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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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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Steve Armstead - Governor AppointeeAppointed 2024
Steve Armstead is a Pollinator Conservation and Nature-Based Climate Solutions Specialist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation working in Colorado. His work focuses on efforts to coordinate, manage and create high quality, connected, climate-resilient pollinator habitat. Steve has been working with the City of Boulder on their pollinator conservation and nature-based climate initiatives, while also exploring ways to expand and leverage support for pollinator conservation and climate solution efforts throughout the region. He has extensive experience working in natural lands management, environmental planning, and community engagement through his three-decade career with the City of Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks Department working as a ranger naturalist, environmental planner, and deputy director. Steve holds a Master’s Degree in Museum and Field Studies from the University of Colorado – Boulder (2003), where he studied and surveyed butterflies and he has remained an active butterfly enthusiast. Steve recently co-authored the Colorado Native Pollinating Insects Health Study for the Department of Natural Resources, leading the assessment and development of best management practices.
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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Richard Reading – Representative of the Parks and Wildlife Commission
Appointed 2023
 Richard Reading, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Science and Conservation at Butterfly Pavilion. He serves as an Adjunct Professor within the Department of Biology at the University of Denver; Affiliate Faculty with the Department of Agricultural Biology at Colorado State University; and a Fellow with the University of Nebraska’s Center for Great Plains Studies. Dr. Reading received a Ph.D. and three Master’s degrees from Yale University in Wildlife Ecology and Human Dimensions of Wildlife and an Honorary Doctorate from the National Education University of Mongolia. In 2020, Rich was honored to receive the Order of the Polar Star, the highest honor from the Mongolian National Government for expatriates, for contributions to conservation. He has conducted or overseen projects in dozens of countries, working primarily on grassland and arid ecosystems on six continents, with a focus on the Great Plains of N. America, the steppes and deserts of Mongolia, the savannahs and deserts of Botswana, and the Altiplano of Peru. His work focuses on developing pragmatic, effective, and interdisciplinary approaches to the conservation of wildlife and protected areas through research, capacity development, and working with local people and governments. Dr. Reading serves on the boards of directors or advisors for several non-profit organizations in the U.S. and overseas; serves as an associate editor for 5 scientific journals; has published over 230 scientific papers and book chapters; written dozens of popular articles; and written or edited 9 books.
Courtney Krause - Governor AppointeeAppointed 2022 Biography and photo coming soon!
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