Terra Anderson
Community Volunteer
Senator Michael Bennet Office

Ms. Anderson is semi retired and holds a BS in Nursing and a MA in Guidance and Counseling. She is currently working for Senator Bennet serving constituents who need assistance with Medicare, Medicaid or other Health Care issues.She has lived in Durango for 33 years.

Michelle Appenzeller, RN
Director
Mercy Home Care & Hospice of Mercy

Ms. Appenzeller has been working in Home Care and Hospice since 1986, providing direct service to patients as well as administration. She has been the director of Mercy Home Care and Hospice of Mercy for the past 18 years. She has been an advocate for  community members to remain in the comfort of their home for as long as possible. Her primary interest is in providing the best end of life care, providing palliative care and hospice services in the comfort of home.  

Suzanne Arms
Founder | Director
Birthing The Future

Ms. Arms is a mother, grandmother, consumer health advocate and founder-director of Birthing The Future, an international 501c3 nonprofit which is located in Bayfield. She is also the author of seven published books and producer-director of a one-hour made-for-public television documentary called BIRTH. Her work, and the work of Birthing The Future, focuses on the "Primal Period" - from pre-conception to the first birthday, when the child's brain and body are going through it's most rapid development - the mother-baby and father-family bonds that form the foundation for all future relationships and sense of well-being in the world.

Angela Atkinson
Data and Evaluation Consultant
La Plata Early Childhood Council

Ms. Atkinson works with non-profits, boards, and small companies who want to thrive and learn but often struggle reaching their vision and goals. With over 25 years of experience in market research, planning, leadership and community development with clients ranging from non-profits to multi-national organizations, she understands the role that leadership and systems thinking play in an organization’s effectiveness. Having served on city council, chaired boards and led community grassroots movements, she knows firsthand about the challenges of leadership and organizational management. She is a partner in Atkinson Consulting, and holds a BA in Literature and an MBA from U.C. Berkeley.

Richard Ballantine

Sherrod Beall, RN, MS, CPNP
District Health Coordinator - School Based Health Centers/Coordinated School Health Services
Durango School District 9-R

Ms. Beall is a pediatric nurse practitioner and has developed health care programs for uninsured/underinsured children for most of her career. For the past 10 years, she has focused on the development of school based health centers in SW Colorado. Currently, she runs the Durango High School SBHC and is working on opening another SBHC at Florida Mesa Elementary. She also oversees school nursing and health education programs for the Durango School District.

Enid has lived in Colorado for thirty years. She has owned her own business consulting company, working with a variety of companies. Her specialty has mainly been human resource issues and helping people and organizations increase work satisfaction and productivity.In addition, she has served twice on the Governor’s Council for Small Business and the Governor’s Council for Women’s Economic Development, has been a Board member of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, works as a Work/Life Coach, and has been a consultant with the Small Business Development Center at Ft. Lewis College for many years. Enid is a founding member of the Women’s Resource Center and an active member in that organization and the League of Women Voters local chapter.

Mr. DeMond graduated from Cornell University Medical College and did his internship and residency in emergency medicine at Los Angeles County – University of Southern California Medical Center.  He has lived in Durango for 23 years and retired from Mercy Medical Center in 2006. He was then able to expand his work with EMS and assumed medical direction for all fire-based EMS services in the County. He works for the four county fire districts: DFRA, UPRFPD, LPFPD, FLMFPD; and also for Durango Airport Fire.

Ms. Fontecchio-Spradling considers her large, loving family her greatest accomplishment. She currently coordinates the La Plata County Health Care Capacity Project and CHAC. She has a BS Degree in Nursing from Houston Baptist University and a MS in Community and School Health from the UNM. She has worked in community and school innovative health programs for over 40 years and has a great passion for prevention and wellness. Past positions include directing employee health promotion and services for the City of Albuquerque, directing school health programs for the State of New Mexico, advocating for school mental health in northwestern NM and coordinating a team to bring together the eight components of school health, including health education, nursing, and school based health center efforts for Durango 9R School District.

Karen Forest
RN, Program Manager
San Juan Basin Health Department

Cecile M. Fraley
Physician
PPSW

Bob Goodman
Physician
Durango Orthopedic Associates

Dr. Juskevich graduated from medical school in 1970 and practiced in Virginia Beach. He was Chief of staff at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital and on the Board of Sentara Health Care System in Norfolk VA. Sentara owned five hospitals and had a service area of one million people. Dr. Juskevich retired and moved to Durango in 2004 and has been an active member of the Citizens' Health Advisory Council for four years.

Ms. Knight is the Program Coordinator for Southwestern CO AHEC. Renée comes to SWCAHEC with a bachelor’s degree in community health, as well as experience in elementary education, non-profit marketing and event coordination, and project management. She is heavily involved in volunteer activities throughout Durango, and has decided to make SWCAHEC part of her work in the community in southwest Colorado. Renée is the Student Support Services Liaison; she is coordinating the Nightingale Award and communications for SWCAHEC. She is also immersed in getting to know our Colorado AHEC mission, programs, and the Southwestern Colorado health and education community.

Sarah Langan
San Juan Basin Health Department

Ms. McInnis received her BS degree in Nursing in 1986. She began her career as a pediatric nurse at The Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado, where she worked until 1991. After moving to Durango, Colorado, she gained valuable experiences in various fields of nursing. She received her Master of Science in Community Health Nursing in 1996 from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center’s School of Nursing. She has worked in school nursing, in the clinic setting, as a theory instructor for a local community college, as a breastfeeding educator, in legal nurse consulting, and currently, as a programs manager and the Integrated Child Health Coordinator at San Juan Basin Health Department. Kathleen is passionate about improving the health of children and assuring they have access to needed care. 

A primary care Physician Assistant since 1983, Ms. Newman came to Fort Lewis College to direct the long-standing Student Health Center, in 2007. She moved from Los Alamos, NM, where she practiced in a primary care setting. She hopes her involvement with CHAC better informs her of the community's struggles with accessible healthcare and allows her to represent the college population and bring some insight, borne of being "in the trenches" of providing primary care services, to the discussion table as we collaboratively envision and plan for optimizing the delivery and utilization of same throughout the area.

Ms. Patton was born in Australia, has worked in the fields of education and computing and has a PhD in Systems Engineering. She has lived in Durango since 1989 and has been a community volunteer for CHAC since 2005.

Marsha Porter-Norton is a consultant who works across Colorado and the Four Corners region. She is a founding member of the Citizens' Health Advisory Council and is currently serving as a community volunteer. Marsha holds a Master of Social Work degree with a focus on community development.

Lesley Reeder
Rocky Mountain Health Plan

Mr. Rizzo graduated from Long Island University in 1973 and is a retired real estate broker who has lived in Colorado since 1993. He was a US Veteran Vietnamese Linguist from 1967 - 1970. He spent six years on the board of directors as the vice president for the El Camino Council of Girl Scouts in San Angelo, TX. He came to Durango in 1973 as a Moore business forms representative, covering the 59th congressional district and other four corner territories.

Ms. Rodey has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition, a Dietetic Internship with the United States Public Health Service, a Masters degree in Public Health Nutrition and a Certificate in Management. Her career has been spent in Nutrition Education, Renal Dietetics and non-profit management. She was a founding member of the Citizens' Health Advisory Council in 2001. She served as a member of the community Health Services Steering Committee, and she currently serves as volunteer project director of the Community Health Care Capacity Project funded by The Colorado Health Foundation.

Rachel Schwartz
Student

Scott Serzen
Admissions Director
Four Corners Health Care Center

Deb Uroda

Tamara Volz
Early Childhood Council Director
Early Childhood Council of La Plata County

Ms. Volz oversees the activities and programs of the Early Childhood Council of La Plata County, Childcare Resource & Referral, Quality Initiatives and Health Integration Project. She manages the administrative & fiscal responsibility of state & local initiatives and contracts to support comprehensive early childhood services. She has over 30 years of experience organizing and managing programs for young children. She has an AA in Accounting and a BA in Elementary Education with a focus on Early Childhood. She has taught Kindergarten & preschool children and facilitated numerous workshops for early childhood professionals in the Four Corners area since 1991. She has been a member of the Statewide Early Childhood Councils Leadership Alliance (ECCLA) for 13 years and has served on the Colorado Association for the Education of Young Children Board. She has lived in Durango for over 30 years, and is committed to increasing high quality comprehensive early childhood services for children & families.

Mr. Warren has practiced law in Michigan and Colorado since 1971 and retired from active practice in 2006. He has been active with CHAC since 2005 and worked with the Primary Health Care Coalition in 2006. With the Coalition, he was named to the Valley Wide Health Systems Board and continue to serve with them. He was asked to serve on the Axis Health System Board in 2007 and he is presently the Board lead with the Integration of Health Care in a five-county area. He is working with management at Axis to secure an FQHC in La Plata County. He served as President of the San Juan Mountains Association and work as a board member for the Animas Fire Protection District.

Eileen Wasserbach
Executive Director
Southern Ute Community Action Programs, Inc.

Ms. Wrenn has a diverse background in medicine, teaching, youth and family services and immigrant services. She has a BS in Zoology (Colorado State University, Phi Beta Kappa) and a BS in Medicine (University of Iowa School of Medicine). Her consulting services include medical, grant, report, and technical writing, Health Impact Assessments, non-profit development, collaboration-building, and strategic planning.