OLT Board of Directors

                    Orient Land Trust
                                   Valley View Hot Springs
                                   Email: info@olt.org

Officers
Staff
Board of Directors
Advisory Board Members
All officers are elected at the annual meeting in July.

See Board of Directors Position Description and Board Meetings for more information.

Staff & Officers ~ not on Board of Directors

Amy Trainer - Executive Director and President

Amy was born and raised in south central Kansas and fondly remembers romping through the prairie with her dad and brother at a young age which instilled in her a passion for wild places and big skies. She attended the University of Kansas to earn a B.A. with honors in Environmental Studies, a Master’s of Urban Planning and Juris Doctor, all focusing on environmental land use and natural resource protection. During college, she performed field research on Kansas wetlands and prairies, as well as meadows in the Gallatin National Forest, Montana. She served as president of KU Environs, the environmental awareness and action group, for two years, and served as a naturalist for the Kansas Parks Department. During graduate school, she was a graduate teaching assistant for environmental studies, policy and law courses, worked as a summer intern for the Alaska Attorney General’s Natural Resources Division in Juneau, and was a semi-finalist in the Pace Law School National Environmental Moot Court Competition. Additionally, she served as a legal intern to the Kansas Land Trust where her passion to work for a land trust protecting open space and wildlife habitat was ignited.

As a practicing attorney in Kansas City, Missouri, she worked on large redevelopment projects involving public-private partnerships to revitalize the city’s urban core. After four years, she left Kansas City to be the first staff attorney at Friends of the San Juans, in Friday Harbor, Washington. At Friends, she collaborated with scientists, farmers, hydrogeologists, governmental agencies, and citizens to protect the land, groundwater, rural character, and marine environment of the San Juan Islands. Most recently, she was successful in securing grant funding to establish the nation’s first Tribal Office of Marine Affairs for the Makah Indian Tribe of Neah Bay, Washington.

Amy spent time in Colorado many summers growing up, her first trip being at the age of six weeks, so her move to San Luis Valley feels like a homecoming. She greatly enjoys exploring the beauty of Colorado’s forests, meadows and rushing mountain streams, as well as practicing yoga, mountain biking and gardening. She is thrilled to be serving as the new Executive Director and looks forward to building on the incredible work of Neil and Terry.

Neil Seitz - Project Manager

Neil Seitz, cofounder of Orient Land Trust, was born in Minnesota in 1954. Neil first visited the San Luis Valley in 1972 and studied architectural engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder from January 1973 through December 1974. Before becoming Executive Director of Orient Land Trust, he operated Valley View Hot Springs for twenty-nine years. He lives at Orient Land Trust with his wife Terry. He has experience in designing and constructing buildings and alternative energy projects. Neil has served on the Saguache County Planning Commission and on numerous local boards.

Terry Seitz - Office Manager

Terry, cofounder of Orient Land Trust, has resided in the San Luis Valley since 1976. Before joining the staff of OLT she, along with her husband Neil, owned and operated Valley View Hot Springs. She served for many years on the Supervisory Committee of the Saguache County Credit Union, and received the Colorado Credit Union League’s Volunteer of the Year Award in 1997. She has also been active in the Villa Grove Area Merchants Association since its founding in 1987.

Barb Tidd - Board Secretary

Barb is not new to the San Luis Valley or to the Orient Land Trust area. She migrated west to Colorado from Minneapolis and lived just south of Orient Land Trust for a short time in the mid-1970s, where she met her husband, Chuck. They returned to the Valley in 2003 after living in Tucson, AZ for 15 years and now reside near OLT on property that they acquired in the mid-1980s.

Barb has been actively involved with OLT since serving on the Board from 2004-07 and as its Chair for two of those years. Following her Board term, she assisted at the Front Desk in the OLT Welcome Center. She brings to the Board Secretary position over 30 years' experience as a legal secretary and Certified Paralegal, as well as experience on other non-profit boards. Away from OLT, she works as a paralegal for a neighboring county. She balances the many hours she spends at the computer with her yoga practice, skiing, and hiking in the great outdoors in and around the San Luis Valley.

Directors

Kai-Uwe Allen - (Term expires 2011)

Kai was born and raised in rural New Hampshire, and also attended the University of New Hampshire where he graduated in 1993 with a BS degree in Botany and specialized in forest Ecology. In between semesters of college, he worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire building and maintaining hiking trails, including the Appalachian Trail. After college, Kai migrated west to work on trails in Wyoming and Idaho, powder skiing in Alta, Utah, and as a fisheries biologist in Alaska. Shortly after deciding to return to graduate school, life took a turn, and Kai was offered a permanent position with the US Forest Service back in New Hampshire on the White Mountain National Forest. Once back in New Hampshire, Kai began his duties as a US Forest Service Snow Ranger in Tuckerman Ravine, responsible for avalanche forecasting and search-and-rescue operations on Mount Washington. In addition to the winter duties, Kai also served as the backcountry and Wilderness areas manager in that area for the Forest Service. A professional member of the American Avalanche Association, Kai continues to be actively involved in the avalanche and snow science community in the United States.

After 7 years with the USFS in New Hampshire, in 2002, Kai took a new position with the USFS in Gunnison, Colorado. In this new role, he currently serves as the district Wilderness coordinator and is responsible for the stewardship of 350,000 acres of designated Wilderness surrounding the Gunnison Basin. Other duties include working as the district Winter Recreation specialist, managing a large Outfitting/Guiding program, serving as the community liaison with the town of Crested Butte, and wildland fire management.

Kai has a passion for open space preservation and protected areas management. It is this core value that attracted him to the open space and conservation mission of OLT. In addition to joining the board of OLT in 2007, Kai has been a board member on the Gunnison County Land Preservation Board for several years. An avid hiker, backpacker, mountaineer, backcountry skier, and mountain biker, Kai currently resides in Crested Butte.

Douglas Bishop - (Term expires 2011)

Doug Bishop is a native of Colorado, born in La Junta in 1950. He moved to the San Luis Valley, Saguache County and was caretaker for property at Major Creek, three miles south of Valley View Hot Springs, from 1973 to 1980. His children, Kestrel and Alan, were born there. He first visited Valley View Hot Springs in March of 1973. In 1980, he moved to ten acres, originally part of the homestead that became Valley View Hot Springs, and built a house. For the past four years he’s been building a new house on the property. He conducted recreational horseback rides in the area around the hot springs from 1984 to 2002. In 1984, he started working as a part-time ski instructor at Monarch Ski Area. He attained PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) Level II certification in 1991, PSIA Children's Accreditation in 1992, and PSIA Level III certification in 1993. He was selected Colorado Ski Country USA's Ski Instructor of the Year for the 1992-93 ski season. His seasonal full-time employment for Monarch began in 1988, and in 2001, he completed his eighth and final season as manager of the Monarch Children's Center. In 2003 Doug received a BA degree in Elementary Education from Adams State College. He taught second grade at Jewell Elementary in Aurora for the 2003-04 school year. For the 2004-05 school year, he worked as a teacher’s aide for the Title I program in Saguache, Colorado at Mountain Valley Schools. For the 2005-06 school year, he worked as the classroom teacher for a combined classroom of third and fourth graders in Saguache at Mountain Valley Elementary.

Doug has worked off and on for Valley View Hot Springs since 1975. Some of the Valley View projects he has assisted with include: Oak House remodel and upstairs dormitory addition, cabin repair and remodeling projects, Sunset Rooms construction, bath house construction, swimming pool reconstruction, stone retaining wall around swimming pool, soaking pools reconstruction, hydroelectric plant installation and upgrade, pipelines, housing, cleaning, maintenance, and registration/office duties. Doug is interested in maintaining the open space characteristic of the area, enjoying and promoting clothing optional policies, and preserving the existing natural and historical resources of the neighborhood that has been his home since 1973.

Mike Blevins - Vice-Chairperson (Term expires 2010)

Long time visitor and friend of Orient Land Trust, Mike Blevins has lived and worked in Maryland, Vermont, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Colorado over his career. Having also travelled extensively around the world, Mike keeps returning to Colorado as the quintessential American West and understands the need for land preservation and the need protect natural places for solitude, escape and meditation.

With a career that ranged from journalism to transportation management to information systems development, Mike primarily worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation in safety management, law enforcement, state grant administration, statistical analysis and information systems. His major career accomplishment was in pioneering the use of laptop computers and developing custom software that allowed both Federal and State Field agents to greatly enhance safety inspections and audits.

Long an outdoorsman, Mike has an extensive background with backpacking, hiking, camping, skiing, canoeing, rafting, sailing, and scuba diving. He also worked as a journalist for outdoors publications and led adventure groups and photo workshops on outdoors photography. Mike’s present company, Passing Image, does website design and photography training.

Mike has worked with Orient Land Trust as a volunteer camp host, discovery host, and bat host.

John Eiseman - Treasurer (Term expires 2012)

John first moved to Colorado with his family in the 1950’s. He was exposed to the beauty of the state from an early age during innumerable camping, climbing, and skiing trips with his parents, and has been a permanent resident since 1971. He has had a life-long passion for exploration, having worked and traveled extensively in Central and South America and the South Pacific. Among his other interests are history, scuba diving, horseback riding, and good old-fashioned ranch work.

He earned his BA in Economics from Stanford University and his MBA in Finance from the University of Denver. Professionally, he has worked in the area of Finance and Treasury in several different industries over the past 30 years. These include experiences in the securities industry, healthcare, natural gas distribution, and homebuilding. Currently, he serves as Director of Finance for KB Home in Denver.

John’s first extensive exposure to the San Luis Valley came in 1979 when his family purchased the old Abeyta Ranch on Major Creek, two miles south of Valley View Hot Springs along the Sangre de Cristo Range. For the past 26 years, John’s family has worked tirelessly to maintain the old West charm of the family ranch while preserving the natural beauty and robust wildlife habitat of Major Creek.

Dan Jones - Chairperson (Term expires 2010)

Dan Jones was born and raised on a dairy farm in Shelton, Connecticut. The dairy herd was sold when he was 10 and Christmas trees took over as the primary crop. His older brother added pick your own strawberries, blueberries and pumpkins to the mix. He knew a rural, earth-connected childhood and ran his own bedding plant greenhouse operation starting at age 13. He has a degree in landscape horticulture from Michigan State University.
Dan moved to Denver in 1981 and worked extensively in the graphic arts field as a typographer. He simultaneously worked part-time at a major garden center which he took over management of in 1991. In 1995 he left to open his own retail store, Wild Flowers in Denver’s Congress Park neighborhood. In 2006 he sold the nature and garden oriented gift store to return to his roots with a focus on landscaping work.

Other interests include mountain biking, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, backpacking, home gardening and raising much of his own food. He has been a vegetarian for 30 years and is diligent in doing all he can to reduce his footprint on the earth. Mother Nature is Dan’s avenue for spiritual fulfillment and he’s at peace when immersed in her beauty. He has found no place closer to Mother Nature than at Valley View. He is thrilled to be a part of the team helping to preserve the acreage, vistas and waters of the northern San Luis Valley in a naturist setting.

Harold Pratt - (Term expires 2010)

Harold has lived in Colorado since 1959 and has been a member of Valley View since it became a membership organization in the mid 1970s. He is a private consultant working in all areas of science education having retired from the Jefferson County School District in 1991. He has had extensive administrative and curriculum development experience at the local and national levels. From 1994 until July 1999, he was the Director of Science Projects in the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education at the National Research Council (NRC) in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the Center, he directed the revision of Science for Life and Living, an elementary science curriculum at the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study in Colorado Springs, Colorado. From October 1992 to December 1994, he served as a Senior Program Officer at the National Research Council in Washington, DC during the development of the National Science Education Standards. From 1986 to 1991 he was the Executive Director of Curriculum for the Jefferson County (CO) Public Schools. Prior to that, he served the district as the Science Coordinator for 23 years. He has co-authored or directed the development of three science textbooks, a book on educational leadership, and published numerous articles and book chapters. He served as president of the 55,000 member National Science Teachers Association in 2000-2001. In addition to his wife Norby, his family includes three grown sons and seven grandchildren.

Marilyn Sherbring - (Term expires 2012)

Marilyn Sherbring is the newest member of the OLT Board of Directors. Marilyn is an attorney who's lived in Colorado since she was 12. It was love at first sight, "coming home to a place she'd never been before", on her first visit to Valley View in 2002. Her passion for OLT has been growing steadily since, and after attending a continuing legal education class on land conservations trusts and serving on a board committee this past year, she decided that her experience in the corporate legal world dealing with many areas of law that impact OLT (like ADA compliance, ethical conduct and employee labor and benefit law and contracts) might allow her to be of service in concrete ways to our growing organization. Marilyn also leads bhakti yoga chanting groups regularly along the Front Range

Paul Zoric - (Term expires 2012)

Paul was born and raised in the city of Chicago, and attended the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign where he graduated in 1982 with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and from DePaul University in Chicago in 1987 with an MBA specialized in Operations Management. Paul's career has been focused on several "'firsts", including the first cell phone (yes, that Motorola brick), the first DSL circuit and the first Voice Over IP service platform. Paul also is a veteran of the automotive and medical equipment industries and is currently employed as a Supply Chain professional at a mobility device company in the Boulder area. Paul has travelled extensively internationally during his career, offering him unique perspectives. Paul has been an active member and volunteer with the Sierra Club along with Big Brothers and Big Sisters and Trout Unlimited. Paul has also been active with political campaigns in Northern Colorado. Paul is a dedicated and knowledgeable environmentalist and naturalist, having studied at the Smithsonian Institute and USDA. Paul resides in Mead with his wife, Marge, and their two labs. In his free time, Paul likes to spend his time in Colorado's high country hiking, skiing and fly fishing.

Vacancy - (Term expires 2011)

Advisory Board Members

Kirk Navo - Colorado Division of Wildlife, Bat Biologist
0722 S Rd 1E
Monte Vista, CO 81144

Don and Kathy Geddes - Town of Saguache
P.O. Box 175
Saguache, CO 81149

Annie Pace - Town of Crestone
P.O. Box 125
Crestone, CO 81131

Annie grew up in a Chicago suburb, moved to Colorado in 1980 and has been coming to Valley View since 1982. She holds a degree in Recreational Leadership and has history in corporate America involving CAD and PC design. In 1988 she abandoned mainstream life to further pursue her practice and study of Yoga, largely in India. She has been teaching here and abroad since 1985.
In 1998 Annie relocated from Bailey, CO to Crestone. Here she teaches Traditional Ashtanga Yoga to the local community as well as retreatants from all over the world. She has been a Trustee for the Town of Crestone since 1999, and is very involved in community efforts including HUA, VGAMA, CMBA, OLT Crestone Peaceworkers, sustainable gardening and Indian cooking. She also offers Trager-based bodywork in Crestone and at Valley View. Annie's primary intentions are to preserve the integrity and accessibility of Traditional Yogic practices, to maintain a simple and balanced lifestyle for her family and community, and to provide a nourishing space for her students.