Outdoor Lab Foundation Staff
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Paige Brophy
Paige grew up in Wheat Ridge, Colorado and is an Outdoor Lab alumna, graduating from Wheat Ridge High School. She received her bachelor's degree in Journalism and Media Communication from Colorado State University. She previously worked with Colorado State Athletics Communications and found her footing in the nonprofit world at Crossroad SafeHouse.
Paige began her career at the Outdoor Lab Foundation as the Marketing and Administrative Coordinator, moving into Marketing and Development Manager, and was named the Deputy Executive Director of the Foundation in January 2019. After 8 months and driving the Foundation through strategic planning, diversifying funding while continuing the mission and vision of the Outdoor Lab Foundation, Paige was named the Executive Director in August of 2019.
Outdoor Lab changed her life in so many ways. Paige became the confident individual she is today because of her Outdoor Lab experience. She is thrilled to continue the Outdoor Lab Legacy for all Jefferson County students.
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Mary Runkel
Mary was born and raised in Iowa and spent much of her youth outside where her parents & grandmother taught her tree names and what flowers bloom first in the spring.
She completed her bachelor's degree in English and environmental studies from Iowa State University and her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado Denver. In between the two, she completed a year-long Americorps VISTA term, then served 5 years at a conservation organization called Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, where, in addition to beginning their first-ever statewide volunteer program, she discovered the peace of the prairie.
While not an alumni of Outdoor Lab schools, she feels connected to the mission in a profound way—she had a similar camp experience that changed her outlook on life. She’s excited to be working toward the Outdoor Lab Foundation's mission and can’t wait to hear and share more stories.
In her free time, Mary likes to sing, ski, raft, hike and spend time with family and friends. She also enjoys coffee. And poetry. And likes when she drinks coffee while reading poetry. “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” -Mary Oliver
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Emily Kelly
Emily was born in Michigan but grew up in Lakewood and graduated from Fairview High School in Boulder. Emily is also a Windy Peak alumna! She received her bachelor's degree in biology and went on to become an aquarist. She has held positions with Ocean Journey, the Downtown Aquarium in Denver, as well as Arvada Animal Control and most recently, in many local businesses as a bookkeeper. In her spare time, Emily loves to spend time with her children, husband and four amazing rescue animals!
Outdoor Lab Foundation Board of Directors
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Jens Jensen
Jens Jensen is a litigation attorney with Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley, P.C. Prior to coming to Colorado for law school, Jens worked at the Embassy of Denmark in London. He also holds a B.A. in Economics and Politics and an M.A. in Political Theory from the University of Manchester in England. Jens chose to move from London to Colorado because of the outdoor opportunities available here. He is excited that he now gets to share all that Colorado has to offer with both his wife and his two young boys, the oldest of which is about to start in the Jeffco school system. Showing his children the value of giving back to the community is one of the many reasons why Jens wants to contribute to the continued success of the foundation and the Outdoor Lab program.
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Alex Campbell
ALEX B. CAMPBELL V joined Enduring Resources, LLC, in 2004 as an owner and Vice President of Land and Business Development. Alex has had a distinguished career in the area of land acquisition and divestiture in the energy industry since 1980. He has had impressive success with lease and land acquisition in several of the key shale plays in the Continental US. Alex earned an MBA, a BS in Business and a BA in History at Colorado State University. He is active in many energy industry associations and programs including the AAPL, DAPL, HAPL, RMMLF, WAPL, and the UAPL. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Western Energy Alliance (formerly IPAMS). Alex is a strong advocate of education in the energy field. He serves on the Board of Directors at the Business School and as a guest professor in the Professional Land Management Degree Program at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, CO. In addition, he serves as an Advisory Board Member to the Masters in Energy Land Management at Colorado State University. Alex is an active philanthropist sitting on the board of directors for both the Outdoor Lab Foundation and the MaxFund Animal Shelter.
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Rod Wagner
As a Denver resident of 27 years and member of the West Highland’s Community, Rod Wagner has been instrumental in helping change the face of the Highland’s through his and his partners aggressive acquisition the past 12-15 years of commercial real estate properties. Rod and his partners have repositioned a number of historical buildings, through restoration and improvements to attract a more refined level of tenants to better meet the needs and wants, of the local community. As a partner in Larimer Associates and City Street Retail, Rod’s role is multi-faceted. With a broad background in real estate and restaurant management and operations, Rod is responsible in part for managing the design criteria for properties that are acquired, to assure that redevelopment opportunities that the company participates in, align with both the neighborhoods in which they are located, as well as the goals of the company. Rod has built many valued relationships throughout the building department, works directly with engineering and planning, which provides a liaison between the company and various governmental agencies.
Rod worked directly with the design team at Denver Union Station to assure timely completion of the project. Rod took on the project management of the three (3) third party tenant build-outs, as well as the oversight and management of construction for the company run Acme Burger and Brats, Pigtrain Coffee and Milkbox Creamery.
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Josh Timon
Josh Timon has been a board member of the Outdoor Lab Foundation since 2013 and Chairman since 2015. As a Jefferson County grad, OELS student and two-time High School Counselor, this program has been woven into Josh’s fabric for many years. Josh is passionate about getting our younger generations into nature. He is a firm believer in “saving our children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” a term coined by Richard Louv in the book Last Child in the Woods. As an avid outdoorsman himself, Josh enjoys gardening, hunting, camping and moonlights as a river guide for Boundary Expeditions in the summers on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. When he is not enjoying the outdoors he stays busy coaching his daughter's competitive basketball team, Altitude Basketball Club, running the Ralston Valley High School Booster Club and his day job consists of helping companies with their cyber risk management as the West coast Channel Manager for RiskSense.
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Michelle Winzent
My husband Rick and I own a automotive repair shop in Wheat Ridge (Merkl's Automotive) and we have two kids who are Jeffco graduates. I have worked for Friendship Bridge, a nonprofit that provides microcredit loans and additional programs to women in rural Guatemala, for seven years and in non-profit for 30 years. Both myself and my children were fortunate to have experienced Outdoor Lab and it is an honor to be serving on this board to help preserve this fantastic place for generations to come.
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Barry Wiebe
Barry Wiebe is the Founder, President and CEO of Avout. He has over 25 years of experience in Oracle staffing, services, and software sales and has been hired by some of the largest consultancies in the world to manage Oracle business units. Barry has worked with both startups and Fortune 500 companies to build Oracle practices from the ground up, and over the course of his career has hired hundreds of Oracle experts and interviewed thousands of candidates. He has a track record of bringing start-up and under performing organizations and divisions to profitability quickly and generating exponential revenue growth.
Barry launched his career in the aerospace engineering field where he used powerful Oracle databases to work on classified projects. In the mid-1990s he was recruited by Oracle to create an Oracle Government Consulting practice in the Central U.S. region, which he grew to $20 million in 14 months. Barry was then hired by Accenture to establish their Oracle line of business, growing it to 250 people and $230 million in just three years. Prior to starting Avout, Barry was hired as Senior Vice President of Sales at TUSC, an Oracle-focused consulting firm, to turn around three years of declining revenue. In 36 months he grew sales as much as 127% quarter over quarter, doubling revenue and positioning the company for a successful acquisition by Rolta. Before that he worked as a principal officer at ResponsePoint and Lante, bolstering revenue for both companies and propelling Lante to a successful acquisition.
Barry’s Oracle dealings have involved top leaders including Larry Ellison, Safra Catz, and Mark Hurd, and he maintains an extensive network of relationships within Oracle and throughout the Oracle consulting world. Presently he is responsible for all day-to-day operations, P&L, delivery and client-facing interactions for Avout.
Barry graduated with a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University. He is a nationally-ranked mountain bike racer and the founder of Avout Racing; www.AvoutRacing.com, a 1% for the Planet Ambassador, helping build the number of corporate members who are taking a stand for sustaining our planet, and a board member of Outdoor Lab Foundation. -
Brandon Friedman
Brandon is an Assistant Vice President with FirstBank working in multiple trade areas in his five years with the bank and has spent the last two and a half years working in the Jefferson County area. He is a Colorado native who loves spending his time exploring, hiking and traveling.
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Kathy Weiss
Kathy Weiss, along with Karen Cravens started the Outdoor Lab Foundation as a 501 C3 in 2003. Last fiscal year she stepped off the board due to term limits. She is thrilled to be rejoining the board beginning in the 2018-19 fiscal year.
Kathy's love for Outdoor Lab began in 1979 when she brought her first group of 6th graders to Windy Peak. In the 1980's she became a cadre member helping to train teachers and high school leaders. As a staff developer in the District, she often substituted for the site principals, even serving as principal for Windy Peak for GT week for 3 years. In 1995, after the death of one of her mentors, Jim Jackson, she became principal at the Mt. Evans site, where she remained for 10 years. She is proud to have acquired a $300,000 grant from the Colorado Historic Society providing resources to restore all of the site historic buildings on the site. In 1997 she also started the intern program for high school and college students which is still thriving.
She is so proud of all that the Outdoor Lab Foundation has accomplished and looks forward to a bright future.
