The Eagle Valley Land Trust is currently governed by a diverse 16-member Board of Directors. Board members come from all points on the political spectrum and from a wide variety of industries and disciplines. Board members may access the board portal here.
Tom has lived in Gypsum since 1995. He is a member of the Gypsum Town Council and has served on the United Way Board of Directors, the Eagle Valley Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the Gypsum Recreation Committee. Tom currently serves on the Eagle County Open Space Advisory Committee (OSAC), the Eagle County Economic Council, the Gypsum Daze Committee (where he is responsible for the annual 5K run and walk) and continues to serve as a Community Guest Services (CGS) volunteer which he has done for 16 years.
Dan Godec joined the board in 2006. Dan moved to the Vail area in 1989. He has held numerous positions in banking and is a past president of the Colorado Bankers Association. Dan currently is President of GreenStar Financial Services. In addition to his service to EVLT, he is an active board member in several other Vail Valley nonprofit organizations, including Bravo! Vail, and Berry Creek Metropolitan District.
Dan is passionate about the great outdoors and protecting the quality of life in Eagle County. Dan and his wife, Sue, live in Singletree and have raised four children in the valley.
T.J. Voboril is a founding partner of local law firm Alpenglow Law, LLC and the owner of Voice of Reason Dispute Resolution. Whether as an advocate in civil litigation and appeals or as a mediator, T.J. Voboril is in the business of resolving disputes. T.J. is a doting father to his daughter Violet. He is obsessed with skiing, loves riding his mountain bike, and meanders local lakes and rivers on his paddleboard. When not spending time with his family, solving problems, or recreating, Voboril engages in philanthropic endeavors through multiple channels. T.J. joined the EVLT Board in 2014.
Susan grew up in Pennsylvania with a love of all things outdoors. Seeking adventure and mountains bigger than molehills, she headed west to the University of Colorado, Boulder. She holds a B.A. in Biology. Susan began her ski industry career over 30 years ago as ski instructor while still in high school. She is the former Director of Resort Finance for Vail Resorts. In her spare time, Susan loves to ski, hike, bike and camp, and enjoys sailing, paddling and any activity that gets her on the water. She also volunteers for the Vail Valley Foundation and Dillon Yacht Club. She lives with her husband, Greg, in Wildridge.
Andrew provides financial leadership to small and medium-sized organizations. He is a Director with the firm CFO Systems | CFO Capital – a dynamic team of Accounting, Finance, Capital, and H.R. professionals – which serves all types of organizations in a “Fractional” capacity. When not helping his clients achieve their goals, Andy spends as much time as possible in the great outdoors with his wife Lindsey and dog Atlas. You can regularly find him in the backcountry on skis, on a mountain bike, on the river, or on a mountain top. As you can imagine, Andy is passionate about many causes associated with protecting, conserving, and responsibly using our magnificent planet. Larson is also a founding member of the Eagle County Advisory Board of Junior Achievement (educating students on personal finance), volunteers time with the Finance Committee of the Eagle-Vail Metro District Board (government), and is a member of the Edwards Rotary Club (philanthropic). Andy grew up primarily in Nebraska before moving home to the High Rockies. He holds a B.S. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in both Finance and Accounting and then went on to earn an M.B.A. from Creighton University with a concentration in Finance while cutting his teeth at the Big 4 accounting firm KPMG, LLP. After managing numerous audits of for-profit, non-profit, governmental, and Fortune 500 organizations for nearly 10 years, he now shares best practices with organizations seeking to get to the next level.
Born and raised in Boulder, Tina has an MS in natural resource economics. Serving on the City of Boulder Open Space Board of Trustees ignited a passion for land conservation and eventually led to a career in open space management with Boulder County, where Tina has worked as a planner and project coordinator for 18 years. Tina also serves on the Board of the Colorado Open Space Alliance. Tina’s Vail connections go back 22 years when she met her husband, Andy Littman. Their son now attends high school at Vail Mountain School and competes as a Nordic ski racer.
Christina has lived here in the valley for 25 years. She first worked as a ski instructor, fell in love with the Vail Valley and quickly decided to make it her permanent home. She feels strongly that land conservation is critical to our community and that the preservation of our beautiful natural environment is a cornerstone value of the community. Now, more than ever, it is vital to preserve land for future generations, the protection of wildlife, clean water, open space and river access. She lives in Edwards with her husband Josh, and two children, Hannah & Sam.
Dave is a Coloradan – of sorts, born in Ohio but grew up in Estes Park and graduated from the School of Mines in 1971. He then spent a 39-year career with Alcoa in various sales, technical and business management roles working around the world.
Growing up in Estes Park and watching Disney films of animals in the wild instilled a passion about the preservation of wildlife habitats in our own backyard as well as for the physical and emotional benefit to mankind.
Dave has been a regular contributor to EVLT and is looking forward to becoming actively involved with continuing the great work that has been done over many years.
Neal was born in Long Island, New York and holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering. While living in NYC, he quickly decided that there had to be a better way of life than living in Manhattan. Neal moved to Colorado in 1972 and made Denver his home during his career as a Mechanical Contractor, and during the raising of his two sons. Neal has owned various properties in the Vail area for the past thirty-six years. Four years ago Neal and his wife, Kathy, both retired and moved to Vail permanently. Since recreating outdoors is their passion, skiing, hiking, biking and fly fishing, preserving open space for our use and simply for its natural beauty and our way of life in the Valley is what has interested him in the Eagle Valley Land Trust.
Todd grew up in Wisconsin and enjoyed spending summers at the family cottage exploring the water, forests and fields. After 10-years in Minneapolis studying Architecture and working at some local firms, Todd moved to the Vail Valley in 2003. Now, a partner in a local architecture firm, Todd loves the design process involved with designing homes for people as it involves extensive problem-solving: trying to bring together many different expectations into one cohesive building: a home that works for the family, looks good and is built within budget and time frame. Todd is also the administrator for the EagleVail Design Review Committee which reviews proposed changes to homes in that community. Outside of architecture, Todd enjoys Colorado’s blue-sky days by going up and down hills with his skis, following a paved or dirt route on his mountain or road bikes or running the local trails. Todd joined the EVLT Board in 2020.
Anni is a Colorado native and at an early age fell in love with its mountains and open spaces and especially skiing. She gave up a scholarship to MIT because she didn’t want to be away from these mountains. She graduated from CU with a degree in Architecture/Environmental Design and participated on the ski team before Title IX. While at CU she was involved with the Human Performance Lab which led to experiments with enhanced athletic performance thru nutrition and clothing. She was invited to present those findings to the University of Minnesota and the US Army on the subject of Hypothermia. She started the children’s ski school at Breckenridge and was one of the ski school directors at Copper Mountain its first two years. She started a Sports performance clothing company in Boulder in 1971, AFRC Actionwear, which she sold in 1978. She then became a territorial Manager and design consultant for Obermeyer for 25 years and also represented Volant and Swany Gloves. She was the president and founder of South Central Sports Reps Association for 25 years. In 2004 she became the managing director of an outdoor TV show that ran on Versus Network and NBS Sports for 9 years. When that contract expired, she became a distributor for The Actiontrack Chair before retiring in 2017. The huge change she has seen in the character of the Vail/Eagle Valley and the urgency of protecting that has motivated her to join EVLT. She strongly believes in its mission and how important it is to protect this amazing environment.
Scot Hunn is the principal and owner of Hunn Planning & Policy, LLC, a land use consultancy based in Edwards, Colorado. His career spans 25-years of public and private sector work in Eagle County and he regularly volunteers in his community, provides pro-bono services for non-profit organizations, has served as an appointed and elected official in the Town of Eagle, and currently serves as a charter member on the Eagle County Housing Task Force.
Like so many, Scot owes his love and understanding of the outdoors to people who showed him the way – his parents, older siblings, teachers, mentors and friends – and who gave him reasons and the freedom to get outside and explore. Growing up in farm country just outside Madison, Wisconsin, Scot had the best of both worlds – a rural lifestyle surrounded by forests, rivers, marshland and farm fields in which to get lost and get into trouble, along with the allure provided by the capital city of Madison. Being outdoors was never in question for Scot, and most family vacations and getaways centered on outdoor recreation in Wisconsin and Colorado.
Scot attended the University of Wisconsin – Steven’s Point where he earned a degree in Natural Resource Management and Land Use Planning. His favorite coursework centered on conservation, resource economics and growth management; his tattered copy of Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac remains his go-to source of perspective and inspiration.
Following college, Scot came to Eagle County to start his planning career at Eagle County Government in 1997. He went on to work for several years at Vail Resorts Development Company at a time when master planned communities like Arrowhead, Bachelor Gulch, and Red Sky Ranch were being developed. He later made his way back to Eagle County Government to refocus his career on public service and land use planning. Scot’s values and land use philosophy – directing density inward, building upon and protecting local assets and strengths, and promoting redevelopment as primary means toward preserving our natural environment – have been shaped by the growth pressures that continue to shape rural resort communities in the Intermountain West.
In 2016, Scot earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Colorado – Denver. Scot is a member of the American Planning Association and is certified through the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Scot’s world centers around his wife, Jaime Walker, their son, Conor, and one spoiled English Springer Spaniel named Bode. They reside in Edwards, Colorado. Whether walking, biking, hiking, skiing, playing or gardening, family free time and daily recreation is typically an outdoor affair. Scot is passionate about natural resource protection, combatting and adapting to climate change, and promoting continued coordination between jurisdictions in Eagle County toward a more sustainable, resilient future.
Claude Pupkin was born in Santiago, Chile and moved to the United States at the age of nine. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Maryland, Collage Park in 1984, with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and went on to earn his CPA and work at Ernst & Young as an auditor. In 1986, he was admitted to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for a joint MBA/MA degree program from the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies where he focused on Finance and learned Portuguese. Upon graduation, Mr. Pupkin joined Citibank’s Latin America division as an Investment Banker in the Sao Paulo, Brazil branch. In 1992, Mr. Pupkin moved to Morgan Stanley’s NY office where he served as a Vice President in their Corporate Finance division and in 1998, Claude moved to JP Morgan Chase where was a Managing Director in charge of the firm’s Latin America Telecom, Media, and Technology investment banking business. Mr. Pupkin left the investment banking industry and joined IDT Corporation in January 2003 where he held several roles:
In 2016, Claude Pupkin retired from IDT Corporation and became an independent consultant and Director for Private Equity and other investors.
Claude & his wife Laurie moved to Denver in 2015 and full-time to Avon in 2020. Since moving to Colorado and embracing an active outdoor lifestyle, the Pupkins have become more aware of environmental issues and climate change, the importance of tourism to the State of Colorado and the mountain communities and development’s impact on nature. This new lifestyle and time spent out west contributed to Claude’s passion towards nature, conservation and the importance of doing everything we can to save the planet.
Dani Neumann is a regional Land Use Specialist for Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) and represents wildlife in her role with EVLT. She consults on development impacts to wildlife and fisheries, assists with designing wildlife mitigation and management plans, consults on recreation development on the West Slope, and collaborates with stakeholders on long-term community strategies to balance growth and conservation. Dani holds a B.A. in Wildlife Biology from Prescott College and began her CPW career in the fisheries section. She owns a small farm with her husband on Salt Creek Road and spends her free time horseback riding, hiking, traveling, skiing, and snowshoeing.
Ann was raised in northern Illinois and enjoyed a tradition of family vacations in Vail, CO. What began as winter ski trips expanded to summer adventures and exploration of land, climate, and history in the Rocky Mountain West. She relocated from Chicago to Vail in 1995 to practice architecture. A steward for energy conservation and environmental design, she strives to create enduring architecture belonging to its site. She is engaged in the community sharing her professional experience, addressing sustainability issues, and reviewing standards of architecture and construction, and currently sits on Cordillera and Mountain Star design review boards. An advisory board member and volunteer for the Truckee Donner Land Trust 2017-2020, she created awareness to preserve and manage land for recreation. Ann is passionate about the environment, watershed, wildlife, and land and takes responsibility to preserve its rich history and awesome beauty. Ann and her husband live in Edwards and enjoy mountain biking, hiking, and skiing.
Jessica became Executive Director in 2020 after a four-year tenure as EVLT’s stewardship and outreach manager. Jessica oversees a talented team to achieve strategic financial, land protection, land stewardship, and community conservation results. Previously, Jessica worked for conservation organizations including American Rivers and Walking Mountains Science Center. She also has professional trail crew training and was also lead horticulturist for Red Sky Ranch Golf Course. She holds an MS in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources from Colorado State University and a BS in Wildlife Sciences from Virginia Tech. When Jessica was considering the position she wrote “I am excited for an opportunity to support the work of such a valuable organization in Eagle County. As Eagle County plans for the future, it is very important to have organizations protecting our natural resources and way of life.” We are thrilled to have her expertise and excited to have her as part of our great team.
Jessica lives in Edwards with her husband and enjoys the wonder and beauty of the Rocky Mountains in Eagle County. She is likely to be seen walking to work, skiing, hiking, mountain biking, floating down the Colorado River or enjoying live music outside in the summer.
Contact Jessica at Jfoulis@evlt.org.
Brittany joined EVLT in April 2019. Prior to her current role, she worked as a naturalist, guide, educator and mentor from Alaska to Colorado. She is originally from central Massachusetts and holds a B.A. in Biology from the University of Vermont. When not in the office, Brittany enjoys spending her time playing outdoors, gushing over wildflowers, skiing trees, and mountain biking with friends.
Having grown up on the plains of southeastern Colorado, Torrey’s love of the state has deep roots, and she has used that passion to fuel her work in conservation over the years. She studied ecology and evolutionary biology at CU Boulder, where she interned with The Nature Conservancy and was involved in research. She later went on to work in policy, education, and restoration with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and other land trusts in Colorado. When not working to protect land, she loves hiking, climbing mountains, reading, and wandering and exploring. She hopes to genuinely connect with the people of Eagle Valley and help further conservation in the state, and world, that she loves.
Sue has lived in Eagle for 13 years with her husband, Markian Feduschak, and their 2 daughters. She worked for the Colorado Outward Bound School for 25 years as a field instructor, Program Director and Director of Client Services. She has also been involved in the ski industry in Colorado for 34 years. She currently works part-time as a patroller at Beaver Creek, and previously worked at Copper Mountain on patrol, and at Eldora Mountain Resort and Hidden Valley Ski Area as the Director of the Ski Patrol.
Growing up in Wisconsin in Aldo Leopold (conservationist and author of A Sand County Almanac) country, Nikolai was raised to appreciate, explore and protect the rural areas and forests by her parents. They spent a great deal of time hiking, cross country and alpine skiing, camping, caving, tubing down rivers and boating on lakes in their homemade houseboat.
After moving to Colorado, Nikolai spent as much time outside as possible exploring her new state by hiking, alpine and backcountry skiing, rafting, mountain biking and trail running.
She has devoted her life to appreciating and helping protect the natural areas through her support of environmental causes. Nikolai teaches students the same using a Leave No Trace methodology. Her passion is passed onto students that follow her lead in cherishing our wild places, volunteering for various causes and embracing an outdoor lifestyle.
Nikolai is excited to meet with local business owners to discuss in more detail the Land & Rivers Fund. The amazing natural beauty in our valley, the recreational opportunities and the diversity of wildlife is the driving force behind the tourism industry, and the reason our many visitors and locals love being here. She is confident that businesses will be excited to help protect and preserve our natural landscape with the 1% surcharge.
To speak with Nikolai about the Land & Rivers Fund, please contact her at sue@landandrivers.org or at 970-343-4245.
Bergen is a West Vail native and is incredibly happy to be back in the Valley. After leaving the area in 2010, he studied Environmental Science, Ecology, and Biodiversity at the University of Denver, worked with the Glacier Institute in Glacier National Park, Montana, and Recently completed his Conservation Leadership Master’s degree at Colorado State University. During his time at CSU, he worked with the Geography and Evolution of Land Tenure Systems (GELTS) research group and completed his capstone project in Pirque, Chile, with the Andean Conservancy, both of which have guided his passion to work in private land conservation. In his free time, Bergen loves experiencing the mountains in as many different ways as possible – ski touring, trail running, mountain biking, fly fishing, and cooking over a campfire with his friends.
Contact Bergen at Bergen@evlt.org.
