Lynn Riedel (Chair) – Governor Appointee
Appointed 2019 Lynn has spent her career in natural resources management in Colorado, initially working with the National Park Service at Dinosaur National Monument. Her academic background is in biology and science education. Since the mid-1990's, she has worked as a plant ecologist with the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Department, specializing in grassland ecology. At both Dinosaur National Monument and City of Boulder, her work has included rare plant monitoring, habitat management, native plant community monitoring and mapping, and comprehensive natural area management planning.
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Phyllis Pineda Bovin (Vice Chair) – Governor Appointee
Appointed 2020 Phyllis Pineda Bovin is a natural resource specialist with a background in entomology and natural history studies. She holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences (1995), and a M.S. in Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management (Entomology; 2002), both from Colorado State University. Her graduate work focused on natural history studies, natural resource inventory, insect systematics and taxonomy, with an emphasis in endemic insects of Colorado. From 1995-1999, she was employed as a field biologist with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. Her federal service began in 2002 when selected as the biologist for Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in southern Colorado (National Park Service; NPS). Her work here practiced an integrated approach to resource inventory, assessment, and monitoring. Between 2016-2018, she served as the NPS Intermountain Region's Natural Resources Condition Assessment coordinator. She currently serves with the NPS Denver Service Center Planning Division as an interdisciplinary specialist for a variety of projects, including visitor use management, special resource studies, and resource stewardship strategies.
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Denise Culver – Governor AppointeeAppointed 2015 Denise Culver has been an ecologist/botanist with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program since 1995. She has been working in the ecology/botany field since 1987. Prior to working for CNHP she worked for the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database and the Montana Natural Heritage Program. Additionally, she worked for the National Park Service in several parks and monuments as a resource management ranger for five years. She has a B.S. degree in Botany from University of Wyoming and a M.S. degree in Biological Sciences from Montana State University. She has been the project leader for over 20 Colorado county surveys for critical biological resources and is lead author for the
Field Guide to Colorado’s Wetland Plants: Identification, Ecology and Conservation. She is active in a variety of activities including Colorado Native Plant Society and Colorado State University Extension Master Gardener and Native Plant Master Programs. |
Jessica Pierce - Governor Appointee
Appointed 2021
Bioethicist Dr. Jessica Pierce is a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School. She has been writing and teaching about the moral contours of human-animal relationships and environmental sustainability for over 20 years and is a leading scholar in environmental bioethics. She has published 11 books, including A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World Without People, The Last Walk and Run: Reflections on Our Pets at the Ends of Their Lives, and Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets, as well as hundreds of scholarly and popular articles. She has taught courses in ethics at the University of Nebraska Medical School and at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is passionate about the possibilities for peaceful co-existence between humans and the many other forms of life with which we share the planet.
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Josie Heath - Representative of the Board of Land Commissioners
Appointed 2019 Josie has extensive experience in public service. She served more than 20 years (1995-2017) as CEO and President of the Community Foundation for Boulder County and was a Boulder County Commissioner (1982-1990). She was a founder of the Mile High Youth Corps and the former assistant to the director of the White House Office of National Service for establishment of Americorps in 1993. In the mid-1990s, she was a teaching fellow at the Kennedy School and served as a consultant for Harvard University's Project Liberty that provided leadership programs for locally elected officials in Central and Eastern Europe. She was the Colorado Democratic 1990 and 1992 candidate for United States Senate. Josie has been the recipient of many local and national service awards, including being inducted into the Colorado Womens Hall fo Fame.
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Taishya Adams – Representative of the Parks and Wildlife Commission
Appointed 2019
 Taishya Adams is a passionate and dedicated servant leader laser focused on justice and liberation through community building, personal transformation, and systems change. With over 25 years of experience across the country and world, Taishya serves at the intersections of education, health, workforce, science, and environment. Collaborating with multidisciplinary stakeholders to strengthen access, representation, meaningful participation and quality, Taishya is committed to fighting the good fight for each other and our planet. Appointed by Governor Jared Polis, Taishya serves on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. Taishya also serves as the Policy Director and Colorado Co-lead for Outdoor Afro. Outdoor Afro is a nationwide network with 90 volunteer leaders in 30 states guiding thousands of outdoor events each year based on a simple mission to celebrate and inspire African health, and environmental policies affecting Black people and communities. She also leads the implementation of Outdoor Afro's policy priorities at the federal, state, and local levels. Previously, Taishya worked at American Institutes for Research as a Senior Education Equity Specialist laser focused on access, representation, meaningful participation, and quality. Taishya also worked with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the DC Public Schools Board, Global Classrooms Washington, DC, and Children Defense Fund Freedom Schools. Taishya is the founding Board President of New Legacy Charter School- a public charter school and early learning center for teen parents and their children in Aurora, Colorado. Taishya holds a MA in International Education from George Washington University and a BA from Vassar College.
Courtney Krause - Governor AppointeeAppointed 2022 Biography and photo coming soon!
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