North Regional Council

Erik Estrada serves as Senior Associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and resides in Boulder, Colorado. Mr. Estrada practices corporate and securities law with a focus on corporate governance, public company representation, public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. He has extensive in-house counsel and senior leadership experience with Nasdaq-listed and Fortune 500 companies and in private law firm practice. Prior to law school, he served as a Program Officer for Boettcher Foundation and as a Fellow with El Pomar Foundation. Mr. Estrada serves or has served on numerous community, civic and state boards.

Nechie Hall founded Vladimir Jones, Colorado’s third largest woman-owned business and one of the state’s oldest and largest strategic marketing, advertising and public relations firms. Nechie has served as the company’s President, Chief Executive Officer, and is currently Chairman of the Board. In 2003, her firm was honored by El Pomar Foundation as the first recipient of the Corporate Philanthropy Award.

Nechie has served the community in numerous ways including serving on almost 25 boards. Nechie was the Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 2014. She was the first woman to be recognized as the Chamber Business Citizen of the Year and in 2014 was named the Business Leader for the Arts recipient by COPPeR, (Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region). Nechie recently retired after 18 years as a Trustee of the Myron Stratton Foundation. She has served on the boards of CASA, Goodwill, Pioneers Museum, St. Francis Foundation, founding Board of the Sports Corporation, the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation, Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, and the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center Board for Bioethics and Humanities, to name a few. Additionally, she served in numerous leadership roles on committees to enhance and build the presence of the United States Olympic Committee in Colorado.

Nechie has served as a Trustee of El Pomar Foundation since 2015.

Mike Bond is the Chief Operating Officer of the Weld Trust, overseeing grantmaking activities and development at the organization. Mike has more than 30 years of banking experience in Greeley and has served on several local boards including the Weld Trust and United Way of Weld County.

Kathay Rennels is Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Rural-Urban Initiatives at the Colorado State University System. As a former county commissioner and state board representative, she has significant experience fostering public and private partnerships in regional and workforce development. Kathay is currently a member of the Northern Colorado Economic Development Council; she also works closely with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade on the Governors’ Blueprint and is the co-lead for the Food and Agriculture Industry Concentration.

Adam Shake is the President/CEO of the Estes Park Economic Development Corporation, a role he has held since 2020. Adam served nearly 15 years in the U.S. Army, completing tours in Desert Storm, Desert Shield, CONUS, Panama, Somalia, Bosnia and Europe. Prior to his role at the EDC, he served as the Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Agency Program Director. He has also founded environmental media and news websites including Simple Earth Media and Twilight Earth. Since his arrival in Estes Park, Adam has served on the boards of Visit Estes Park, Estes Valley Partners for Commerce, the Rocky Mountain Performing Arts Center and Flinch Forward.

Laurie Stolen is currently the Behavioral Health Services Director for Larimer County. She has been with Larimer County for more than 23 years. She has been a returning guest lecturer at CSU, a member of several non-profit boards, published in professional journals and trained in organizational development. From 2010-2018, she was the Director of the Alternative Sentencing Department with Larimer County Criminal Justice Services. She also worked for the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, Jail Division, for 12 years prior to that. Laurie holds a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and her master’s degree from University of Northern Colorado. She has been extensively involved in contract administration, program development and re-entry initiatives and is an advocate for improving behavioral health across the region. In her free time, Laurie enjoys time with her family, playing golf and traveling.

Jeannine Truswell has over 30 years’ experience in non-profit management. She has been the President & CEO of United Way of Weld County since 1986. Prior to this, Ms. Truswell was the Executive Director for Weld County Partners and owned and operated a private child care business for children 3 to 12 years old. She has a bachelor’s degree in both elementary education and special education. She has hundreds of hours of course work and training in business and non-profit management. Ms. Truswell leads a successful $4 million non-profit organization employing over 30 people. She’s responsible for overall supervision including resource development, resource investment, financial management, volunteer management, marketing and communications, program development and community building.

Ms. Truswell is an active volunteer and has served on several local, regional and statewide community boards and committees.

A life-long Coloradan, Dave Young serves as the Colorado State Treasurer, assuming office in Jan. 2019. In that capacity, he chairs the Colorado Secure Savings Board, the CLIMBER Small Business Loan Fund, and the Public School Fund Investment Board, and he is a member of the Public Employees Retirement Association Board of Trustees. As Treasurer, Dave manages all of the State of Colorado fund cash flows, investments, debt, and unclaimed property. He is an active leader of the National Association of State Treasurers, and also serves on the Donor Alliance Foundation Board as its secretary/treasurer. He was previously a state representative for the Greeley area, and served as a member of the Joint Budget Committee. Prior to being elected to the legislature, Dave was a senior instructor for a learning technologies masters program at the University of Colorado Denver, and taught math, science, and technology in the Greeley Weld 6 School District before that. He has also worked in a variety of private sector technology positions throughout his career.

Dave earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Colorado State University in 1975 and his master’s degree in learning technologies from the University of Colorado Denver in 2000.

Erica Oakley-Courage serves as Associate Vice President of Grants at El Pomar Foundation, managing the operations of the grants department. She also directs the Pikes Peak Heritage Series, an El Pomar program that celebrates and raises awareness of the natural assets of the Pikes Peak region.

Prior to El Pomar, Erica worked for six years as a development officer with Palmer Land Conservancy and the Colorado Springs office of American Heart Association. The Seattle-area native earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University in Journalism/Public Relations and a Master’s of Public Administration and Certificate in Nonprofit Management at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She spent six years doing media relations in professional sports before transitioning to the non-profit sector.

Erica was a member of the Institute for Leaders in Development’s Class of 2017 and participated in the Community Leadership Program in June 2021. She has served on multiple boards and volunteered for several organizations in the Pikes Peak Region including Peak Vista Community Health Centers, Girl Scouts of Colorado and the Colorado Springs Osteopathic Foundation. In 2016, she was recognized as the Association of Fundraising Professionals Southern Colorado Outstanding Emerging Fundraiser and in 2018 she was named a Rising Star by the Colorado Springs Business Journal. Erica was selected to be a part of the Colorado Springs Mayor’s Fellowship in 2023.

Contact Erica:
719-577-7056

Coya Pair joined El Pomar Foundation as a member of the 2022 Fellowship class. As a 2nd Year Fellow, Coya works on Alumni Relations, Communications and Fellowship Recruiting. She also supports the North and Southwest regions.

Coya grew up Moab, Utah, and graduated from Fort Lewis College with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Multimedia Studies with a minor in Sociology.

During her time at Fort Lewis College, Coya was a reporter and the Editor in Chief for the college’s student-run news organization, The FLC Independent. Coya also studied Spanish and Mexican Migration abroad in Mexico for the summer of 2019, and worked at Compañeros, the four corner’s immigrant resource center for the two years following. At Compañeros, Coya wrote a monthly newsletter and worked on Escuelita, a program designed to mentor children from immigrant households throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

In her free time, Coya loves to journal, thrift shop, and get outside with her dog to climb, hike, run, dance, and all things play.

Contact Coya:
719-577-7059

Hayes Witherow joined El Pomar Foundation as a member of the 2023 Fellowship class. As a 1st Year Fellow, Hayes serves as Program Associate for Alumni Relations, Communications, the Internship, and Regional Partnerships. He also supports the North Region.

Hayes grew up in Colorado Springs and graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2023 with a degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, with a focus in Public Health. While in Boulder, Hayes worked with the Boulder County Public Health Department and several local non-profits to learn about the unique challenges facing Colorado communities. During this time, he shadowed members of the health department in their efforts to increase youth vaccination rates through free vaccine clinics and education. Hayes also studied a species of virus called bacteriophage and presented his findings of a newly isolated strain at the 2020 CURE Symposium on Boulder’s campus. In the future, Hayes plans to return to school for an M.D./Ph.D. program to contribute to the betterment of Coloradans’ health access and outcomes. In his free time, Hayes enjoys skiing, rock climbing, camping, or anything else to spend time outdoors.

Contact Hayes:
719-577-7038