Hello!! I am so excited to be part of the crew at the Lone Cone Library.  Was asked to introduce myself to everyone, which is not always easy writing about your own life, but here is my attempt. 

Libraries have been a huge part of my life in different ways and I cherish what they bring to a community. As an avid reader, or now an avid listener, of books they have always held a huge place in my heart. But they have been more than that to me. As a child it was the excitement of the bookmobile, as an early adult it was a library for a warm welcoming place to relax, and now, I highly value the many ways that our libraries help me connect to community and information as well as the opportunities it provides my daughter. 

I grew up in middle of now where rural Eastern Colorado (the Kansas part of Colorado where a mirage on the horizon is actually the mountains and you have to drive 20 minutes to find the one tree).  This was on a family ranch raising horses and cattle.  Fun fact is that Rodeo was my “sport” in high school. Yep, I’m a cowgirl. I left that lifestyle not on purpose but with a purpose to “save the world,” majoring in International Environmental Policy and Spanish Linguistics.  This led me to South America where I spent a year studying and then returned to work for another 6 months for an internship in Paraguay helping at a high school that helped kids learn the skills for organic farming. 

I returned to the States after my internship without a specific direction and after a few different jobs, ended up in Breckenridge, Colorado for another internship – this time to learn to teach people with various disabilities to ski and snowboard in adaptive recreation - and loved it.  Being a seasonal job, I held various other jobs through the years: Outward Bound instructor, raft guide, community service and outdoor adventure instructor in Shenzhen, China, immersion preschool instructor in Taiyuan, China, ranch-hand/grass hay farmer, catering server… The list can go on.  About 5 years ago, I decided to go back to school and got my MS in Nonprofit Administration, with a focus on Development. My husband is on the Forest Service wildland fire crew here in Norwood.  We love playing outside in the wonderful San Juan Mountains and western Colorado Desert dirt or traveling to new fun places with our dog and daughter. Always trying to get out for a relaxed day climbing, or hiking, or biking, or skiing, or for a float (the list is pretty long)!!