Colorado Open Lands
Where Are the Fellows Now?
Since January 1999, we have “graduated” nine Fellows and our tenth, Chris Yuan-Farrell, is well into his first year in the Fellowship Program. All our Fellows have moved on to exciting positions with local, statewide, and national non-profits and government agencies. 
We wanted to share with you what they have each been up to since their ‘graduation.’
- John Carney
- Christine Strickland
- Scott Wilber
- Dieter Erdmann
- Patrick Malone
- Kendra Etre
- Brian Ocepek
- Juniper Katz
- Sarah McDonald
JOHN CARNEY (January 1999 - June 2000)
John was the first graduate of the Fellowship Program, taking a position as Land Protection Specialist with Ducks Unlimited after only 1 ½ years as a Fellow. He worked in the field on conservation real estate transactions across Colorado with Ducks Unlimited for two years before being hired as the first full-time Executive Director of the newly formed Colorado Water Trust in 2002. In early 2008, John left CWT to become the Orton Family Foundation’s Rocky Mountain Director of Projects. In addition, John has served on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts.
CHRISTINE (EARLEY) STRICKLAND (January 1999 – December 2000)
As Christine approached the completion of her Fellowship, a few projects of hers were still in full swing and administrative management of the Fellowship Program was requiring more time and focus of the other staff. Christine was asked to stay on after her Fellowship as a permanent staff member to continue her land protection work, manage the Fellowship Program, and write grant proposals for organizational operating support. Over the past eight years, Christine’s responsibilities have shifted from Fellowship Program Manager, Land Protection Specialist, and Development Assistant, to her current position as Development Coordinator. In her current position, she ensures regular communication and positive, growing relationships with individual donors and private foundations, writes as many grant proposals as possible, and contributes and edits content for Colorado Open Lands’ website and newsletter. She also handles most public outreach opportunities and assists with special events
SCOTT WILBER (March 2000 – February 2002)
After leaving Colorado Open Lands, Scott worked as a Project Manager with the Trust for Public Land from 2002 – 2004 in their Northern Rockies Field Office. With TPL, Scott worked on some of the largest working forest conservation easements in the Pacific Northwest with Plum Creek Timber and Potlatch Timber, helping conserve over 50,000 acres of land in Montana and Idaho. In March 2004, he was hired at the New Mexico Land Conservancy as the Conservation Director managing the organization’s land conservation and stewardship programs. In 2006, Scott was named Executive Director. Under his leadership, NMLC has conserved over 70,000 acres of land throughout New Mexico.
DIETER ERDMANN (April 2000 – January 2002)
As Dieter neared the completion of his Fellowship training, Elizabeth Richardson was also approaching retirement after running Colorado Open Lands’ Stewardship Program for the previous ten years. With a significant gap in our staff resources looming on the horizon, Dieter was asked to join Colorado Open Lands as a permanent staff member and take over our Stewardship Program. A year later, a more permanent Stewardship Director was hired, and Dieter happily began devoting 100% of his time and energy on the preservation of the South Park Basin. After implementing a $3.5 million Great Outdoors Colorado Legacy Grant for South Park, Dieter shifted his time toward our rapidly growing conservation work in Delta County and along the South Platte. When Jonathan Moore, our Director of Land Protection, decided to pursue a different conservation avenue after more than 10 years at Colorado Open Lands, Dieter was promoted to his position, and is now our Director of Conservation Operations.
PATRICK MALONE (January 2001 – July 2002)
After completing the Fellowship Program, Patrick took a position with Boulder County Parks & Open Space as a Natural Resource Planner, developing land management plans for County open space properties and trail plans with local communities. In early 2006, Patrick accepted a position with the National Park Service (NPS) based at the Denver Service Center in Lakewood. In his position as Natural Resource Specialist/Project Manager, he works and travels across the country assisting national park units with developing management plans, environmental impact statements, and other planning documents. Some of his recent assignments include working on a freshwater marsh restoration plan at Everglades National Park, developing a resource stewardship plan for Guadalupe Mountains National Park, completing a wilderness study/management plan for Big Cypress National Preserve, and serving in a special assignment on climate change planning for the NPS Washington, D.C. office.
KENDRA (KINSCHERF) ETRE (October 2002 – July 2004)
After her Fellowship, Kendra moved from the mountains of Colorado into the heart of urban life in Boston, Massachusetts to pursue a law degree at Boston University School of Law. Along with her law studies, Kendra has kept in touch with environmental, land use, and land trust events through internships at a small law firm, an environmental law nonprofit, Habitat for Humanity, and the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture. Since graduating in 2007, Kendra has been working as a law clerk at the Land Court Department of the Massachusetts Trial Court. She assists the judge with decisions on land use and real estate cases and says “ultimately, I hope to make my way back to Colorado Open Lands!”
BRIAN OCEPEK (June 2004 – June 2006)
As a Fellow, Brian was an integral part of getting our partnerships and conservation efforts up and running in our South Platte Community Conservation Area in northeast Colorado. After completing his fellowship and a short stint as a consultant for both Colorado Open Lands and The Trust for Public Land, Brian began working full time for us in January of 2007 as a Land Protection Specialist. Colorado Open Lands has been fortunate to have Brian continue our exciting land conservation work in our South Platte, Gunnison Basin, and North Fork Valley Community Conservation Areas. The hands-on experience he gained during his fellowship with all aspects of land conservation transactions made for a seamless transition to full-time staff member.
JUNIPER (MOTT-WHITE) KATZ (June 2005 – June 2007)
In 2007, the Peak to Prairie Conservation Initiative Juniper worked on from the beginning of her Fellowship gained steam and provided an opportunity for her to be hired on as full-time staff to implement Colorado Open Lands goals in this community conservation area. Since then, Juniper has worked as a Land Protection Specialist and more recently, as a Program Area Manager. Juniper spends most of her time working on the Peak to Prairie Conservation Initiative focusing on the protection of agricultural land along Fountain Creek and shortgrass prairie habitat on the eastern plains.
SARAH MCDONALD (April 2008 - December 2009)
Sarah is our most recent graduate from the Land Protection Fellowship Program. Her Fellowship training was ‘all over the map,’ sending her to South Park to chair the South Park Wetlands Focus Area Committee, which serves as our advisory committee for our work in the area, to the Wet Mountains to complete conservation easement projects with long-standing community partners, and to the Southern Sangre de Cristo mountains to develop a landscape plan and protection strategy as part of the Keep It Colorado campaign. Thanks to a grant from the Moore Charitable Foundation, a Conservation Excellence grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, and support from a private donor, Sarah is able to continue her work with Colorado Open Lands in the Southern Sangre mountains, now as a Land Protection Specialist, implementing the landscape plan and protection strategy she led the creation of in 2009.
Please read the associated article about the Fellowship Program here.
To return to the main page of the Fellowship program, please go here.