Nonprofit Experience:
— Joan Rigeon, Chair of the Board, Peak Arts
Dennis has worked for and served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations.
His work experience includes being a Senior Facilitator and Director of the Science and Public Policy Program for The Keystone Center and serving as the Regional Director of The Nature Conservancy’s 11-state Western Region.
These work experiences provide valuable substantive experience in the mediation of multi-party disputes and insights into the need for collaborative solutions to public policy problems (as was his focus at Keystone) and the effective identification and conservation of important habitat for biological diversity (the focus at TNC). Beyond this, however, these experiences have been helpful in shaping an understanding of how organizations can function more effectively.
Dennis’ management positions all required attention to goal setting, budgeting, coordination of staff, measuring success, and generating accountability for performance. As a consultant and staff member, Dennis has played a major role in strategic planning. At TNC, Dennis initiated the first strategic plan to help guide its Western Regional operations. At the national level at TNC, Dennis, working with others, made notable progress on the difficult issue of measuring success in a nonprofit world where often the things that are easiest to count, count the least.
Dennis has also supported a number of organizations as a board member. Examples of past and present community organizations and boards include:
- Board of Directors, Stewardship Initiatives
- Board of Directors, CDR Associates
- Governor-appointed Board Member, Colorado Center for Environmental Management
- External Advisory Board, Environmental and Natural Resources Policy Institute, Colorado State University
- Advisory Board, Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado
- Board of Trustees, Thorne Ecological Institute
- Board of Trustees, University of Colorado President’s Leadership Class
- Governor’s Steering Committee, Colorado Environment 2000
- Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board
- Colorado Inactive Mined Lands Advisory Council
- Governor-appointed Member, Governor’s Commission on Mountain Scars
- Governor-appointed Member, Governor’s Advisory Group on Charitable Giving
- Founder and past President, Colorado State Managers Association
- Member and past Chair, Board of Directors, Eco-Cycle, Inc.
- Past President, Colorado White Water Association