a minor in Reading, and a Masters Degree from University of Colorado, Denver Center in Math Education. She has taught at Bear Creek and Marshdale Elementary Schools, as well as West Jefferson Middle School and Conifer High School. Patti and Bill, a history teacher, are both retired from Conifer High School, where Patti taught Math and was the Department Chair. Throughout her career, Patti loved working with students who were challenged by learning disabilities, since she herself had overcome learning disabilities and because helping them to see that they were valued, capable and intelligent individuals was so exciting. She and Bill have traveled extensively in the United States as well as Europe, Asia and Africa. Patti volunteers for Bootstraps because she feels it is so satisfying to see wonderful, deserving students have a chance to go to college and because scholarships allowed her to follow her dream of teaching which changed her life.
Roger Kelley Brown
Roger arrived in Evergreen in 1975, a year after graduating from Yale University with an anthropology major and natural resources studies minor and starting his career in park, recreation and conservation with the Department of the Interior. He retired from the National Park Service in 2008 after a 34-year career planning, managing and overseeing projects and programs, including assignments as aide to the Secretary of the Interior in Washington, DC and on site at the Presidio of San Francisco during its conversion from Army post to national park. Home has always been the greater Evergreen area where Roger and his wife, Susan, raised their three children. Roger has served as a volunteer with various churches, historic preservation groups, trails, youth soccer, and scouting organizations and projects. Roger joined the board of Bootstraps to help provide educational opportunities to mountain area young people because he believes, “Higher education, and access to it based on merit, is critical to a free society and has opened the door to the greatest opportunities of my life.”
Cindy Cusack
Cindy has been an Evergreen resident for over twenty years, raising two daughters and establishing a successful business in the area. Cindy graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Business Administration, focusing on marketing and training early in her career. She believes that education is very important therefore she has focused her volunteer efforts on causes related to education, such as the Marshdale Elementary School Advisory Council and the Conifer High School Unified Boosters.
Susan Henry
Susan has been an area resident for over 25 years, and, along with her husband Mike, has raised three children, all of whom graduated from Conifer High School. Most recently, Susan has worked as the Post-Graduate Coordinator for Conifer High School helping high school seniors through the college selection and scholarship process. She has enjoyed guiding students through this process so much, that she has recently started her own college consulting and guidance business, CollegeLink. Susan has been extremely involved in the Conifer-area schools serving as chairs on accountability committees, holding board positions on PTSAs, and being a member of several district committees. Susan graduated from University of Georgia with a BA in Speech Communications. She is an advocate for students, and, “loves the energy, hope, wonder, uniqueness, and determination each student possesses.”
Gretchen Hock
Gretchen is an adjunct professor at Red Rocks Community College in the English department, and she works with her husband at Evergreen Vision Clinic. She is currently a board member of Mt. Evans Hospice and Home Health Care as well as Bootstraps, and has previously dedicated her time to Children's Hospital and the Read Aloud Program for the Denver Public Schools. Gretchen works with Bootstraps because not only was she a recipient of a scholarship, but Bootstraps is a community cause that she passionately believes in. Gretchen and her husband, as well as their children, are natives to the Evergreen and Conifer area, and Bootstraps is something they stand behind one hundred percent.
Kent Huff Kent has been an Evergreen resident since 1973. He attended Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado and in 1978 he received a degree in Business Administration. Since 1989, Kent has been an independent insurance agent specializing in small group employee benefits. Kent is involved in many community and civic organizations. He is a current member and past President of The Blue Spruce Kiwanis Club, current board member of Bootstraps, Inc., a current member and past board representative of the Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce, and current Chairman of the Evergreen Salvation Army including the coordination of the local Bell Ringing Campaign for many years resulting in over $250,000 of collections under his leadership. Through these organizations he participates in community service projects to assist those in need and to improve the quality of life in the mountain area.
Susan Lange
Susan has been a resident of Evergreen since 1975. She retired from teaching art at Conifer High School in 2008. After a long career in teaching, Susan continues to be a practicing artist. She has also started a new career as an aquatic therapist. Her business, Sweetwater Watsu, is based in Evergreen. As a former educator, Susan is a strong advocate for teenagers. Her involvement in Bootstraps is based on her desire for post-secondary opportunities for all students. In the past, much of Susan's volunteer time was spent in organizing county-wide art exhibits for students. She is also currently involved with the Open Door Studios organization.
Lee Merreot
Lee is a Midwestern native who has chosen Evergreen as the ideal place to settle permanently and raise her two daughters. She is an attorney, as well as a realtor serving buyers and sellers in the Evergreen area and beyond. Lee is very active in the community serving as secretary of the Hiwan Homeowner’s Association and vice president of the Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen Parent Teacher Organization. She also volunteers with several other nonprofit organizations in the Evergreen area. Lee joined the Bootstraps board of directors because she supports and believes in the mission of the organization.
Scott Purcell
Scott is an Evergreen native who graduated from Evergreen High School. He is the branch manager at Bank of the West in Evergreen.
Marilyn Stechert
Marilyn is a Colorado native and graduated from Arapahoe High School in Littleton. She received her bachelor’s degree with a double major in Russian and Spanish and went on to earn a master’s degree in Slavic Languages and Literature from the University of Colorado Boulder. She retired from teaching Spanish at Conifer High School in 2007. In addition to being on the board of directors of Bootstraps, she volunteers with the Ladies Guild at the Mountain Resource Center. She is involved with Bootstraps because she has seen how financial aid has so positively impacted former students and enabled them to achieve their dreams of higher education.
Tracy Thompson
Tracy Thompson is a Colorado native and lives with her husband in the Conifer area. She is employed as a counselor at Evergreen High School. For the past eight years she worked to implement the American School Counselor Association National Model at the high school. The model ensures that all students receive a developmentally appropriate guidance curriculum. In addition to her work at Evergreen High School, Tracy has worked at the state level to represent counselors. Currently, she serves on the Counselor Corps Advisory Committee and the State Education Success Task Force. Tracy’s free time is always spent engaging in the great outdoors.
Mary Twombly
Mary is a board certified veterinary orthopedic surgeon, but put this career aside to raise and educate three wonderful children with her husband Greg. Two of her children are now off to college and one is currently a CHS sophomore. Mary believes that a quality education, one which instills a life-long love of learning, is the best gift that can be offered to children in order to prepare them for all the personal and societal challenges that lie ahead. For this reason, she really appreciates being a part of Bootstraps and helping the mountain area students achieve their dreams of post-secondary education. Mary can also be found many days in the Conifer High School Learning Center, helping (pushing) kids to succeed in their day-to-day high school studies, and teaching Wado karate to elementary children in Lakewood. Her favorite quote, (from The Once and Future King by T.H White), pretty well sums up her personal philosophy: "The best thing for being sad”, replied Merlin beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails........"
Walt Van Bibber
Walt Van Bibber has lived in the Conifer area for nearly 25 years and has a BS in computer Science and an MBA. During this time he has been involved with our schools and helping our students to obtain the best education available. Walt volunteered on the accountability committee, leadership council and technology committees for Elk Creek Elementary, West Jeff Middle and Conifer High School for 15 years. He has been a Scout Cubmaster and science fair judge. Walt was an IT project manager at Lockheed Martin for 15 years and at eoTek / Nexstar Financial in Evergreen. Walt has been a board member of Bootstraps, Inc. for the last four years because he believes that education is your passport to the future. “I feel that getting a college education is by far the most important goal for our youth.” He has also been a volunteer and fundraiser for other charitable organizations such as the Children's Hospital for 20 years and for the American Red Cross.
Brenna Vaughn
Brenna Vaughn has been a resident of Evergreen for over 20 years and was a Bootstraps loan recipient when she graduated from Evergreen High School in 2000. Brenna has worked with various organizations including Girl Scouts of America, PEO, and the Women's Bean Project. What is so exciting to her about Bootstraps is the ability to change the stars for someone just opening their eyes to what the world has to offer outside their home.
Advisors
Cyndeth Allison
Bob Potrykus
Phil Shanley
Executive Director
Colleen Skates
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Updated 1/24/2012
