Colorado Open Lands’ staff is comprised of dedicated professionals who operate under four guiding principles:
Integrity – we earn the trust of our landowners, partners, donors and community by fulfilling our commitments and holding ourselves to the highest ethical standards in all we do.
Creativity – we are focused on creating, championing, and celebrating conservation-minded solutions that turn land use challenges into opportunities.
Inspiration – we are driven by a love of Colorado’s magnificent lands and a respect for the landowners that steward them and the citizens that cherish them.
Collaborative Leadership – our leadership will seek and foster internal and external collaborative relationships to meet the challenge of conservation in perpetuity.
Alyssa Acosta
Alyssa Acosta is the Director of Philanthropy at Colorado Open Lands with more than 10 years of fundraising experience.
Kyle Balint
Kyle joined the conservation team after completing his MS in Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wyoming.
Tony Caligiuri
Tony recently concluded his six years of service with the National Wildlife Federation, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Conservation and Education.
Cheryl Cufre
Cheryl Cufre leads COL’s conservation easement stewardship and landowner assistance programs.
Heather Doyle-Maier
Heather Doyle-Maier brings two decades of non-profit bookkeeping experience to Colorado Open Lands and believes that reliable and accurate financial work are a foundation for effective community action.
Carmen Farmer
Carmen Farmer is the Project Manager for the Northern Front Range and Lower South Platte Basin.
Kristin Gjelsteen
Kristin joins Colorado Open Lands with experience in event coordination, project management, and communications.
Cheyenne Johnson
Cheyenne Johnson has over 15 years of experience in philanthropy.
Maddy Jones
Maddy Jones joins our Development team as the Development Administrator.
Ben Lenth
Ben Lenth joined Colorado Open Lands following eight years as Executive Director at San Isabel Land Protection Trust in Westcliffe, CO
Judy Lopez
Judy exhibits a commitment to building relationships around conservation in Colorado’s beautiful San Luis Valley.
Dennis Lyamkin
Dennis joined the COL Stewardship Team in April 2021 as a Fellow.
Joel Nystrom
Joel supports the conservation easement stewardship and landowner assistance programs.
Sarah Parmar
Sarah has spent over a decade at Colorado Open Lands and leads COL’s private land conservation work.
John Peters
John has over 12 years of experience working in the land conservation field.
Lori Pufahl
Lori came to Colorado Open Lands in September 2019, with over 30 years of finance and accounting experience.
Katherine Raffio
Katherine joins Colorado Open Lands after two and a half years as the Program Coordinator at Continental Divide Land Trust.
Pam Sjoerdsma
Pam arrived at Colorado Open Lands in April 2018 with a passion for the outdoors and more than 25 years of management and operations experience
Miles Van Blarcum
Miles supports the Stewardship Team with easement monitoring, GIS, and database administration.
Leslie Volkar
Leslie is a communications and marketing professional with over fourteen years of experience.